One of my duties as past president of our section is to chair the section's Awards Committee. You may recall receiving an early February nominations request from me for the Health Physics Society's (HPS's) annual awards. Based on the response of the members, the section's board of directors approved the nomination of Scott Schwahn for the HPS's 2004 Elda E. Anderson Award. This award is for young health physicists (under the age of 40) who have made significant contributions to the profession. An Accelerator Section letter of nomination with supporting materials was prepared and sent to John Frazier, the HPS Awards Committee chair. Scott has made a number of contributions to our section over the years in addition to his work with the American Board of Health Physics and the Virginia Chapter of the HPS. Winners of the HPS annual awards will be announced at the awards dinner during this years' annual meeting from July 11 to 15 in Washington, DC. Best wishes to Scott!
Another duty of the past president is to chair the section's Nominating Committee. I am putting together a 2004 Nominating Committee for our upcoming elections. I would solicit your help now in thinking about potential officers and directors. We will be electing two directors, a secretary, a newsletter editor, and a president-elect. The official call for nominations will go out shortly, so please respond promptly and enthusiastically when you receive it. Self-nominations are welcome.
The last point I want to make is a clarification of what was an unintended omission from my last newsletter message. My last article provided the Accelerator Section standard operating procedure (SOP) for information. I failed to mention also the contributions of Joe McDonald in the development of the SOP during his previous service as our section's president. My apologies to Joe for this oversight.