Foundation year: 1982
President: Dr. Vladimir Beškoski, Faculty of Chemistry, University of Belgrade
Vice-President: Dr. Maja Turk Sekulić, Faculty of Technical Sciences, University of Novi Sad
Vice-President: Dr. Ivana Ivančev-Tumbas, Faculty of Sciences, University of Novi Sad
Vice-President: Dr. Ilija Brčeski, Faculty of Chemistry, University of Belgrade
Secretary: Dr. Sanja Živković Vinča Institute of Nuclear Sciences, University of Belgrade
Promotion Coordinator: Dr. Konstantin Ilijević, Faculty of Chemistry, University of Belgrade
Promotion Coordinator Assistant: Slađana Savić,Faculty of Chemistry, University of Belgrade
Promotion Coordinator Assistant: Dr. Aleksandra Tubić, Faculty of Sciences, University of Novi Sad
Environmental Chemistry Division (today with more than 100 active members) was founded in 1982 by professor Petar Pfendt who was the first president of the Division, succeded later by professor Dragan Veselinović until 2005. Professor Branimir Jovančićević took over in 2006 until 2009), to be succeeded by Dr. Bojan Radak in 2010 until 2019. The president of the Environmental Chemistry Division since 2020 is professor Vladimir P. Beškoski. Today it is the network of scientists from all Serbian universities which intensively exchange information among themselves and the public. It has delegates in ACE, EuChemS DCE and IUPAC (Chemistry and the Environment), divisions. The Division also fosters communication with competent authorities in charge of environmental protection.
The Division has been the organizer of the Symposium CHEMISTRY AND ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION since 1982. It was established as a national scientific meeting with possibility of participation of scientists from abroad. In total, eleven meetings were organized in Belgrade (1985), Vrnjačka Banja (1993, 1995 and 1998), Zrenjanin (2001), Kruševac (2003 and 2018), Tara (2008), Vršac (2013), Palić (2015) and Kladovo (2023). During all these years, facing various challenges, the Symposium has changed its names but managed to preserve quality, and enhance its significance to the scientific community and society as a whole. Researchers, scientists, and experts dealing with various aspects of environmental chemistry have recognized the opportunities that the Symposium provides as a unique platform for sharing ideas, the latest scientific achievements and technological innovations. This resulted in an increasing number of participants over the years.
Furthermore, members of the Division are dedicated to promotion of science and they are responsible editors of the Environmental Chemistry Section of the Journal of Serbian Chemical Society (JSCS) issues. To this day, the Division has organized several roundtable discussions including internationally recognized scientists across the globe, many lectures of national and international scientists and workshops. In 2022, on the occasion of the 125 years of the Serbian Chemical Society and 40 years of the Environmental Chemistry Division members presented fourteen lectures about own research and some of the most important issues to the broad public with the goal to show the current and potential role of environmental chemistry in the society. Main research topics that are dealt within the Division are: analysis, fate and behavior of polluting substances in the environment, remediation of polluted sites, integration of green chemistry in environmental protection, risk assessment, pollution prevention, regulation and public opinion in the field of environmental protection, environmental chemistry in various educational programs and advanced waste treatments flows and new technologies.
