From the President
Michael P. Grissom (mpg1@coastside.net)
In this second quarter 2011 issue of the newsletter, we have Linnea Wahl’s report on the Founders Award, the text of Ralph Thomas’ speech from the 2011 HPS Awards Banquet on June 28th, Scott Schwahn on the Section’s nominations process, Lorraine Day’s items on the upcoming IPAC 12 meeting and CAMD update, as well as a US Particle Accelerator School announcement.
Since this is my last article as the Section’s President, I will be discussing a fairly wide-ranging set of topics regarding developments at the 2011 HPS Annual Meeting, progress on the 2013 HPS Mid-Year Meeting, and some final thoughts.
The Health Physics Society’s 2011 Annual Meeting recently concluded (Thursday, June 30th) in West Palm Beach, Florida. Your Section Board of Directors met on Sunday, June 26th to discuss a full agenda of topics. The following Wednesday (June 29th), the Accelerator Section’s Business Meeting was held following the Accelerator Special Session on “Neutrons from Accelerators.” At the Business Meeting, the final votes for the Section’s 2011 officers election were tallied and the results announced by Scott Schwahn (Chair, Nominations Committee) and Mike Sandvig (Section Secretary). Our new officers are:
The end of this year’s HPS Annual Meeting also marks the end of the Section Board’s member terms that expire in 2011. These persons were Linnea Wahl as Past-President, Sam Baker as outgoing Director and Keith Heinzelman as outgoing Newsletter Editor. Sam actively supported the Section’s presence at the 2011 Mid-Year Meeting in Charleston, SC and I’m sure we all hope that Sam will continue to be active in the Section’s future endeavors. Keith did an ‘extra’ year as Newsletter Editor for us and his efforts are there for all to see in our archived Newsletters on the Section’s website and we expect Keith to ‘not be a stranger’ in the future too! Linnea as well has been a steadfast member of the Section for a long time now, but she gets no rest as she continues as an HPS Director for the national 2011-2012 board year.
At this meeting (refer to Linnea’s article elsewhere in this issue on Founders Award winner Ralph Thomas), we were very successful in achieving recognition for members via the HPS Awards process. Don Cossairt and Scott Walker were both 2011 G. William Morgan Lecturers and both presentations were well received by the attendees. Our Student Awards Committee (Lorraine Marceau-Day, Don Cossairt and Reg Ronnengin) completed their review of the student papers submitted for oral or poster presentations at the meeting and the following awards/recognition were given:
· H. Wade Patterson Award: Santosh Bhatt, The University of Tennessee, “Estimates of Secondary Neutron Cross-Sections from Heavy Ion Reactions at High Energies Using HETC-HEDS.”
· Lutz Moritz Award: Jeremy Rogers, Texas A&M University, “A Review of Neutron Methods in the Age of the 3He Shortage.”
· Honorable Mention: Xianin Liu, Colorado State University, “Involvement of Different Mechanisms in Heavy Ion and Gamma Ray Induced Hepatocellular Carcinoma of Mice.”
· Honorable Mention: Mohammed Mestari, Idaho Accelerator Center, “Investigation of Real-Time Gamma Dosimetry.”
Also during the Section Business Meeting we received a motion for submitting a Section nominee to the HPS for consideration as an IRPA 13 (meeting to be held in Glasgow, Scotland in 2012) delegate. The motion was seconded and passed. Following discussion, two candidates were identified and a vote was held with Scott Schwahn as the successful nominee. Scott’s nomination was acknowledged by the HPS Secretariat with the final HPS Delegates to IRPA 13 expected to be announced in the near future.
Further details related to Section activities in West Palm Beach will be posted on the Accelerator Section’s Documents web page in the future, such as minutes for the June 26th Board Meeting.
The Accelerator Section was again recognized for its successful activities during the 2010-2011 Board year by the HPS Presidents and at the Section Council Meeting. I applaud the efforts of our members to make the West Palm Beach technical meeting a success and helping us to recognize the achievements of our awards’ nominees. Our Section continues to be “the model” for the other HPS Sections in the eyes of national HPS leadership.
The HPS Medical Health Physics and Accelerator Sections were formally recognized as the joint sponsors of the 2013 HPS Mid-Year to be held in Scottsdale, Arizona, probably in the February 2013 time frame, and the topic “Medical and Accelerator-Based Dosimetry” was approved by the HPS Board of Directors on Sunday, June 26th at the HPS Annual Meeting in West Palm Beach, Florida. Both sections will be looking for potential champions for this event (such as session co-chairs and possibly deans for a PDS) to ensure a successful program. Please let your Board know if you have ideas/recommendations for these activities and the path forward. I look at this meeting as a unique opportunity for us to work closely with our Medical HP Section, AAPM and both the Arizona Chapter HPS and AAPM colleagues.
Finally, despite the great accomplishments of our Section this year, I have to report our membership remained static during the 2010-2011 Board year. The HPS in general has been challenged to maintain membership nationally and although total Society membership declined to about 5,000 persons the rate of decline seems to be bottoming out. I encourage all Section members to seek out new members to join the HPS and the Accelerator Section over the coming months. It has been both a pleasure and a challenge to serve you as Section President over the past 12 months and I wish the 2011-2012 Accelerator Section Board of Directors the very best in the year to come.