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It is once again
that busy time of year when most of us are getting ready for the
annual Nuclear Sciences Symposium and Medical Imaging Conference.
This is the premier meeting for Medical Imaging and Nuclear Science,
and as in the past, I look forward to this meeting with great anticipation
to learn the latest developments in the field. This year’s
meeting has been organized by Tom Lewellen, University of Washington,
General Chair, Simon Cherry, UC Davis, MIC Chair, and Dick Lanza,
MIT, NSS Chair. As in past years, the conference will offer a number
of short courses that this year will include: Medical Imaging Fundamentals,
Molecular Imaging Basics, and Statistical Methods for Image Reconstruction.
The conferences will be held at the EI Conquistador Hotel and Resort
outside San Juan, Puerto Rico. The meeting schedule has been organized
into morning and late afternoon sessions, which will allow us to
relax in the afternoons and enjoy the facilities the resort has
to offer. There will also be extensive companion and family activities
programs available to take advantage of the many attractions of
Puerto Rico. Due the attractiveness of this venue, it is possible
that the rooms at the resort may sell out. Hotels are available
in San Juan. However, this is some distance away from the conference
hotel. Therefore, make sure to make your reservation early to guarantee
a room at the conference hotel.
In 2006, the conference will be held at the Town and Country Inn
in San Diego, and the planning for this meeting is well on its way.
The general chair in 2006 is Graham Smith, BNL and the MIC Program
chair is John Aarsvold, Emory University. In 2007, the meeting will
for the first time be held in Hawaii at the Hilton Hawaiian Village
Resort in Honolulu. The general chair for this meeting is Ben Tsui,
Johns Hopkins, and Eric Frey, Johns Hopkins will be the MIC program
chair.
The conference site for the 2008 meeting has not been decided yet,
but the meeting will once again be held in Europe. It is expected
that the site selection committee will announce the selected city
before the end of the NSS/MIC conference in San Juan.
One of the bodies within the IEEE responsible for medical imaging
related activities is the Nuclear Medical and Imaging Sciences Technical
Committee or NMISTC. All IEEE NPSS members who have expressed interest
in being a part of NMISTC are NMISTC members. The NMISTC is managed
by the Nuclear Medical and Imaging Sciences Council (NMISC), which
has 15 members elected from the general membership of the NMISTC.
Five people are elected to the NMISC each year, and each person
is elected to a 3-year term. One of the main functions of the council
is to oversee the MIC portion of the annual NSS/MIC. This includes
the selection of conference committees and chairs, the development
of short courses and other educational activities at the conference.
More information about the NMISTC and the NMISC can be found at:
http://
ewh.ieee.org/soc/nps/nmisc/.
By now, you should, or will shortly, receive the ballots for the
members that have been nominated to serve on the council for the
next 3 years, starting January 2006. Make sure that you vote on
five of the nominees and return the ballot to IEEE.
At the end of this year, the following NMISC members’ terms
expire: John Aarsvold, Ron Huesman, Tom Lewellen, Chris Thompson,
and Ben Tsui. I would like to thank them for their contributions
and work on the council.
At the end of this year my tenure as the Chair of the NMISC is over.
This has been a very enjoyable and rewarding experience for me,
and I hope that I will be able to serve the members of the NMISTC
at some time in the future. Starting in 2006, Tom Lewellen will
serve as the chair of this committee for the next two years. With
his many years of experience within the Medical Imaging Community
and the IEEE, he will be an excellent chair of the NMISC, and I
wish him good luck on his tenure.
Magnus Dahlbom, Ph.D., Chair, NMISC, can be reached at the David
Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Department of Molecular and Medical
Pharmacology, Los Angeles, CA 90095. Phone: +1 310-206-8273, FAX:
+1 310-206-4899, e-mail: mdahlbom@mednet.ucla.edu.
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