Barry Bickmore has been invited to participate in a workshop to be held in Opatija, Croatia, involving 20 of the top scientists working on surface complexation modeling, which is a group of methods for incorporating reactions between solid surfaces and aqueous solutions into typical chemical equilibrium programs. One of the main applications of these methods in geochemistry is the fate and transport of contaminants in the near-surface environment. The purpose of the workshop is to map out future directions in this cross-disciplinary area. The proceedings of the workshop will be published as several group papers in the journal Croatica Chemica Acta.