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The 2005 edition of
the Nuclear Science Symposium (NSS) and Medical Imaging Conference
(MIC) is here again and will be held from October 23 – 29 in
Puerto Rico. This is the first time we have held the conference
in the Caribbean and the venue is a hotel that exemplifies the local
topical nature of the island – the Wyndham El Conquistador.
The hotel is situated on top of a bluff on the NE coast of Puerto
Rico (about 40 minutes from San Juan). We have the entire conference
space reserved and will take full advantage of the venue. For example,
the areas around the conference center floors are ideal for informal
discussions and exchange of ideas. To facilitate such exchanges
(and to allow for easier mixing of conference and family activities),
we are arranging the meeting schedule to provide “free”
time between 12 noon and 3:30 PM. This “free time” will
also be used for a series of lectures on Puerto Rico (history and
culture) and small group meetings related to the conference.
The hotel rooms are large and can easily accommodate multiple individuals
per room. The many restaurants and snack shops on-site offer a variety
of options for dining. For those with special dietary needs, there
is a shopping center about a 5-minute drive from the hotel. This
will be a different experience than we normally have at a NSS/MIC
conference. We are staying at a resort that is outside of major
towns and functions as a self-contained unit. We did get a very
good room rate for such a high-level property ($150/night) and have
made arrangements with the hotel to provide an option for the hotel
transport to meet attendees at the airport (for ~ $50 round trip).
We will remind registrations about this option (one must inform
the hotel of the arrival flight information at the time of room
registration). There have been some who have raised concerns about
the cost of the restaurants on-site. This is a legitimate concern
in that these are more expensive than the off-site options attendees
have become used to at past meetings. While there are many options,
the committee recognizes the limited budgets of many attendees and
we will be making efforts to offer some alternatives at the meeting.
We can not be more specific, since our ability to offer alternatives
is highly dependent on the number of registrations for the meeting.
But we will do our best to minimize the impact of a “captive”
venue where it is difficult to go off-property for alternative eating
establishments.
To meet ever-increasing demand, access to the internet will be expanded
with more areas set up for wireless connections – both in and
outside of the exhibits area – as well as our more traditional
collection of computers. This will also be the first NSS/MIC conference
to take full advantage of the computer AV equipment owned by NPSS.
All of our computer room systems, the projectors, and the computers
connected to the projectors will be from the NPSS pool. The access
to a stable, well supported (and virus clean) set of computer and
AV hardware for the conference is a major step forward in reducing
the worries of the General Chair. The fact is that the person in
charge of this equipment (Tony Lavietes) is also my local arrangements
chair, so for 2005 the computer and AV issues in regards to the
hotel capabilities are also well in-hand.
We do not expect the attendance we have had at Rome or Portland
(we do not have the RTSD conference in conjunction with the meeting),
but we do have 1119 abstracts as of the deadline, and are expecting
over 1000 attendees. We also expect a larger than normal participation
at the meeting of families. We are providing a larger companion
program and will be working with the hotel to make sure family members
are made aware of the many options on-site for activities. The registration
pages on the conference web site will have more details, but our
companion program chairs will also be available for assistance to
attendee families on-site to interface with the hotel options.
There will be trainee support available in the form of funds applied
toward hotel room and registration fees. Trainees (students and
postdoctoral fellows) looking for support will need to have their
mentor(s) write a letter to the appropriate technical chair (Richard
Lanza for NSS papers, and Simon Cherry for MIC papers) to apply.
We are still working on increasing the amount of funds available
for such support, so I cannot provide any information at this time
on the number of trainees we will be supporting.
One unexpected complication for 2005 was the retirement of Jay Forster
who has chaired the Symposium on Nuclear Power Systems that has
been part of this meeting for so many years. We were unable to recruit
a new chair for SNPS who could work within the constraints of the
structure of the NSS/MIC conference, and so I must report that there
will not be a SNPS at the 2005 meeting.
The conference closed for abstract submission on May 2 and should
open for registration by June 1. We are encouraging attendees to
register early to both allow us to look into the aforementioned
meal options as well as give us early warning of any problems in
the number of hotel rooms we will need. The venue has a large number
of rooms available and we do not expect to have any major difficulties.
However, after the experiences in the large number of attendees
over the past couple of years, we are also making contingency plans
if an overflow hotel is needed. We are expecting to accommodate
everyone at the El Conquistador so that all can take full advantage
of the relaxed, informal atmosphere, but we will be prepared if
the meeting grows beyond our optimistic projections.
We will begin the meeting with NSS short courses on Sunday, October
23. The opening ceremonies will take place on Monday October 24
along with the start of the main NSS program. The commercial exhibits
will open on Tuesday, October 25 and close at 8 pm on Thursday,
October 27. The MIC short courses will also run on Tuesday. An important
event, the exhibitor reception, will be held that Tuesday evening.
The MIC will begin with joint NSS/MIC sessions on Wednesday, October
26, and end with the MIC dinner on Saturday evening, October 29.
The conference reception will be on Wednesday evening. All in all,
a very full week!
For further information visit the NSS-MIC web site at http://www.nss-mic.org/2005/
Tom Lewellen can be reached at the University of Washington, Box
356004, Seattle, WA 98195-6004 USA; Tel: +1 206 598 3659; Fax: +1
206 598 4496; E-mail: tkldog@u.washington.edu.
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