On 2 April 2012 two longstanding salt lake researchers passed away on opposite sides of the globe.

Professor emeritus Dr Carol Litchfield of George Mason University in Virginia was a microbiologist with a prodigous output of research in the field of water quality. She was an active member of ISSLR.

Charles Warren Bonython was a chemical engineer whose research on salinity and evaporation led to the modernising of the solar salt industry worldwide. He managed the Dr Creek Saltfields in Adelaid, South Australia and was on the board of directors of Dampier Salt in Western Australia. He died aged 95 after a short illness.

The contributions made by these two outstanding researchers will provide the foundations for another generation of salt lake researchers into the new century.