GOLD—Graduates of the Last Decade—are very special members of IEEE— their first professional degree is less than ten years old. With respect to this, many of them may not even be aware of the fact that they are so special. However, these members are important to our society, and the society is important for them. Graduates of the last decade are in an important transition period of their professional life. Many of them will have found their first employer or have started their own business—successfully, internationally, full of enthusiasm. We should profit from this enthusiasm.
Others may have encountered difficulties of various kinds. Life is never straightforward in any sense, including in its professional aspects. If all goes well, this is interesting, challenging, it can open up an enormous potential. IEEE is there to help, and if we do, we will in return profit from lots of new ideas and enthusiasm present in our young colleagues.
That is why the Nuclear and Plasma Sciences Society has decided to start special GOLD activities, setting up a GOLD committee, and I am glad that I can serve as the chair of this committee. Since I have graduated in 1996 from Technische Universität München, Germany, my GOLD status has expired only recently, so the memory of my first professional steps is still quite fresh. Jane Lehr, our past president, and Uwe Bratzler have already volunteered to help on the committee, making it an international one, thereby also covering several fields in which our society is active.
We have already started to work on some program items for NPSS-GOLD members: For instance, we propose to hold special GOLD receptions at our conferences. Ideally, we will offer such a reception at a large NPSS conference starting this year. IEEE Fellows of our society will also be invited, so GOLD members can make contact in an informal atmosphere both with each other and with some of the most senior, influential members. We are open to further suggestions of any kind, with the primary goal being to help our young professionals.
And, if you are a GOLD member reading this article, I would be particularly glad to hear from you. Just sit down for a minute or two, write me a short e-mail, sharing your ideas about what a recent graduate expects from the Nuclear and Plasma Sciences Society. There is virtually no threshold to get involved, and it opens up the possibility to become active in a variety of ways in our society. These activities not only can, they will foster your professional development!
Looking forward to hearing from you,
Christoph Ilgner, NPSS GOLD committee chair, can be reached at the Technische Universität Dortmund, Experimentelle Physik 5, 44221 Dortmund, Germany; Phone: +41-22-76-72969; E-mail: Christoph.Ilgner@cern.ch |
