The time of this writing, early March, may be the busiest time in the year for ASLO. The 2026 Ocean Sciences Meeting in Glasgow, along with our in-person ASLO Board of Directors meeting, are barely in the rear view mirror. Simultaneously, there is intense preparation for the joint meeting with the International Society for Limnology in Montreal in May. The list goes on: the 2026 ASLO election is open, co-chairs for the 2027 Aquatic Sciences Meeting planned for February in Puerto Rico were just selected. In addition, we are attempting the seemingly impossible in predicting suitable meeting locations for the years 2029 and 2030. Our 2025 budget is completed, ASLO's 2026 award winners are selected and notified, and our newest ASLO program, the ASLO Emerging Fellows, which launched as a pilot in November 2025 and the first cohort of students attended OSM 2026 (Menden-Deuer et al. 2026). ASLO Emerging Fellows is our mentorship and career development program that provides comprehensive professional training, networking, and sustained support to early-career aquatic scientists, to help them identify and succeed in diverse, international career pathways across academia, policy, industry, and beyond. In contrast to this busyness, and to my surprise, the Bulletin's Editor in Chief and editor extraordinaire, Laura Falkenberg, informs me that this will also be my last column as President. Nearly two years in, I still have not gotten used to the time warp between the Bulletin's deadline and the publication two months later. This means I have a lot of ground to cover and probably should say something profound as well (don't hold your breath). One thing that has puzzled me over the past year is the contrast between the status within ASLO and outside. Globally, these are troubling times for science and scientists. The assault on objectivity, facts, and scientific expertise, not to speak of funding, is a detriment many in our community experience daily and one that has profound costs for humanity. ASLO is forceful in asserting the important role science holds in a thriving society (Menden-Deuer et al. 2025). We have ongoing collaborations with other scientific societies in speaking out and providing information on the critical role scientific knowledge plays in all aspects of society. At the same time, and in reassuring contrast, ASLO is thriving. We are building on and maintaining decades of excellence. ASLO's leadership and innovation are recognized beyond aquatic sciences through its outstanding publications, member support and conferences. We continue to lead in fierce competition with fast turn-around publications that may employ less stringent reviewing practices. Some publications now have publication charges that exceed a graduate student's tuition for a semester or more, while ASLO maintains modest prices, and true bargains for members. Decaying appetite for these kinds of publications shows ASLO is on the right track. Our publications are attracting record numbers of submissions, year after year, and occupy high rankings in aquatic sciences. We have secured a renewed contract with our publishing partner Wiley that brings continued commitment to scientific integrity, stability, and guaranteed income to ASLO for years to come. Attendance at our conferences keeps setting records and exceeds prior years, for scientists, exhibitors and the diversity and number of events offered. Throughout the year and globally, ASLO shines through innovative early career networking, skill building, and training programs that have been emulated by others. Going forward, I am hopeful that we can expand our offerings to provide content of interest to all career stages. Very importantly, while many scientific societies see a downward trend in members, ASLO has grown stronger, with renewed growth in our membership. Financially, we have seen impressive gains in our funds over the past 10 years, addressed recent deficits, and added to our financial strength through successes in fundraising and grant acquisition. Thus, we have a solid basis to meet the challenges of accelerating costs, and foundational changes in the scientific landscape that have profound impacts on scientists, scientific research, and infrastructure. Our members need ASLO's backing more than ever, and we are in a solid position to provide that support. This strong and upward trajectory in ASLO's many areas of strength and leadership was clearly evident at the recent 2026 Ocean Sciences Meeting (OSM) in Glasgow. Here, we greeted over 6500 attendees, and over 100 exhibitors for a very full, five day meeting, often starting at 7:00 a.m. or before! As is customary with conference preparation, the decision to hold the meeting in Glasgow had just been made when I stepped in as President-Elect in 2022. I want to go on record as having been puzzled about the wisdom of choosing a very northern European locale in February, and I was thoroughly wrong. We exceeded anticipated attendance by over 1000! I recognize that travel restrictions have excluded some, including international researchers residing in the US. The meeting organizers were nimble in permitting talks being piped in or pre-recorded. This, of course, is not the same as attending in person, but I am grateful a workable solution was found under these circumstances. The OSM is jointly held by the American Geophysical Union, The Oceanography Society, and ASLO. The good working relationship between our societies, our commitment to a common purpose, and complementary foci were all evident at the meeting, including in a joint statement by the three society presidents affirming our common purpose and strong support for science and scientists issued at the Wednesday plenary (https://tos.org/news-and-announcements). Besides outstanding scientific sessions, there were many town halls, workshops, and ancillary meetings from international collaborations on the ocean sciences; too many to detail here. Let me just highlight how proud I am of the content ASLO brought to the meeting. We related our expertise and leadership in publishing through specific workshops, and the Early Career Committee brought impressive programming to the meeting. I am particularly grateful to ASLO's Student Board Members at Large, Alia Benedict and Abigail Kreuser, for developing a mentoring meet up in the early morning called “Career Conversations & Coffee,” where up to 70 early career scientists and more senior individuals from academia, industry, not-for profits, and other organizations met up. Although the event was early, and the croissants were not advertised, it was well attended and something we will add to future meeting agendas to facilitate expanding members' mentor and mentee networks. The Student Committee has also revived the tradition of providing awards for student posters and presentations, something I know personally to be profoundly motivating, so I am doubly grateful for their contributions and enthusiasm as well as that of the many OSM 2026 attendees who supported this effort. OSM 2026 was a highlight and invigorating. No words can convey the quiet but exciting feel of the “Silent Disco”—a giant hall simultaneously serving as dozens of conference rooms made possible by dedicated headsets. One of the many pleasures of being ASLO President is congratulating ASLO's Awardees, who will be honored in May in Montreal. I thank the many individuals who are contributing on the ASLO Awards Committees (one for each award), and I encourage you to reflect on and nominate scientists in your orbit who have impressed you through their excellence, dedication, and impact. ASLO has awards for all career stages, and you can be assured the recognition will be most welcome. Join me in congratulating this year's honorees, who are an inspiration. To close, let me thank you for the opportunity to serve ASLO as President. It has been professionally and personally transformative. ASLO has always been “my” society and essential to many career milestones. ASLO has helped form the scientist I am today and the priorities I set on community, support for early career scientists, and cross-disciplinary scientific collaborations. Although I thought I knew ASLO well, I discovered so much more that our scientific society does and how impactful we are together. We truly are a global network of dedicated aquatic scientists that foster a diverse, international scientific community that creates, integrates, and communicates knowledge across the full spectrum of aquatic sciences. Hard to imagine, but we also are so much more. The challenges in the past year have shown we are also a community that stands up for science and scientists, a community that is dedicated to excellence and objectivity, a community that can integrate across many dimensions of diversity and, importantly, look out for others (Fig. 1). I agreed to serve because I wanted to give to the society that has been so foundational to my career. When Mike Pace asked me to stand for election, I had just decided to seek some new challenges, to continue growing and learning. My service as President has more than fulfilled that desire. Taking over the helm of ASLO was like jumping on a moving ship on a strong course with an excellent crew. Together with the ASLO Board, we imbued ASLO with a strong emphasis on transparent, ethical governance, which is foundational to member trust. With the help of many on the ASLO staff, in ASLO leadership, past and present, and ASLO members who fulfill so many roles as volunteers, we have further strengthened our society and our support for members. Organizations thrive when we prioritize integrity over comfort, and ASLO has proved itself in this arena. My time serving ASLO has deepened my commitment to the organization and what we collectively can achieve. My personal course is set to continue this work, on behalf of ASLO, aquatic science, and particularly the emerging scientists we all need to support because humanity needs scientists that can help understand and sustain the aquatic ecosystems we all depend on. The successes we have been celebrating would not have been possible without the dedication and enthusiasm of many within ASLO. Here I wish to point out a few, with advanced apologies to the many who should be named but are not. Teresa Curto was a kind, thoughtful, and patient guide as I navigated being at the helm. ASLO's dedicated staff, including our Business Manager Mik Bauer, Communications Director Brittany Schieler, and IT Director Chris Schneider, were always responsive and ready to bring their expertise and creativity to challenges we faced. I appreciate the collegiality when working with our partners at Wiley Publishers in unpredictable times, but with the common purpose of ensuring excellence in scientific publishing. The engagement of the ASLO Board has been invaluable as we collectively shouldered the responsibility to care for ASLO. ASLO will be in outstanding hands under the empathetic and principled leadership of incoming ASLO President Paul del Giorgio. I thank him profoundly for his unyielding support and dedication to ASLO—I could not be more grateful. Lastly, I thank the many who without fail still take my call and provide thoughtful advice and creative solutions to challenges. Your responsiveness and dedication as committee members, past-ASLO leaders, or the many roles held as ASLO volunteers is inspiring.
Susanne Menden‐Deuer (Mon,) studied this question.