INSIDE THE RADIATION EFFECTS STEERING GROUP

The IEEE Radiation Effects Steering Group (RESG) held its annual fall business meeting at the Marriott Sawgrass Resort in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, at the site of the 2006 Nuclear and Space Radiation Effects Conference (NSREC).

The 2004 NSREC will be held July 19-23 at the Renaissance Waverly Hotel in Atlanta, Georgia. This marks the first return of the NSREC to the eastern half of the US since 1999. Atlanta is the entertainment center of the South, featuring great restaurants, nightlife, cultural attractions, and five major league sports teams. If the Braves are in town during the conference, plan to attend a game and enjoy outstanding baseball and Atlanta’s warm summer evenings. Buckhead, Midtown, and Virginia-Highlands are among the most popular neighborhoods for Atlanta nightlife. Atlanta combines the best of old and new, ranging from Civil War sites to facilities associated with the 1996 Centennial Olympic Games. The Wednesday evening conference social will be held at the World of Coca-Cola, which tells the story of the beverage that was created in Atlanta over 110 years ago. You’ll be able to sample varieties of Coke products that are served in countries around the globe. The World of Coke is adjacent to Underground Atlanta, which offers a wide array of shops, restaurants, and activities for everyone to enjoy.

Dan Fleetwood from Vanderbilt University and his 2004 conference committee are planning a strong technical program and social events that will provide frequent opportunities for discussing radiation effects with friends, old and new. Atlanta’s convenience for travel, wide range of attractions, and southern hospitality make it an ideal site for conference attendees, as well as their families.

As far as future NSREC’s are concerned, the 2005 conference is scheduled for July 11-15, 2005 at the Sheraton Seattle Hotel and Towers in Seattle, Washington. Fred Sexton of Sandia National Laboratories, Conference General Chairman, has selected an excellent conference committee and is well along in the planning process.

Janet Barth of NASA Goddard Space Flight Center is the 2006 Conference General Chairman. Janet has selected Ponte Vedra Beach, near Jacksonville, Florida, as the conference site. This location is ideal for golfers, as well as those who love beaches or historical sites.

The amount of lead time required to plan a conference is increasing and it currently takes more than three years to plan each NSREC. Lloyd Massengill of Vanderbilt University was recently appointed as 2007 Conference General Chair. Lloyd is currently considering sites for the conference and will host the spring meeting of the RESG at his preferred site.

During the fall RESG meeting in Ponte Vedra Beach, Philippe Paillet of the Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique (CEA, the French Atomic Energy Commission) was selected as Assistant Guest Editor for the December issue of the IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science (TNS). The editor’s job is a 3-year term. Philippe will support Guest Editor Lew Cohn from the Defense Threat Reduction Agency and Associate Guest Editor John Cressler from Georgia Tech in the huge task of organizing reviews of all papers to be published in the December issue of TNS. Philippe is the first Guest Editor selected from outside the United States; we look forward to his contributions and new perspective. He has been an active participant in NSREC for a number of years, as well as in RADECS, the European radiation effects conference.

Keep visiting our web site at www.nsrec.com for author information, paper submission details, vendor links, on-line registration, and the latest NSREC information.

Ron Schrimpf serves as Chairman of the Radiation Effects Steering Group, which oversees the NSREC Conference. He is technical chair of the NPSS Radiation Effects Committee. Ron can be reached at Vanderbilt University, 5635 Stevenson Center, Nashville, TN 37235; Phone: +1 615 343-0507; Email: ron.schrimpf@vanderbilt.edu.