2024 Meteoritical Society Meeting

In person only meeting

You are cordially invited to attend the 86th annual meeting of The Meteoritical Society, which will take place from July 28 through August 2nd, 2024, at the Palace of the Academies in Brussels, Belgium. The meeting is hosted by the Université libre de Bruxelles, the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, and the Institute of Natural Sciences.

Program

Oral, poster and plenary sessions will be hosted at the Palace of the Academies. Located next of the Royal Palace, the Palace of the Academies was built between 1823 and 1825 for the Prince of Orange and became the residence of the Royal Academy of Sciences and art and Royal Academy of Medicine in 1876.

The Barringer lecture will take place at the Plaza Hotel, famous for its charming Belle Epoque decorated theater. The banquet will be organized as a walking dinner at the Institute for Natural Sciences, where you will be able to enjoy the tasty Belgian cuisine in the largest dinosaur gallery of Europe, known for the spectacular Iguanodon fossil skeletons.

Fieldtrips on Wednesday afternoon include a visit to the Atomium, a landmark modernist building constructed for the 1958 World Fair that represents a unit cell of an iron crystal magnified 165 billion time, but also to the European Parliament, the battlefield of Waterloo where the fate of Europe was tragically determined, or the city of Ghent, labelled Belgium’s best kept secret by Lonely Planet founder Tony Wheeler in 2023.

Post-conference tours include a tour on the WWI and WWII battlefields located in Belgium, and a visit to some of the world-renowned Trappist beer abbeys.

Workshop

On Saturday July 27 (all day) and Sunday 28 (morning) a workshop dedicated to the curation of extraterrestrial samples will be organized, with a focus on both meteorites and returned samples. This will be organized at the Institute of Natural Sciences.

Chairs : Aurore Hutzler (ESA) and Tomohiro Usui (JAXA).

Registration fees: 60 € (early bird), including coffee breaks for one day and half

Pre-conference field trip

A fieldtrip to Morocco will be organized from 19 to 26 of July 2024 to the participants of the MetSoc meeting in Brussels  for a group of 30 to 40 participants.

Preliminary Program

  • Friday 19/07: arrival to Casablanca.
  • Day 1: Saturday 20/07: Casablanca/Fez 300 km – Visit of the imperial city of Fez
  • Day 2: Sunday 21/07: Fès/Midelt/Erfoud/Merzouga 462 km – Geological stop Quaternary volcanism of Timahdit Middle Atlas. Fossils dales of Erfoud the most famous center of meteorites in Morocco.
  • Day 3: Monday 22/07: Merzouga/Todgha/Agoudal 291 km – Wake up very early to watch the sunrise. Todra gorges then Agoudal. Visit of the impact structure Agoudal.
  • Day 4: Tuesday 23/07: Agoudal/Skoura 219 km – Geological stops.
  • Day 5: Wednesday 24/07: Skoura/Ait Benhaddou: – 76 km Visit of Ait Benhaddou Ksar an Unesco world heritage centre.
  • Day 6: Thursday 25/07: Ait Benhaddou/Casablanca: 572 km – Geological stops opening of the Atlantic Ocean. Visit of the imperial city of Marrakech.
  • Friday 26/07: Airport transfer

Excursion fees 1200 Euros (travel fees between Brussels and Casablanca not included)

  • All-inclusive except drinks at hotels and restaurants and any service not included in the program.
  • An advance payment of 300 euros is required.
  • Booking deadline 14 May

For more information and booking please contact Prof. Hasnaa Chennaoui chennaoui_h@yahoo.fr