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As summer slips away,
the main focus of the RISC again turns to our annual fall meeting.
This year's 2004 NSS/MIC will be held in Rome, Italy from October
17-22, along with the Room Temperature Semiconductor Conference.
Our General Chairman, Alberto Del Guerra, along with his Program
Committee, have been extremely busy making all of the plans and
preparations for what will surely be an excellent meeting. With
more than 1600 papers submitted last May, it looks like it will
also again be a very large meeting. Nevertheless, Alberto and his
Committee have done an excellent job to put together a superb program.
The newly renovated Ergife Palace Hotel on the outskirts of Rome
will be accommodating the large number of participants and should
provide us with a very pleasant Italian surrounding. It will also
provide easy access to the center of Rome to allow everyone to enjoy
this beautiful and historic city. If you haven't already registered,
you should certainly do so immediately and book your reservation
at the hotel. Alberto has also provided us with a detailed report
in this Newsletter on the status of the meeting.
The other main activity of the RISC over the past several months
has been with the Site Selection Committee, chaired by Ron Keyser.
The Committee has been concentrating mainly on finding a site for
the 2007 meeting, but is also investigating possible sites for 2008
and beyond. The list of candidates include Australia, Hawaii, Las
Vegas, St. Louis and Salt Lake City. Anatoly Rozenfeld presented
the proposal for Australia at the RISC meeting in Portland last
October, and several members of the Site Selection Committee just
visited several locations in Hawaii at the end of July (two on the
main island of Oahu and one on the Big Island of Hawaii). Site visits
are also planned to Las Vegas and St. Louis in the near future.
The Site Selection Committee will then deliberate over the various
possible sites during the next several months and present its findings
at the RISC and NMISC meetings in Rome where we hope to make a decision
on the site for the 2007 meeting. As for 2008, it looks likely that
the conference will move back to Europe, with Germany as the main
contender.
Preparations are also under way for the 2005 NSS/MIC which will
be held in San Juan, Puerto Rico from October 22-29. Tom Lewellen
is the General Chair, and all major positions of the Organizing
Committee have now been filled. The first full committee meeting
will be held in Seattle at the end of August. The hotel contract
has been signed, and the budget was submitted to IEEE Headquarters
and approved. The 2006 NSS/MIC meeting will be held in San Diego,
CA from October 28 - November 4. Graham Smith will be the General
Chair. The hotel contract is complete and the conference budget
is expected to be submitted for ratification by the fall of 2004.
About three-quarters of the key positions on the Organizing Committee
have been filled. It is anticipated, though not confirmed, that
the RTSD will be held in tandem with the NSS/MIC, and extra meeting
space, compared with the 2001 meeting at the same location, has
been negotiated with the hotel. The impact of the recent announcement
that there will be no SNPS at the 2005 NSS/MIC is being considered
in the context of the 2006 meeting.
Another activity of the RISC has been with the Awards Committee.
This Committee, chaired by David Wehe, completed its work on the
Early Career Award and selected a winner for this year, who will
be announced at the Rome meeting. Runners up will also receive a
certificate of acknowledgment and appreciation. The Awards Committee
is also in the process of selecting a winner for the Outstanding
Achievements Award, which was not given out last year and will be
awarded this year as well. We would all like to thank David for
the excellent job he has done in finding outstanding and worthy
candidates for these awards, and for the excellent job he has done
in heading up this important committee.
Finally, the election for new RISC members is currently under way.
There are seven candidates for five open positions whose terms will
start on January 1, 2005. The candidates are James Brau, Larry Franks,
Roger Gearhart, Ingrid-Maria Gregor, Sarah Pozzi, Marek Szawlowski,
and Ren-yuan Zhu. The ballots will be mailed in early August, and
the results of the election will be announced in early October.
We would also like to thank Leon Kaufman, Zane Bell, Patrick Le
Dû, Marek Moszynski and Tony Peurrung, whose terms are expiring
at the end of this year, for their service on the RISC committee,
and wish them well with future activities with the IEEE and NPSS.
Craig Woody can be reached at Brookhaven National Laboratory, Physics
Dept., Bldg 510C, Upton, NY 11973; Phone: +1 631 344-2752; Fax:
+1 631 344-3253; E-mail: woody@bnl.gov.
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