From October 25th to 29th, 2019, hosted by the State Key Laboratory of Environmental Chemistry and Ecotoxicology and undertaken by the Stevens Institute of Technology, the "Sixteenth International Symposium on Persistent Toxic Pollutants" (The 16th International Symposium on Persistent Toxic Substances, ISPTS)" was successfully held in New York, USA. More than 150 scholars from 55 universities and research institutes from 9 countries and regions including the United States, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Japan and China participated The meeting. Twelve researchers from the State Key Laboratory of Environmental Chemistry and Ecotoxicology attended the meeting.

The conference was chaired by Academician Jiang Guibin of the State Key Laboratory of Environmental Chemistry and Ecotoxicology and Professor Meng Xiaoguang of Stevens Institute of Technology. The topics involved the analysis methods of persistent toxic pollutants (PTS), The process of environmental migration and transformation and toxic effects, etc., and a special discussion on perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) chemicals have been added. The meeting invited Patricia Reyes, Executive Director of the Interstate Technology & Regulatory Council (ITRC), Peter Jaffé, Deputy Director of the Research Center of the Energy and Environment Center of Princeton University, Professor Yan Bing, a Yangtze River Scholar at Shandong University, and Lamont at Columbia University. Professor Alexander Van Geen from the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and other five experts gave a wonderful conference report. The meeting set up 7 sub-venues, and the participants had in-depth exchanges and discussions on hot issues, latest progress and development trends in related fields. After extensive recommendation and strict selection, Professor Zhang Tong of Nankai University and Professor LI, Mengyan of New Jersey Institute of Technology in the United States won the "Young Scientist Award", and four other scholars won the Oral Report Award and the Exhibition Report Award respectively.

"International Symposium on Persistent Toxic Substances (ISPTS)" is a series of international conferences initiated and organized by the State Key Laboratory of Environmental Chemistry and Ecotoxicology. Since 2004, it has held 16 consecutive conferences. This year, the exchange and cooperation in PTS research between domestic and foreign academic circles have been strengthened, and the research level and international influence of my country's environmental chemistry and ecotoxicology have been improved. The 17th ISPTS International Symposium will be held in September 2020 at the Technical University of Crete, Greece.