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Simon Cherry |
First,
I confess to a major blooper in the last issue: Will the real Simon
Cherry please stand up? This is Simon Cherry. I inadvertently placed
the picture of Lorenzo Fabris of LLNL in Simon’s rightful
place both as MIC Program Chair and as recipient of the first Edward
Hoffman Memorial Award presented to Simon by the Society of Nuclear
Medicine, for which I apologize profusely to Simon, his family,
his friends and colleagues.
AdCom met in Los Croabas, Puerto Rico, on October 23, 2005 for its
2005 Annual Meeting. The meeting was held in conjunction with NSS/MIC.
On a purely editorial note, it was a beautiful venue, great for
a family holiday, but for me much too isolated and incredibly expensive,
especially for those living on government per diems.
Now that I’ve had my grumble, on to business:
We were pleased to have Stuart Long, our Division IV Director, with
us for the first time since he took office, as well as Christian
Bohm of the University of Stockholm who chaired the Local Organizing
Committee for the 2005 Real Time Conference, which was an outstanding
meeting in every regard.
The Annual Meeting is always a bittersweet event because it is the
time we say goodbye to people we’ve worked with for a number
of years either as elected AdCom members (Dennis Brown, Mounir Laroussi,
Patrick LeDû and Patrick O’Shea who had to resign before
completing his term) or as TC chairs (Magnus Dahlbom, Phil Heitzenroeder
and Craig Woody) and at this meeting we also bade farewell to Vernon
Price, our long-time Membership, Chapters and Distinguished Lecturers
chair. AdCom without Vern will seem very strange as he has been
a pillar and a resource for my entire AdCom memory. Bill Moses,
whose elected term officially ended, remains as president and will
carry on after that as immediate past president and then assume
a functional committee chair so, thankfully, no farewells to Bill
for some time to come. We are pleased that Craig will return as
an elected AdCom member.
Ed Lampo, our treasurer, once again urges conference treasurers
to get those conference books closed in a timely way. The penalties
from IEEE become very steep after the first 12 months. Remember,
conference treasurers, you can close your bank accounts and books
without paying those last, late bills. These can be noted and paid
directly from IEEE. Speak to Ed or to Tony Lavietes, our Associate
Treasurer who now handles most conference business (lavietes1@llnl.gov).
One of IEEE’s strengths has been the ability to borrow money
for short-term needs at extremely favorable rates. A backlog of
unclosed conferences jeopardizes this position.
The conferences are doing better at meeting returns, and overall
the Society did better than budget last year, recouping some of
the very heavy hits over the past several years when IEEE was getting
its fiscal house back in order. Overall, the Societies have 95%
of the IEEE reserves, and it is important to remember that our reserves
have bailed us out at times such as the Loma Prieta earthquake which
had a major impact on that year’s NSS/MIC conference and other
times when conferences have lost money for other reasons. We are
allowed to spend up to 3% of our reserves on initiatives, but these
have to be included in the budget process. As the Society reserves
ARE the IEEE reserves, fiscal conservatism is urged.
And there are major threats to IEEE finances. One of these is Open
Access. One-third of IEEE income comes from publication sales, and
it is completely unclear what the impacts of Open Access will be.
It costs money to produce publications, just as it costs money to
place documents on the web with proper indexing and linkages, and
link maintenance, so we are in a wait, see, learn mode here.
Bill Moses, our President, reported the Archive Project –
the project to get ALL our back journals into IEEE Xplore, is going
forward but much more slowly than hoped. He also noted that conferences
that publish conference records through publishers other than IEEE
can still use PDF eXpress for formatting. Now the number of publications
that are in noncompliant format is below 10%. There is also a change
in the way the All Periodical Package income is distributed to societies.
In prior years it was based on the number of pages printed. Now
it is based on the number of downloads, since these can be tracked
very accurately. Income from TNS has dropped about 1.5% and from
TPS about 4% due to this change.
There are also several new conference-related matters to consider.
First, there will be no more conferences to be held “in cooperation.”
The lowest level of cooperation with non-IEEE conferences is now
“in technical cooperation,” which requires real input
to the conference program by our members. And, conferences are now
permitted a three-tier price structure with separate rates for Society
members, IEEE members, and non-IEEE members. There has also been
evidence of criminal mismanagement of certain (non-NPSS) IEEE conferences
where illegal payments have been made using conference funds, and
where funds have been kept off the books. The new auditors are looking
very hard at conference business practices with the goals of safeguarding
both IEEE and the Society volunteers who handle money and credit
cards. There have also been problems with management companies.
The only marketing allowable at conferences is IEEE and Society
membership.
TMI, the second most highly ranked IEEE journal underwent its 5-year
review. Ron Jaszczak is to be thanked for doing a great job.
Stuart Long introduced himself and outlined his long history of
involvement with the IEEE in many capacities, He outlined IEEE’s
composition, ten Divisions (42 societies and councils, 8 in Division
IV), 1446 chapters, 10 regions, and an annual budget of over $242
million. Membership has dropped in the last two years, principally
through loss of full U.S. members. The number of students has increased
as has international membership. IEEE runs over 300 conferences
and has over 200 conference proceedings. Over 30% of world-wide
electrical and electronic engineering publications come from IEEE,
and there are over a million subscriptions to its journals, with
a similar number of papers in its digital library. IEEE has added
a lot of member benefits including the “My IEEE” web
option, greater Xplore options, and so on. This is a large, complex
organization. Stuart will write more about it for a future issue
of the Newsletter.
Tony Lavietes discussed the AV Equipment Pool experiences. Acquiring
computers, LCD projectors, and networking hardware was a 2004 Society
initiative. The 2004 and 2005 NSS/MIC, 2005 PAC, 2005 ICOPS and
PP conferences have used the equipment, and Real Time used web access.
The DOE classified 2004 Antennas and Propagation conference also
used equipment. The equipment is stored and maintained in California.
The biggest surprises have been shipping and insurance costs and
customs issues. TSA has also destroyed equipment box locks. The
hotel and local vendor competition has been fierce, but their low
costs have reflected poor equipment. IEEE NPSS costs include support,
maintenance, on-site aid. They do not compete with free computers,
and are not a profit center. Bo Yu’s registration software
is easily adapted to other conferences, but Bo also has professional
commitments!
Technical Committees
Computer Applications in Nuclear and Plasma Sciences: Jean-Pierre
Martin, the chair, reported that the 2003 RT conference documentation
was sent from University of Montreal to IEEE HQ. The CANPS committee
has developed a model for future conferences with an executive committee
and Tony Lavietes providing financial oversight. The 2007 meeting,
to be held at or near Fermilab, with Margaret Votava as chair, will
follow the new executive committee scheme. The committee itself
is undergoing reorganization with proposals for members, assignment
of duties and terms of office. More eastern European members are
being recruited. They are also working with ICALPCS toward a possible
joint conference.
Christian Bohm reported on the 2005 RT conference in Stockholm.
There were 167 presentations, higher attendance and lower expenses
than projected. The conference was organized along the new model.
Ed Barsotti was the Real Time Award recipient. The award will be
presented in a small ceremony at Fermilab in the future. There were
also two outstanding student paper awards given.
Sites for 2009 are being explored. Portugal, Russia and a site in
Asia are possibilities.
Fusion Technology: Charles Neumeyer reported on
behalf of Phil Heitzenroeder. The 21st Symposium on Fusion Technology
was good technically and in terms of participation (See report under
conferences). Charles Baker of UCSD and Brad Nelson were, respectively,
recipients of the 2004 and 2005 Fusion Technology awards.
The 2007 conference will be held in Albuquerque, NM, collocated
with the Pulsed Power Plasma Science joint conference. Craig Olsen
will chair the 22nd SFE.
Nuclear Medical and Imaging Sciences: Magnus Dahlbom,
committee chair, noted the 2004 conference (held in Rome) has closed
its books. The 2005 conference was just beginning. It had higher
than expected attendance, challenging the local hotel resources.
Attendance seemed to be well over 1000, with a total of about 980
papers to be presented. The 2006 conference will be held in San
Diego from September 29 through October 4 at the Town and Country
Hotel. Their web site is up. Graham Smith of Brookhaven National
Lab is General Chair and John Aarsvold of Emery University is MIC
chair. The 3rd Nuclear Radiology of Breast Cancer workshop will
be collocated again.
In 2007 the NSS/MIC will be held in Hawaii with Ben Tsui of Johns
Hopkins as general chair and Magnus as MIC chair. The 2008 conference
will be held in Germany with Uwe Bratzler as general chair. The
venue remains to be determined.
Particle Accelerator Science and Technology: Ilan
Ben-Zvi, PAST chair noted that PAC is large, international in attendance,
and mainly organized by the national laboratories. There is good
transfer of information from one conference to the next. The American
Physical Society DPB has been a cosponsor since 1995. Bill Moses
now acts as liaison to APS-DPB and communication has improved. The
2005 conference, held in Knoxville, was a great success with over
1400 registered attendees and 60 exhibit booths. Over half the attendees
qualified for lower registration fees. Over 400 took a tour of the
Spallation Neutron Source at Oak Ridge. Support was provided to
50 students.
As part of the UN International Year of Physics, commemorating the
100th anniversary of Einstein’s theory of relativity, there
were a number of events coordinated between Knoxville and the conference.
The 2007 conference, to be chaired by Stan Shriber and held in Albuquerque,
NM will be helped by people at Los Alamos from their Professional
Development and IT groups. There will be a tour of the LANL accelerator
complex. The web site is up, and they are using the web-based system
for abstract and paper submissions that has been used for the last
several years. The Albuquerque Convention Center is available between
the PAC and PPPST/SFE conferences and it is hoped that they will
be able to develop a Science Weekend to have events for local high
school students and science teachers, with a focus on IEEE and APS
interests. Gerry Rogoff, our liaison to the Coalition for Plasma
Sciences has offered help.
Plasma Science and Applications: Dan Jobe, the
chair, noted that books from 2003 and 2004 ICOPS were closed. The
ICOPS 2005 conference, held in Monterey in June, had 505 attendees.
They used Webstracts for abstract submission. There was a problem
in distinguishing ICOPS and Pulsed Power papers.
The committee has selected Karlsruhe, Germany for the 2008 conference
venue, with Manfred Thum as chair, and the San Diego Omni for 2009.
The committee has also proposed an initiative, now under discussion
by AdCom, to provide greater support to enable students to attend
conferences. This may become a Society initiative and will be explored
further at the Society retreat in late February.
Pulsed Power Science and Technology: The Pulsed
Power conference was held in Monterey, CA the week before ICOPS.
There were close to 600 attendees and 400 papers scheduled. Of these
there were a large number of “no shows,” 75% of which
were related to visa problems.
The Pulsed Power conference is biennial, so the next conference,
joint with PSAC, will be in 2007. In 2006 many members of our Pulsed
Power community will be involved with Megagauss 2006, to be held
at Bishop’s Lodge, Santa Fe, NM from September 10th through
14th. Attendance is expected to be of order 150. There is a European
Megagauss Conference that is organized independently.
Edl Schamiloglu will chair the joint PPPS Conference in 2007 and
Frank Peterkin will be the Technical Program chair. He will chair
the 2009 conference to be held in Washington, DC, most probably
at the Mayflower hotel June 28-July 2.
The Pulsed Power special issue of TPS has had the extra page charges
paid by Pulsed Power, Inc.
Radiation Effects: Joe Benedetto reported for Ron
Schrimpf that the 2006 conference in Seattle, chaired by Fred Sexton,
had about 600 attendees. See Ron Schrimpf and Teresa Farris’s
reports.
Future conferences: 2006 - Pont Vedra, FL (see
article); 2007 – Hawaii; 2008 – Tucson.
Radiation Instrumentation: Craig Woody introduced
Alberto del Guerra, chair of the 2004 Rome conference, to give his
final report. Many of these details were presented in the March
2005 newsletter. Alberto pointed out that there was good support
from European scientific institutions, that there were many additional
workshops incorporated, and that with companions and all exhibitors
counted, there were over 2000 attendees, many more than anticipated
when he ‘bid’ on the conference in 2000. Also for a
European conference, it was unusual to find a venue attached to
a hotel that did not charge for meeting space because of the very
large number of guest rooms booked. There were in-kind INFN and
NIH grants, too, to help support students. All-in-all it was a thoroughly
successful conference, based on every metric, organized and run
by a terrific committee. The big glitch came afterward in the very
late production of the conference record, and the slow acceptance
of papers submitted for review to TNS. Many papers were rejected
by TNS, too, because of misunderstandings about technical scope
of contents (principally gravitation wave workshop and nonnuclear
medical imaging). With Tony Lavietes’ help, the books closed
in 9 months.
Future conferences: 2006 – San Diego, CA, web up, posters
out; 2007 – Hawaii, with lots of preparation already ongoing,
committee chosen; 2008 – Germany, site TBD.
Ralph James of Brookhaven National Lab. is the recipient of the
2005 Outstanding Achievement Award. Congratulations!
Dick Lanza of MIT becomes the new committee chair in 2006, and Chuck
Melcher becomes vice chair.
TransNational Committee: Uwe Bratzler, the chair,
noted that there is a new, handsome web page. This committee represents
all non-North American members of NPSS. At present its membership
represents 14 countries. They meet by phone 3 weeks prior to each
AdCom meeting. They have minutes, a deputy chair, a secretary and
a coordinator. They are looking to a number of other countries for
additional representation. One action they encourage is that half
the site-selection committee for each meeting should come from the
region in which the meeting is to be held, to gain local expertise
and input.
Functional Committees
Most news from the Functional Committees appears in their reports
below. See especially the requests for 2006 Award nominations, and
the reports from Vernon Price and Jane Lehr concerning membership
and the now-forming Conference Membership Booth Council. There are
biographies of some of our new Fellows under Awards. These were
selected from a pool of 19 nominees reviewed by our Fellow Evaluation
Committee and forwarded to the IEEE Fellows Committee. NPSS has
a large number of Fellows. Peter is proposing revisions to the committee
to get rankings by subject-area experts rather than by the whole
committee since many disciplines are covered by NPSS, and it is
hard for a group of people with individual specialties to review
this large number of applications with the degree of knowledge and
thoroughness desired. It is also important that nominators do a
good job on the applications to make them unique.
The Publications Committee has overseen a number of changes, principally
to the editorial structure of TNS and TPS. Each journal now has
an Editor-in-Chief supported by a number of Senior Editors who,
in turn, have a body of associate editors supporting them. The hope
is to streamline the paper review process and, in conjunction with
IEEE Publications, work to get our publications out on time. Changes
in the Pubs office have contributed to delays, and every time a
manuscript is submitted late, the publication loses its slot in
the publication queue. There are ways around this when IEEE Pubs
have personnel available, but timeliness is a better solution. Both
TNS and TPS will use Manuscript Central and will shortly be fully
electronic in their review and submittal processes.
The Standards Committee has been pursuing reaffirmation of a number
of NPSS standards that are up for renewal. The committee also reports
the death of Ed Fairstein, a long-time committee member active in
developing standards for radiation detectors. See Lou Costrell’s
letter to Ed’s sons under Other News below.
Liaisons
The Social Implications of Technology liaison, Ray Larsen, recommends
checking out the web site of the Online Center for Issues in Engineering
Ethics.
Gerry Rogoff, our liaison to the Coalition for Plasma Sciences,
has updated us on their activities including a talk for Congress
and staff by Sir Chris Llewellyn-Smith on fusion plasmas. They look
for really good speakers for nontechnical audiences. They have a
talk on lightning planned for the spring, as well as a retreat to
explore new activities. They encourage the nuclear science people
to launch a similar initiative.
Ben Tsui, the IEEE-USA Biotechnology Council (Medical Sciences)
liaison reported on the structure of the council, the huge scope
of their interests, and his frustration with being unable to be
included in some of the conference call discussions on topics of
interest to us.
AdCom Actions
- It was moved, seconded and passed that a $1000 administrative
budget be provided for the TransNational Committee.
- It was moved, seconded and passed that the editorial structure
of TPS be changed to the Editor-in-chief, senior editors, associate
editors, guest editors model
- It was moved, seconded and passed that NPSS would, in principal,
sponsor SCINT07. AdCom is now awaiting a response from the SCINT07
committee which requested sponsorship.
The next meeting of the AdCom, and a retreat, will
be held in New Brunswick, NJ on February 24 and 25, 2006. The following
meeting will be held on July 22, 2006 at the Sawgrass Marriott Resort,
Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida following NSREC.
Albe Dawson Larsen can be reached at the Stanford Linear Accelerator
Center, MS66, 2575 Sand Hill Road, Menlo Park, CA 94025 USA; Phone:
+1 650 926 2748; Fax: +1 650 926 5124; E-mail: amlarsen@slac.stanford.edu. |
