As the year comes to a close, it’s always good to reflect on what has happened during the year and where we have come as a Society. It was my first year as President, and I have to say, it’s been an enlightening and very satisfying experience. We successfully completed our Society Review in February, and I can say we came through with flying colors. I think this is a testament to the hard work that our volunteers put in and how much pride we take in making our Society an example for others to follow. We’ve held many successful conferences this year, and numerous papers were published in our highly respected journals. Our own Hal Flescher won the prestigious IEEE Emberson Award, and Peter Clout was just recently elected as our new Division IV Director-elect. We formed a new Graduates of the Last Decade (GOLD) Committee, with Christoph Ilgner as its Chair. Our Women in Engineering (WIE) activities are expanding with more sessions at many of our conferences. We also completed our latest membership survey, which we did electronically for the first time, and received a record number of responses.
One truly notable accomplishment this year was that our membership has been growing by leaps and bounds. Between July 2008 and July 2009, our membership increased by 14.1%, the second largest increase of all Societies within IEEE. In fact, membership in IEEE has also nearly reached an all-time high in its 125 year history, now topping 367,000 members. We owe a great deal of our success in recruiting new members to Uwe Bratzler, our NPSS Membership Chair, who was named the top membership recruiter in all of IEEE worldwide by IEEE’s Membership and Geographical Activities Board. We should also thank Vern Price, who does a great deal of behind the scenes work for our membership, and to all the volunteers who helped staff the membership booths at many of our conferences for this outstanding effort. However, we want to encourage all of our new members, as well as our long-standing members, to please renew your membership in both IEEE and NPSS every year. The benefits of being a member are truly great, and we’re constantly trying to improve them. It’s great to belong to one of the best Societies within IEEE.
I reported in the last Newsletter that we recently formed a new NPSS Chapter in Seoul, Korea. I’m now happy to report that we have formed yet another new Chapter, this one in Toronto, Canada. The Chapter received its final approval on September 3, 2009, with Prof. Hossam Gabbar from the University of Ontario’s Institute of Technology as its Chair. We welcome this new Chapter into our Society and hope that we can increase our activities and interests in NPSS in this new region. Please see Prof. Gabbar’s article in this Newsletter for more information about our newest Chapter. This brings the total number of NPSS Chapters to 17, and we are hopefully still growing.
I also reported in the last Newsletter that IEEE Biometrics Council was publishing a new journal called the Biometrics Compendium, and that some of our TNS or TPS articles might be appearing there. However, after some debate at our last AdCom meeting, we decided that NPSS would not participate in this journal. The reasoning was that our articles have more impact when they are published in their original journals, and that republishing the same information did not add significantly to their value. We also chose not to participate in the EMB Society’s new journal called Reviews of Biomedical Engineering. This journal publishes review articles on topics in biomedical engineering, with which we do have involvement through our Nuclear and Medical Imaging Sciences Technical Committee. However, it was felt that we would prefer that authors publish their review papers in our own journals (either TNS or TMI) rather than in a new separate journal, and we would like to encourage our authors to do so.
Finally, as we close out the year, our economic situation may be looking a bit brighter after the difficult times we all experienced in 2008. Our Society had a net positive income last year, and our reserves are growing again. This is again largely due to our very popular and well-managed conferences, and to the efforts of so many volunteers who keep our Society running smoothly and efficiently. So, as we come to the end of another productive and successful year for NPSS, let me wish you all a wonderful and joyous holiday season, and all the best wishes for a happy and prosperous 2010.
Craig Woody, NPSS President, can be reached at the Physics Dept. Bldg. 510C, Brookhaven National Lab, Upton, NY 11973, Phone: +1 631-344-2752; Fax: +1 631-344-3253; E-mail: woody@bnl.gov.
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