ANNUAL REPORT 2003 OF THE NPSS TRANSNATIONAL COMMITTEE

The NPSS TransNational Committee (TNC) came into being at the end of 2000. A description of the charge to the committee is at the end of this report. Of the 3000 NPSS members approximately 1000 reside outside the USA, in more than 50 countries. Our society is attractive in sometimes unexpected ways, and it would be interesting to know more about this in order to satisfy the expectations of the members. Two from the 16 elected AdCom members are now from outside North America, with another three among the ~40 non-elected members. Non-American members of NPSS have played their part in the organizational tasks in the Society. Eventually the TNC should become redundant, once a representative fraction of the AdCom members comes from countries worldwide.

Several of the TNC members are very active in soliciting participation from non-American groups in NPSS conferences, the NSREC and the NSS-MIC in particular. For the latter there is continuous collaboration with the CIP committee of RITC and with the NSS-MIC general chairman. Monthly meetings were held during 2003. This certainly has contributed to the record attendance in Portland, besides the fact that the room-temperature detector workshop was again co-located with the NSS-MIC, as it was in San Diego and as it will be again in Rome in 2004.

There are various links between members of the TNC and local chapters. It is a pleasure to mention the good collaboration with Vern Price in chapter promotion and in membership development all over the world.

TNC members provide input for the awards nominations and for the promotion of members to senior membership. It very clear that the information necessary for a nomination must be collected a long time in advance of the 15 May deadline. Also, one has to make sure that the person in question is actually a member of NPSS, which is a requirement for most of the awards.

The yearly TNC meeting has been held on 22 October, at the Doubletree Hotel in Portland. 11 of the 15 members of the TNC were present. Points discussed were:

• Possible solutions to the problems with entry-visa encountered by scientists/members from certain countries who want to attend IEEE conferences; a ‘scientific identity card’ was proposed but finally deemed not ‘abuse-proof’. Early action with backup via high-level intervention seems best way.
• Organization of future conferences: provisions for cheap hotel rooms is required for the benefit of students and other participants with modest budget.In particular it is requested that the situation for the Puerto Rico conference in 2005 be reviewed. Alberto Del Guerra commented on the preparations for the 2004 Roma conference. Some proposals for the 2007 NSS-MIC to be held outside the US have been made.
• The suspension of IEEE services to members from certain countries on a US State Deptartment list. It was reported that some progress has been made in the negotiations between IEEE and the so-called ‘OFAC’. TNC encourages efforts to re-establish scientific exchange as a basic rights for scientists of all nationalities.
  

Task of the IEEE NPSS Transnational Comittee

The TransNational Committee (TNC) was established in order to provide a framework for ensuring participation by members outside the USA and Canada in the organizational decisions of the Nuclear and Plasma Sciences Society. The chairperson of the TNC is an elected voting member of the NPSS AdCom for the normal period of four years, and must be resident outside the North American continent. This requirement guarantees there will always be at least one non-North-American member on AdCom. The TNC is composed of appointed persons who represent a wide spectrum of the NPSS membership outside North America, both according to scientific fields and nationalities. These TNC members should be in contact with their local IEEE-NPSS membership, so that they can provide via the chair an appropriate input into the decision making of the AdCom.

The TNC prepares a proposal for the election of the TNC chairperson a year before the expiration of the mandate of the previous chair

The members of the TNC are appointed by the NPSS president, on the recommendation of the TNC chair. Each year up to 5 new members are appointed, and it is expected that they will remain on the TNC for at least four years.

Some subjects in which the TNC can specifically play an important role are the following:

• contacts with and initiatives towards local NPSS chapters
• proposals for the location of IEEE-NPSS conferences in regions outside the USA or Canada
• proposals for awards to be given to IEEE members in their countries or in their scientific disciplines
• promotion of IEEE-NPSS membership in their region
• drawing attention to wishes or problems that affect the proper functioning of IEEE locally (an example is the recurrent problem with recognition of local institutes of higher education in the membership acceptance procedure)

Erik Heijne can be reached at CERN, CH1211 Geneva 23, Switzerland; Phone: +41 22 767-3946; Fax: +41 22 767-3394; E-mail: erik.heijne@cern.ch.