This two-day conference aims to bring together geochemists, aquatic chemists, mineralogists, biologists, toxicologists and engineers to discuss recent progress in this field and identify avenues for future research and collaboration. Thus, it gives us great pleasure to invite scientists, technologists, students, legislators, government officials, and all those who are interested in studying and predicting the speciation and bioavailability of key trace elements in the environment to participate in this conference.