It is hard to believe that two months have already elapsed since we met for the 50th annual meeting of the Health Physics Society (HPS) in Spokane, Washington. What a terrific and stimulating meeting! Photos of Accelerator Section members at the annual meeting were taken by HPS photographer Casper Sun.
On behalf of the section I would first like to thank Past-President Dr. Sayed Rokni for a year of superb leadership, as well as immediate Past-President Dr. William Casey for his continuing mentorship to the section. You will both likely need to hold our hands as we struggle through the coming year. Thank you both for your outstanding service, to the section and to the society. Our lives have been enriched through your service. We would also like to congratulate President-Elect Scott Walker and Treasurer Marcia Torres, and to welcome our new directors, Mike Sandvig and Henry Tran. I look forward to working with each of you.
The Accelerator Section Board of Directors met in the room of President-Elect Lorraine Day to discuss items of interest to the section on Monday evening, July 12. Light refreshments were served. We had a fruitful discussion. Sayed reported that the section’s nominee for fellow of the society, Dr. Nolan Hertel, had been successful. Congratulations Nolan!
Immediate Past-Past-President Carter Ficklen had been spearheading the efforts to obtain a midyear meeting on x-ray generating machines in 2008 since it will have been 11 years since the meeting in San Jose. John Ahlquist of the Northern California Chapter put together all of the logistics, meeting hotel, conference center, and potential tours and presented them to both the Venues and Symposia Committee members. The meeting is to be jointly sponsored by the Northern California Chapter (local arrangements) and by the Accelerator Section (technical session). Both the Venues Committee and the Symposia Committee recommended to the HPS Executive Committee to approve the topic and the venue. We are delighted that the meeting has now been approved. In a meeting with the HPS President Ray Guilmette and President-Elect Ruth McBurney, both expressed concern over the lack of financial success for the society from the 1997 San Jose meeting. Sayed Rokni and Lorraine Day assured Ray and Ruth that the Accelerator Section would work hard to diversify the topic, including reaching out to the medical physicists and the commercial accelerator community, and to seek participation from as many venues as possible. Since the section is charged with developing the technical program, we need our community to seek partnerships with the larger backdrop. If you have any suggestions for topics, contact personnel or workshops, please start these interactions now. It took three years to plan the midyear meeting in New Orleans and we have just over two years. Therefore, this is a personal request to help make this midyear topic a real success.
The HPS presidents also are considering the request to add the H. Wade Patterson award winner’s name to the annual awards banquet. As a section, we need to do a better job at advertising this unique award for the outstanding accelerator-related student paper. One other item of interest from our president’s meeting is that we now have permission to use Ruedi Birenheide, the society’s webmaster, to update and expand our section web page. Currently, the link from the Accelerator Section links directly to the current newsletter issue. Some items to include might be updates on the 2008 midyear. We will also be charged with coming up with a call for abstracts which includes suggested topics. Please e-mail me with suggestions, contacts, and recommendations.
Once again, the President’s Emeritus Committee was gracious enough to support a Morgan Lecturer for the special accelerator session. This year the G. William Morgan Lecture Award was conferred on Alberto Fasso, currently of Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC). This year only three Morgan Lecturer awards were granted at the annual meeting and two of those were proposed by past-presidents for plenary session speakers. Alberto gave the special session keynote address. His topic, "Accelerator Shielding Design: From Protons to Electrons, from America to Europe and Back," gave us a look into history and how the development of computers in the past 30 years has influenced the science of health physics and our ability to model very precisely the shielding requirements for high- and very high-energy particles and photons and how to handle complex geometries. The special session consisted of 10 papers that spanned the gamut from the new Department of Energy (DOE) accelerator order given by DeVaughan Nelson to operational safety envelopes for synchrotron radiation facilities given by President Sayed Rokni. The annual section meeting began at 11:30 AM.
Our most faithful correspondent and editor, Linnea Wahl, reported that four newsletter issues had been produced. As a tribute to her excellent work, Linnea was presented with a certificate for outstanding contribution to the section by President Sayed Rokni. Minutes were distributed to the members and accepted unanimously. Lorraine Day reminded the membership about the survey contained in the previous newsletter and a need to identify human capital requirements and the fulfillment of those needs through training, recruiting students interested in accelerator health physics, and developing funding sources for such students.
Sayed Rokni reported on the election results, which include President-Elect Scott Walker, Treasurer Marcia Torres, and new directors Mike Sandvig and Henry Tran. He also reported that the section’s nominee for fellow, Nolan Hertel, was successful. Congratulations all.
Marcia sent the treasurer’s report as she was unable to attend the meeting. As of April 30, 2005, the section had an account balance of $7346.89. HPS member contributions were in the amount of $655.00 and there was a 10% management fee on that amount to the HPS Secretariat, for a net increase of $589.50.
Scott Walker gave a brief update on the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) N43.1 update. The final draft should go to ANSI in September. Scott will also coordinate the proposed issue of the operational health physics journal that will focus on accelerators. You are encouraged to share your stories in this formal manner. Let’s get this out.