Including the

SYMPOSIUM ON NUCLEAR POWER SYSTEMS

Norfolk Waterside Convention Center
Norfolk, Virginia
November 10-16, 2002

The 2002 IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium and Medical Imaging Conference (NSS/MIC) will be held from November 10-16, 2002 in Norfolk, Virginia, at the Norfolk Waterside Marriott and the Sheraton Waterside Hotels. Scientists and engineers in the fields of Nuclear Science and Medical Imaging will participate and present original work in a variety of subject areas related to these fields. In addition, the Symposium on Nuclear Power Systems, chaired by Jay Forster will continue the tradition of meeting in conjunction with the NSS/MIC, from November 12-14.

Norfolk has a 400 year-old seaport packed with galleries, theaters, museums, a variety of shopping options, and a wealth of military history. Norfolk sits at the center of the East Coast of the United States at the base of the historic Chesapeake Bay. A trip to Norfolk can include wonderful activities ranging from attending outdoor concerts to shopping and dining at Norfolk’s waterside to historical tours and cruises.

Nuclear Science Symposium

The NSS program, chaired by Nigel Lockyer and Rick Van Berg from the University of Pennsylvania starts on Tuesday, November 12 and ends on Friday morning, November 15. The meeting begins with a Plenary session on Tuesday, and follows with oral and poster sessions on analog and digital circuits, astrophysics and space, data acquisition and analysis, environmental health, gas detectors, high energy physics instrumentation, new radiation detectors, nuclear measurements and monitoring, photodetectors, radiation damage effects, scintillation detectors, and semiconductor detectors. Joint NSS/MIC sessions will be held the afternoon of Tuesday, November 12. The joint sessions will cover topics of interest to both groups, including scintillation detectors with applications to medical imaging, and hadron therapy accelerators and imaging techniques for radiation oncology.

The NSS will host a luncheon on Tuesday; Jack Marburger, who is currently President Bush’s scientific advisor, will be speaking. Dr. Marburger is the former head of Brookhaven National Laboratory.

Medical Imaging Conference

The MIC program, chaired by Paul Kinahan and Robert Miyaoka from the University of Washington starts on Wednesday, November 13 and ends at noon on Saturday November 16. This year the plenary speakers will be Harrison Barrett from the University of Arizona and Charles Metz from the University of Chicago. Drs. Barrett and Metz will speak on objective measures of image quality involving human and numerical observers. Topics during the subsequent sessions will emphasize PET and SPECT instrumentation, data correction techniques, and image reconstruction in emission tomography, and also include other imaging modalities including X-ray and CT.  Sessions will also be held in two areas that lend themselves to special purpose instruments, small animal imaging and breast imaging. Following last year’s successful program, we have continued to increase the emphasis towards the excellent poster sessions, and the oral sessions will continue to be the single session format.

The MIC will host a dinner on Friday evening; Admiral Cavanaugh, commander of the USS Wisconsin, currently docked in Norfolk Harbor, will be speaking.

Symposium on Nuclear Power Systems

 The technical paper sessions on nuclear power systems will take place on November 12 to 14. The topics covered are those currently of major interest to the operation of nuclear power stations and supporting services and suppliers, including:

• Upgrading digital technology for reactor protection, I&C, and other systems

• Reliability-based maintenance and plant modernization

• New aspects on equipment qualifications

• A special annual overview report of major importance to nuclear power utilities

• And more

For more information please contact Jay Forster, GE Nuclear Energy, M/C 334, 175 Curtner Ave, San Jose, CA  95125: Phone: +1 408 925-5090; Fax: +1 408 925-2923; E-mail jay.forster@gene.ge.com

Short Courses

An excellent set of short courses will be given prior to the start of the NSS/MIC programs. Specialized topics covering a wide range of nuclear and medical technology will be presented in the Short Course Program, organized by Gary Alley from Oak Ridge National Laboratory.  These courses are scheduled at the beginning of the week, from Sunday November 10 to Tuesday November 12 and include:

Radiation Detection and Measurement
Organized by Glenn Knoll, University of Michigan; Nov. 10,11

Triggering for Particle Physics Experiments

Organized by Peter Weilson, FNAL; Nov. 10:

Integrated Circuit Front-ends for Nuclear Pulse Processing
Organized by Chuck Britton, Oak Ridge National Laboratory; Nov 11:

Nuclear Emission Imaging Detectors, Systems and Methods for Breast Cancer Evaluation Organized by Martin Tornai, Duke University and Craig Levin, UC San Diego; Nov. 11, PM:

Multi-Modality Imaging Devices
Organized by David Townsend, University of Pittsburgh; Nov. 12, AM:

Analytical Reconstruction Methods
Organized by Michel Defrise, Vrije Universiteit, Brussels; Nov. 12, AM:

Task Based Assessment of Image Quality
Organized by Michael King, University of Massachusetts; Nov. 12, PM:

Statistical Methods for Image Reconstruction
Organized by Jeffrey Fessler, University of Michigan; Nov. 12, PM.

Registration

This year, in addition to discounted registration fees for students and post-doctoral fellows, we are offering discounted fees for the Short Course Program. Please check the NSS/MIC web site (www.nss-mic.org/2002Mting/ nsshome2002html) for details about the courses, dates, and fees. Note that the early registration deadline is October 21. The special hotel conference rates are available up to the same date. Advance registration savings are $150 for regular registration, $100 for students, and $50 for retired or unemployed IEEE members. Of course, there are the special rates for IEEE members which are up to $150 less than those for non-members. Student travel awards will also be available, with preference given to those who are presenting at the NSS and MIC.

Social Program

An interesting Tour Program has been put together by Margaret Daube-Witherspoon together with Virginia Escape, who organized the tours when the NSS/MIC was last held in Norfolk in 1994. We encourage attendees as well as companions to take advantage of these day trips, which will include a continental breakfast, admission fees, lunch, transportation, and a historically-trained guide. One trip is planned each day from November 11 – 15, including:

• walking tour of Olde Portsmouth,

• tour of Jamestown Settlement and Yorktown,

• tour of Colonial Williamsburg,

• tour of Chrysler Museum of Art and Hermitage Museum,

• tour of historic homes of Norfolk and Virginia Beach.

Detailed descriptions can be found at the NSS/MIC web site.

Other activities to be held during the week include an Exhibition Program that will be open from Tuesday afternoon through Thursday afternoon. Many companies involved in Nuclear Science and Medical Imaging Instrumentation will be present to discuss the technical details of their products. Tuesday evening the exhibitors will host an opening reception from 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm.

On Wednesday evening from 6:00 pm – 9:00 pm, the conference will host the General Welcome Reception for all attendees at the Nauticus, the national maritime center, which has marine activities and exhibits of naval history.

A related program to the IEEE conference to be held in conjunction with Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (Jefferson Lab.) is an outreach day for high school teachers on Monday, November 11. Speakers include Bill Moses from Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, Josh Klein from the Universities of Pennsylvania and Texas, and Kanai Shah from Radiation Monitoring Devices. A public lecture that evening will be given by Michael Levi from Lawrence Berkeley National Lab on the topic of Cosmology.

Information on registration, travel awards, conference sessions, publication in the IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science, the local educational outreach program, and other information are available our web site (www.nss-mic.org/2002Mting/ nsshome2002.html) and we encourage you to register and book your hotel rooms early.

On behalf of the Scientific Committee, I hope that you will partake in the IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium and Medical Imaging Conference, and its related activities during the week.

I look forward to seeing you in Norfolk.

Joel Karp, the NSS/MIC General Chair, can be reached at the University of Pennsylvania, Department of Radio Nuclear Medicine, 3400 Spruce Street, Philadelphia, PA  19104; Phone: +1 215 662-3073; Fax: +1 215 573-3880; E-mail: karp@rad.upenn.edu