I am really grateful to the European Association of Geochemistry (EAG) for their support to attend the Conference on Accessory Minerals (CAM–2017), which took place from 13–17 September 2017 in Vienna, Austria, and Bratislava, Slovak Republic.

I had an exceptionally enriching experience at the CAM–2017 conference, an event aimed at “bringing together researchers and students who are active in the investigation of accessory mineral species, especially those that contain high field strength elements (HFSE), such as garnet, columbite and zircon.”.

As the conference website explains, the internal structures, textures and chemistry of these accessory minerals are often complex, particularly if they have undergone alteration at low temperatures, and studying these minerals can give us important insights into both primary formation and post-growth history of their host rocks.

In terms of my own research, I am interested in studying the geochemistry of rare metals (e.g. columbite, tantalite, fergusonite, thorite, uranitite and monazite) hosted by highly fractionated calc-alkaline/alkaline granitoids. During the conference I received valuable comments from the audience and had fruitful discussions with researchers and scientists from countries worldwide. It was a great opportunity given to me through the sponsorship from EAG, to attend the conference and to meet scientists from all over the world and to discuss topics of common interest.

Mabrouk Sami is a geochemistry and mineralogy young scientist and he is now working on his PhD in the Department of Lithospheric Research at the University of Vienna, Austria. He interested in the geochemistry and mineralogy of rare metals minerals hosted by granites and alkaline rocks.The areas where he conducts his work are located in Central Eastern Desert of Egypt. Mabrouk is a member of the EAG and an EAG Early Career Scientist.