NuclEAr & PlASmA ScIENcES SocIEtyieee-npss.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/newsletter_nps...2 NuclEAr & PlASmA ScIENcES SocIEty NUCLEAR & PLASMA SCIENCES SOCIETY NEWS is published four

A P u b l i c a t i o n o f t h e I n s t i t u t e o f E l e c t r i c a l & E l e c t r o n i c s E n g i n e e r s N u m b e r 3 , S e p t e m b e r 2 0 1 0

CO N F E R E N C ES

(continued on page 3)

W e look forward to seeing you at the 2010 IEEE Nuclear

Science Symposium, Medical Imaging Conference, and Room Temperature Semiconductor Detector Workshop (NSS MIC RTSD), to be held from October 30 to November 6 in Knoxville, Tennessee at the modern and spacious Knoxville Convention Center (KCC) and six hotels in downtown Knoxville. All the hotels offer excellent accommodations near the “social center” of Knoxville. This meeting offers a great opportunity to exchange new knowledge and ideas in nuclear science and medical imaging with friends and colleagues from around the world. The second of this long series of conferences was held in Oak Ridge 57 years ago. The conferences are returning to East Tennessee for the first time since then and in the meantime have become the largest meetings with the broadest coverage of the field of radiation instrumentation and applications.

The Organizing Committee focused on creating an integrated conference to facilitate and encourage attendees to expand their knowledge in related topical areas and participate in all aspects of the meeting. This successful meeting is based on more than 1,500 high-quality submissions. Even if you think your interests are all in one area, you are strongly encouraged to explore the complete meeting program to take advantage of the different ways to look at issues. A strong program of relevant short courses is offered before the meeting

NuclEAr & PlASmA ScIENcES SocIEty

2010 IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium, medical Imaging conference and 17th International Workshop on room-temperature Semiconductor X-ray and Gamma-ray Detectors

N u c l E A r & P l A S m A S c I E N c E S S o c I E t y2

NUCLEAR & PLASMA SCIENCES SOCIETY NEWSis published four times per year by The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc., 445 Hoes Lane, Piscataway, NJ 08855.

NEWSLETTER EDITOR:Albe Dawson Larsen Stanford Linear Accelerator Center MS-66 2575 Sand Hill Road Menlo Park, CA 94025 Tel: +1 650 926 2748 Fax: +1 650 726-0368 E-mail: [email protected]

EDITOR EMERITUS:W. Kenneth Dawson TRIUMF, 4004 Wesbrook Mall Vancouver, British Columbia Canada, V6T-2A3. Tel: +1 604 222 7455 Fax: +1 604 222 7307 E-mail: [email protected]

IEEE MAGAZINES AND NEWSLETTERS:Contributors for September 2010 IEEE NPSS Newsletter in alphabetical order: C.K. Birdsall, W. Kenneth Dawson, Ralf Engels, Teresa Farris, Dan Fleetwood, Brendan B. Godfrey, Ronald Keyser, Albe Larsen, Jane Lehr, Jean-Pierre Martin, Dennis Meredith, W. Kenneth Dawson, Robert Miyaoka, William W. Moses, Stefan Ritt, Edl Schamiloglu, Stan Schriber, Craig WoodyPublicity releases for forthcoming meetings, items of interest from local chapters, committee reports, announcements, awards, or other materials requiring society publicity or relevant to NPSS should be submitted to the Newsletter Editor by October 8th, 2010 for publication in the December 2010 Newsletter.

CONTRIBUTED ARTICLESNews articles are actively solicited from contributing editors, particularly related to important R&D activities, significant industrial applications, early reports on technical breakthroughs, accomplishments at the big laboratories and similar subjects. The various Transactions, of course, deal with formal treatment in depth of technical subjects. News articles should have an element of general interest or contribute to a general understanding of technical problems or fields of technical interest or could be assessments of important ongoing technical endeavors.Advice on possible authors or offers of such articles are invited by the editor.©2010 IEEE. Information contained in this newsletter may be copied without permission provided that the copies are not made or distributed for direct commercial advantage, and the title of the publication and date appear.Printed in U.S.A.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CONFERENCESNSS MIC RTSD __________________________________________________________ 1Report on the 17th Real Time Conference and Beyond _____________________________8

SOCIETY GENERAL BUSINESSPresident’s Report ________________________________________________________10Secretary’s Report ________________________________________________________11

TEChNICAL COMMITTEESNuclear Medical and Imaging Sciences___________________________________________15Particle Accelerator Science and Technology News ________________________________ 17Pulsed Power Science and Technology Technical Committee _______________________ 23Nuclear and Space Radiation Effects ____________________________________________ 24

FUNCTIONAL COMMITTEESAwards _________________________________________________________________25

IEEE Marie Sklodowska-Curie Award ___________________________________ 262010 Computer Applications in Nuclear and Plasma Sciences Award ___________ 27

Fellows Committee _____________________________________________________ 27OThER ARTICLES

US Congressional Visits Day 2010 _________________________________________ 29A Champion of Engineering Makes an Eloquent Case __________________________30

ADCOM 2010 OFFICERSPresident Craig Woody Vice President Robert Reinovsky Treasurer Ed Lampo Assistant Treasurer Ron Keyser Conference Treasurer Anthony Lavietes Secretary Albe Larsen

ADCOM CLASS OF 2013Christian Bohm (CANPS) Gerald Cooperstein (PPST) Paul Dodd (RE) Glenn Knoll (RI) John Verboncoeur (PSAC)

CLASS OF 2012Steven Gold (PSAC) Jean-Luc Leray (Transnational) Tom Lewellen (NMIS)

CLASS OF 2011David Abe (PSAC) Janet Barth (PP) Hutch (George) Neilson (Fusion)

CLASS OF 2010Sandra Biedron (AST) Eric Frey (NMIS) Jim Schwank (PP) Rick Van Berg (RI)

TEChNICAL COMMITTEE ChAIRSStefan Ritt (CANPS) Dennis Youchison (Fusion) Robert Miyaoka (NMIS) Stan Schriber (PAST) John Luginsland (PSAC) Edl Schamiloglu (PPST) Dan Fleetwood (RE) Chuck Melcher (RI)

FUNCTIONAL COMMITTEE ChAIRSBill Moses (Awards and Conferences) Steve Gold (Chapters, Local Activities, Distinguished Lecturers) Peter Clout (Communications) Lecturers) Hal Flescher (Finance) Christoph Ilgner (GOLD Members) Uwe Bratzler (Membership) Jane Lehr (Nominations, Fellows) Paul Dressendorfer (Publications) Ron Keyser (Standards)

LIAISONSGerry Rogoff (Coalition for Plasma Sciences) Edl Schamiloglu (EAB Education Committee) Charles Neumeyer (Energy Policy) Patrick Le Dû (International Conferences & RT Conf.) Randy Brill (IEEE-USA Medical Technologies) Stan Schriber (PAC OC) Hal Flescher, Ron Schrimpf (RADECS) Ray Larsen (SSIT, HTC) Sandra Biedron (IEEE-USA R&D) Tony Lavietes (Sensors Council) Michael Unterweger, Ron Keyser (IEEE Standards Board) Ron Jaszczak, Randy Brill (TMI liaisons) Allan Johnston (Women in Engineering)

W W W . I E E E - N P S S . o r G 3

l Instrumentation for Homeland and National Security

l Scientific Computation and Computation

l Neutron Detectors and Instrumentation l Analog and Digital Circuits l Radiation Imaging Detectors l Semiconductor Detectors l High Energy and Nuclear Physics

Instrumentation l Radiation Damage Effects: Scintillatorsl Instrumentation for Medical and

Biological Researchl Gaseous Detectors

This year we went the extra mile (or 1.6 kilometers!) to make sure that similar submissions were reviewed, categorized, and assigned to the same Topic Area in the program. One of our guiding principles for this process was placing submissions primarily about detector development in the appropriate detector Topic Area and those primarily about a specific application in the appropriate application Topic Area. As part of this exercise, we also moved all papers submitted to the NSS that were related to room-temperature semiconductors (wide band-gap) to RTSD and they in turn transferred a number of papers to the NSS. In addition, with the increased focus on neutron detector development in light of the 3He shortage, we placed short-term solutions in the related workshop and longer-term solutions in the general NSS Program. This was a fair amount of work on the part of the Program Committee, but we believe it was worthwhile in that you will see fewer places where similar papers are presented in different Topic Area sessions.

We’d like to call your attention to several aspects of the NSS program that are different from previous years: Poster

to address topics of particular interest in these fields. All of these courses are designed as self-contained tutorials given by experts in the subject. An integrated program of single topic Workshops and Special Sessions are given to address problems and provide a forum for attendees to discuss new and emerging technologies.

Conference attendees will have access to Internet-connected laptops and printers. Wireless Internet connections will also be available throughout the KCC.

Knoxville weather in early November is generally mild, with average daytime highs in the low-to-mid 70s and average nighttime lows in the high 50s to low 60s (F).

For the latest information concerning Scientific Program details, conference registration, special events, schedules, transportation and housing, or any other relevant issue, please visit the conference website: http://www.nss-mic.org/2010.

On behalf of the Organizing Committee and the IEEE Nuclear and Plasma Sciences Society, we encourage you to make plans now to attend this year’s Nuclear Science Symposium, Medical Imaging Conference, and Room Temperature Semiconductor Detector Workshop. We look forward to welcoming you to Knoxville.

CONFERENCE PROGRAM

Nuclear Science Symposium (NSS) November 1-4, 2010A very strong program has been assembled from a solid set of abstract submissions. The Topic Conveners worked extremely hard to get quality reviews and put together the oral and poster sessions. The NSS program has sessions in the following areas:

l Scintillators and Scintillation Detectorsl Astrophysics and Space Instrumentation

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(continued from page 1)


John ValentineNSS Program Chair

David TownsendMIC Program Chair

Ron KeyserGeneral Chair


Michael FiederleRTSD Co-Chair

sessions and Refresher courses. The poster sessions have been organized to minimize the concentration of attendees in the poster sessions. The Refresher Courses will be at noon on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday in the Lecture Hall.

The plenary session will have several speakers including Thom Mason (ORNL), Guido Tonelli (INFN), and Peter Michelson (Stanford). The NSS Lunch will feature a special speaker Mike Carter (LLNL) and the presentation of the RISC awards.

Medical Imaging Conference (MIC) November 3–6, 2010The Medical Imaging Conference is the foremost international scientific meeting on the physics, engineering and mathematical aspects of nuclear-medicine-based imaging. The plenary session will have several speakers including Greg Sorensen, MD (MGH, Harvard) who will speak on “Mechanistic Imaging and MR-PET” and Prof. Anthony Campbell (University of Cardiff, UK) who will give a talk about “Life That Sparkles,” presenting information on topics of current interest. Following the plenary sessions there will be seven oral sessions and six poster sessions. The oral sessions will be in both single and parallel session formats and there will be a smaller poster session. There are also three exciting MIC short courses that will be held before the official start of the MIC. Additionally there will be three joint oral sessions with NSS and RTSD on Tuesday.

“The Foundry” on the 1982 World’s Fair Site was originally operated as a foundry for the casting of railroad spikes and flathead nails from old cannonballs. The MIC Dinner will take place here on Friday night. A Bluegrass band will play during cocktails and dinner followed by the Dinner speaker Prof. Anthony Campbell (University of Cardiff, UK) who will give a presentation on

“Charles Darwin: An inspiration for the 21st century.”

The NMISC makes several awards every year and these will be presented during the plenary. In addition, the IEEE awards to NPS members will be recognized at the plenary.

The submitted papers have been organized in the following sessions:l PET/MR and SPECT/MR

Instrumentation l X-ray CT Reconstruction

and Corrections l PET and SPECT Instrumentation l Image Processing and

Evaluation Techniques l New Imaging Techniques l Data Corrections for PET/MR Imaging l PET and SPECT Reconstruction l Application-Specific Imaging

Instrumentation l Data Corrections for PET Imaging l Preclinical and High Resolution

Imaging Instrumentation l Modeling and Simulation Techniques l Enhancing PET, SPECT and

CT Imaging l PET and SPECT Imaging Performance

17th International Workshop on Room-Temperature Semiconductor X- and Gamma-ray Detectors (RTSD) November 2–5, 2010We are pleased to have the 17th International Workshop on Room-Temperature Semiconductor X-ray and Gamma-ray Detectors as part of the conference again. This special workshop represents the principal forum for scientists and engineers working to develop new solid-state radiation detectors and imaging arrays.

The RTSD Program Chairs have worked with the NSS Program Chairs to create


CO N F E R E N C ES

Ralf EnglesTreasurer

Tim DeVolNSS Deputy Program Chair


Ralph JamesRTSD Co-Chair

a program with like topics in the same sessions. We urge you to take time at this meeting to build on the commonality within the RTSD, NSS, and MIC conferences, to share your data, energy and experience, and explore ways to enhance cooperation and collaboration with others.

Joint sessions with NSS and MIC are scheduled to help bring together people with common interests and offer the right environment for the creation of new and fruitful associations. These joint sessions are clearly identified in the program booklet, and we invite everyone’s participation.

The RTSD luncheon will be on board the beautiful “Star of Knoxville,” an old-time paddle wheel riverboat at noon on Thursday. It will cruise on the Tennessee River to show the contrast of Knoxville’s past and present.

ShORT COURSE PROGRAMAn excellent set of short courses will be given at the start of the NSS/MIC/RTSD programs, covering a wide range of nuclear and medical imaging technology. All courses are one or two days in length. Coffee and pastries will be available for participants of the short courses at 08:00, before the first lecture which will begin at 08:30. Lunch, refreshments, lecture notes, and a certificate of completion are also provided as part of the short course registration fee.

NSS Short Courses:l Integrated Circuit Front-Ends for

Nuclear Pulse Processing

l Radiation Detection and Measurementl Advanced Photodetectors

MIC Short Courses:l Image Quality in Adaptive and

Multimodality Imagingl Medical Image Reconstructionl Molecular Imaging

WORKShOPSThe workshop program consists of invited talks with plenty of opportunities for discussion. The Special Focus Workshops being offered include:

Workshop on 3He Alternatives for Neutron Detection, Friday, November 5, 2010, 8:30–15:30, Organizing committee: Ralf Engels, (Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Germany), Richard Kouzes, (Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, USA) and Bruno Guerard, (Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL), France)

Material Development for the Homogeneous Hadronic Calorimeter Detector Concept, Sunday, October 31, 2010, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Organizing committee: Paul Lecoq (CERN), Stephen E. Derenzo (LBL), and Marvin J. Weber (LBL)

PET-MR, Sunday, October 31, 2010, from 2 p.m. to 9 p.m., Organizing committee: Paul Marsden, (King’s College London) and Stefaan Vandenberghe (University of Ghent (IBBT))

Management and Dissemination of Intellectual Property in Fundamental Research, Thursday, November 4, 2010, 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Organizing committee: Bernard Denis and Hartmut Hillemanns, (CERN Knowledge and Technology Transfer)

SPECIAL EVENTSReception for IEEE GOLD MembersThe IEEE Nuclear and Plasma Sciences Society (NPSS) promotes the activities of the IEEE GOLD program for Graduates of the Last Decade. A special reception will be held for these members of NPSS. Attendance is free, but restricted to IEEE NPSS GOLD members, i.e., those among our members whose latest professional degree was granted less than ten years ago.

The reception will take place on Thursday, November 4, from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. in room 301C. Refreshments will be served.


CO N F E R E N C ES

Stephen E. DerenzoNSS Short Course Director

Christoph IlgnerGOLD Committee Chair


Given the large success of the relaxed GOLD reception at NSS-MIC 2009 in Orlando, Florida, IEEE GOLD members are highly encouraged to attend this year’s event. Several speakers with outstanding careers in both academia and industry, including IEEE fellows, have been invited to give brief summaries on what they have done to get where they are today. Their presentations will be very short, since emphasis will be on peer group discussions and network building among GOLD members and the leading professionals invited. In this sense, “individual career advice in a casual atmosphere” is the motto of the reception.All IEEE GOLD members attending the Nuclear Science Symposium and Medical Imaging Conference are most welcome to drop by and profit from this event. If you happen to have obtained your latest professional degree less than ten years ago, but the only missing bit is the membership in IEEE and NPSS to make you a GOLD member, you should become a member (see www.ieee.org). This way, you will profit from both your new membership in IEEE and the Nuclear and Plasma Sciences Society with all its benefits and you can attend the GOLD reception.Women in EngineeringWe are pleased to welcome you to the Women in Engineering (WIE) Session (Thursday, 4 November 2010, 6:00 to 8:00 p.m.) in room 200B, a special session to provide an opportunity for participants to exchange ideas and experiences in an informal setting. The special session will address the theme of women’s contributions to nuclear science and medical imaging by presenting encouraging examples from the IEEE NSS and MIC. The session will address the following points:l How to prepare high school girls to

make an unprejudiced choice regarding their fields of study and future careers

in science and engineering as well as give them good background for making that choice;

l How to improve the academic progression of women in order to minimize the movement of women out of these fields;

l How to overcome barriers for the advancement of women already working in science and engineering;

l How to combine a career with family life.

Several speakers (Britta Fuenfstueck, Siemens, Jennifer Huber, LBNL, Elizabeth Bartosz, DTRA, and Nerine Cherepy, LLNL), all with outstanding careers in both academia and industry have been invited to give brief summaries of what they have done to get where they are today. These women are role models for future generations. Several students who are beginning their careers in science and engineering will also discuss their experiences. There will be keynote presentations, followed by a panel discussion on the session issues, which are of importance not only to the society of women in science and engineering (S&E) but to the general public as well. Some great contributions of women to science in the last century will also be presented.

We hope that the WIE Session will help foster efforts to counter a worrisome trend that has been noticed recently in European countries: the more developed the country is and the richer the society is, the fewer women there are in S&E. We cannot afford to lose women’s talents in S&E. We encourage all members of the IEEE NSS, MIC and RTSD community to attend.

INDUSTRIAL PROGRAMThe IEEE NSS MIC RTSD Industrial Program provides conference attendees with ample opportunities to meet a broad range of exhibitors on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, 2 to 4 November. The opening hours will


CO N F E R E N C ES

Barbara ObrykWIE Session Chair

Jean François PratteExhibits Chair

Sara A. PozziWIE Session Chair


follow the hours of the conference. More than 50 companies from around the world will be present to meet conference attendees and to demonstrate their latest products. These represent state-of-the-art in detectors, pulse-processing instrumentation, imaging, software, and other relevant technologies. The exhibition area is located in Exhibit Hall B, collocated with the poster sessions. The exhibits will remain open until 6 p.m. on Thursday to provide additional time for MIC attendees.

COMPANION PROGRAMEast Tennessee and the Smoky Mountains offer a broad variety of cultural, historical, and natural attractions. The companion program provides a daily selection of trips to places of interest. This year each tour price includes lunch.All tours will depart from and return to the Companion Program Meeting Area in the Rotunda Room on the third floor of the Knoxville Convention Center. This meeting area will be available as a lounge for all registered companions to gather during the conference. Information about the Knoxville area will also be available for individuals and families to plan trips and excursions other than those offered in the Companion Program.Tour #1, Saturday, October 30

Fly Fishing on the Little RiverTour #2, Monday, November 1

A Picnic in the ParkTour #3, Monday, November 1

Smoky Mountain Premier Craft TourTour #4, Tuesday, November 2

Biltmore EstateTour #5, Wednesday, November 3

Knoxville Zoo and the Red Panda Exhibit

Tour #6, Wednesday, November 3On Top of Old Smoky

Tour #7, Thursday, November 4Tuckaleechee Caverns and Smoky Mountain Heritage Center

Tour #8, Thursday, November 4A Taste of the South–BBQ Cook Off Cooking Class

Tour #9, Friday, November 5A Step Back in Time–The Museum of Appalachia

TEChNICAL TOURSWednesday, November 3, 2010, ORTEC Manufacturing Tour

Proposed tour–Spallation Neutron Source, ORNL

Proposed tour–Siemens Medical Manufacturing Tour

hOTEL INFORMATIONThe six hotels in downtown Knoxville have reserved blocks of rooms for the conference and are close to the Knoxville Convention Center. Use the NSS MIC website to reserve your room and automatically get the special rate of $120 for Hilton, Holiday Inn, Marriott, Four Points, and Crowne Plaza and $129 for the Hampton Inn. The standard hotel rules for cancellation apply.

The Conference Information and Promotion Committee (CIP) did an excellent job of promoting this conference last year in Orlando, and throughout the year. Many thanks to all the members of the CIP for their work.

This year they will promote the 2011 conference in Valencia, Spain. Stop by the CIP table and learn about Spain. Complete the conference evaluation form while you are there.

Registration was opened in mid-July. You should register as soon as possible to ensure your place in the short courses, workshops, NSS Lunch, MIC Dinner, RTSD Lunch and tours. The early registration discount ends on 15 October. On-line registration will continue from 16 October through the conference at the on-site rate. The registration website will


CO N F E R E N C ES

Merry KeyserCompanion Program Co-Chair

Carolyn HoffmanCompanion Program Co-Chair

Martin TornaiLocal Arrangements Chair


the 17th IEEE Real-Time Conference (RT10) took place from May 23rd to

28th in the heart of Lisbon, Portugal, at the Instituto Superior Técnico in Lisbon. It was organized by the Instituto de Plasmas e Fusão Nuclear (IPFN) together with the Laboratório de Instrumentação e Física Experimental de Partículas (LIP).

We had 197 registrants with delegates from Europe (157), the U.S. and Canada (25) and Asia (15). There were 183 accepted abstracts, divided into 67 orals and 116 posters, out of which 86 presenters opted for a “mini-oral.” These three-minute talks are meant to present the highlights of a poster, and were as usual very well received by the attendees who were able to obtain a quick overview of the poster contents.

Four workshops and short courses were held at the conference, with a total of 132 attendees. The xTCA for Physics Workshop was organized by Bruno Gonçalves (INFN) and Ray Larsen (SLAC). Twenty-three presentations were given during two days, accompanied by industrial exhibitions. The CUDA short course given by Martin Purschke (BNL) addressed the programming of graphic cards (GPUs), which is an emerging field for high performance computing. Carlo Tintori (CAEN)

gave a short course on Digital Pulse Processing, which is a technique that is replacing analog electronics in the field of particle detection. Finally a short course on “Programming Real-Time and FPGA Systems Using a Graphical Development Environment” was given by National Instruments.

On the first morning we had two sessions with overview talks, and each subsequent oral session started with an invited talk. Each mini-oral session, chaired by Christian Bohm, was followed by a corresponding poster session. The very nice program was organized by Patrick Le Dû. For the first time we had a significant number of contributions from the fusion community. We will encourage fusion papers at future conferences. A new session covered graphic card programming (GPU), and we had some talks on medical applications and astroparticle physics.

Special efforts were made to stimulate good student contributions. Four awards were given to the best student papers. I would like to thank the people from the scientific advisory committee who conducted hundreds of reviews during two days of the conference, especially Réjean Fontaine and Michael LeVine who chaired the student award committee. We will emphasis these awards even more

be closed on 28 October for the move to Knoxville and will reopen on site.

TRAVELING TO KNOXVILLE, TENNESSEEInformation on Knoxville, Tennessee, hotel accommodations and general

travel information can be found on the conference website www.nssmic.org/2010.Ron Keyser, General Chair of the 2010 NSS MIC RTSD can be reached at ORTEC, 801 South Illinois Avenue, Oak Ridge, TN 37831; Phone: 865-483-2146; Fax: 865-481-2438; E-mail: [email protected]


CO N F E R E N C ES

report on the 17th real-time conference and Beyond

Tony LavietesConference Coordinator/ Computer Room Chair

Christina SandersRegistration Chair

Dora MerelliConference Promotion


CO N F E R E N C ES

in the future to encourage students to make outstanding presentations.

A highlight of the Real-Time Conference is the presentation of the CANPS prize. It is given to individuals who have made outstanding contributions in the application of computers in nuclear and plasma sciences. This year, the award committee chaired by Jean-Pierre Martin, awarded the prize to Adriano Luchetta for “Remarkable contributions in the development of plasma control systems for nuclear fusion devices.” For details please see the section “FUNCTIONAL COMMITTEES: AWARDS” in this newsletter.

The social program included a reception at the Museum of Science in Lisbon. This was a very special event since the museum was closed to the general public during that evening, so the whole museum was ours. On the second evening we had a musical show, featuring a Gregorian Choir and a traditional Portuguese student group from the institute.

The excursion went to Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point of mainland Europe, and to the beautiful cities of Cascais and Sintra.

A special issue of IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science (TNS) will be published to cover eligible contributions from RT10. Senior editor is Sascha Schmeling (CERN).

The 18th Real-Time Conference will take place in spring 2012. We follow our traditional cycle of Asia-Europe-North America for meeting venues, and with RT09 in Beijing, China and RT10 in Lisbon, Portugal, RT12 will be hosted by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California, chaired by Sergio Zimmermann. For RT14 we will most likely go to Japan.

Stefan Ritt, chair of the Computer Applications in Nuclear and Plasma Science Technical Committee, can be reached at the Paul Scherrer Institute, CH-5232 Villigen, Switzerland. Phone +41 56 310 3728; E-mail: [email protected]

Stefan RittCANPS TC Chair

2010 Real Time Conference attendees


I am delighted to begin my report for this Newsletter with some good news.

At the June TAB meeting, Bill Moses was elected Chair of the IEEE Conference Committee for a two-year term beginning in January 2011. As we all know, Bill is a Past President of our Society and has been heavily involved with many of our NPSS conferences. He has done much to improve the way they are planned, organized and run, and Bill’s expertise will certainly go far in helping to bring some of those same ideas to other IEEE conferences; he will also impact the way the IEEE Conference Committee is run. We congratulate Bill on winning this election and wish him well in his new and important position.

As usual, there has been a great deal of activity with our conferences which you can read about in the Newsletter, but I would like to mention a few other upcoming developments that you will be hearing about soon. We are currently in the final stages of reviewing our Society’s Constitution and By-laws, which we are required to do every five years in order to comply with IEEE’s rules, and to determine whether there are any changes we feel should be made in order to better serve our Society and its members. A committee headed by our Vice-President, Bob Reinovsky, has been working on this revision since the beginning of the year, and thanks to a great deal of dedicated work by Committee member Steve Gold and others, there is now a very close to final draft that will be up for approval by AdCom at our November meeting this year. After approval by a two-thirds majority of AdCom, the revised version will be published in this Newsletter to solicit comments or suggestions by the full society membership. Unless there are strong objections by the overall membership, the new revision will be submitted to TAB for final approval.

Therefore, you should expect to see the revised version of our Constitution and By-Laws published in the Society Newsletter either late this year or early next year.

Another development that was reported at the last TAB meting was a proposal to start a new publication called IEEE Technology News (ITN). It would be an online-only publication that would be published weekly and consist of a collection of 20 relatively short articles on hot topics in new technologies written for the non-expert, and aimed at practitioners who want to keep current in areas of technology outside their own field (sort of a “What’s New” newsletter). It would be offered free to everyone and could in principle be ready for its first release as early as next year.

I would also like to report that the proposal I mentioned in the March Newsletter regarding having IEEE automatically submit papers published in Xplore to PubMed for authors that are required to do so because they are funded by NIH, was not approved by the IEEE Product Services and Publications Board. You may recall that our NMISC Committee, and also AdCom, passed motions supporting this proposal, and a letter was sent to the Chair of the PSPB asking that this procedure be implemented. The proposal was not accepted, so it will continue to be the responsibility of the individual authors to submit their papers to PubMed within one year of being published in IEEE if required. We are hopeful that IEEE will consider improving its PubMed submission policy in the future.

Finally, I would like to comment briefly on the reorganization of the IEEE Board of Directors that I mentioned in the last Newsletter. The initial proposal for this reorganization was not approved by the

Catch 22

How can I know what I think till I see what I say.

Old lady quoted by E.M. Forster

SO C I ET Y G E N E R A L B U S I N ESS

Craig WoodyNPSS President

President’s report

W W W . I E E E - N P S S . o r G 11

Anybody home?

We can never be quite sure whether we are competing for something that doesn’t exist, or winning a competition in which no one else is competing.Adam Phillips

Albe LarsenNPSS Secretary and Newsletter Editor

Secretary’s report



current Board, and there has not been any additional information or follow up that the Society Presidents have been made aware of. However, if anything more develops regarding this proposal we will let you know.

So, I hope you all have been having a wonderful summer, and I look forward

to seeing many of you at our conferences in the fall.

Craig Woody, NPSS President, can be reached at the Physics Dept. Bldg. 510C, Brookhaven National Lab., Upton, NY 11973; Phone: 631-344-2752; Fax: 631-344-3253; E-mail: [email protected].

the IEEE NPSS Administrative Committee met at the Sheraton

Denver Downtown on July 24th, following the conclusion of a highly successful NSREC meeting. See Dan Fleetwood’s report under the Technical Committee Reports below for conference details. Ed Lampo, our treasurer, reported that the 2010 budget forecast shows us slightly ahead of projection, with most prior year conferences closed. The Network Shop is now submitting its reports differently and an amortization scheme with a fund for replacing equipment has been developed. More detail is expected in November.

TAB approved creation of a new journal, IEEE Transactions in Terahertz Science and Technology, with MTT as the sponsor. Some of our authors may contribute papers there, but we will continue to publish appropriate material in this area. TAB also approved a $500 charge to Operating Units (OUs) for technically cosponsored conferences that do not publish with IEEE. It is expected that the conference will pay this fee to the OU, but the OU can waive the fee at its discretion and pay it itself. This only applies to conferences in the IEEE data base. If a conference isn’t in the data base it is not allowed to use the IEEE logo.

More IEEE publications are being taken outside IEEE for design and printing. This is allowed, but there is a transition fee so the IEEE Pubs can recover lost revenue. Much of the problem relates

to IEEE’s decision to outsource layout and design, leaving an IEEE middleman to deal with customers and the external design firms. As we found, this is a cumbersome, inefficient way to do business.

IEEE is also proposing an electronic membership where all newsletters, journals and other publications such as Spectrum would only be received electronically. This is now offered in certain developing countries as a trial. The goal is to offer this across IEEE by 2013.

TEChNICAL COMMITTEESThe Real-Time Conference sponsored by CANPS in Beijing, 2009 is closed and was a success in every way. The 2010 conference in Lisbon is over and was also huge success with one of the highest attendance records for this conference, an excellent technical program and several well-received workshops. The conference was cosponsored by the Fusion Institute and chaired by Professor Carlos Varandas. The reception at the Science Museum was exceptional and the other social events pleasant. See more in Stefan Ritt’s report under Conferences.

Dennis Youchison reports that Fusion Technology is gearing up for its 2011 meeting in Chicago with Charles Neumeyer as General Chair. J.-P. Allain will organize a minicourse program. The conference is collocated with ICOPS


Far from PC

Women are like parking places. The good ones are taken and

the rest are handicapped.Unknown



and, except for the banquets and separate technical programs, all fees and so on will be the same for both conferences. There will again be a special issue of TPS containing reviewed papers from the 2011 conference. Wayne Meier will chair the 2013 conference. The meeting will be held in San Francisco but the dates and venue are yet to be determined.

Nuclear Medical Imaging and Sciences along with Radiation Instrumentation and Plasma Sciences have submitted candidates for their elected technical committees. They, along with the Radiation Effects, Radiation Instrumentation and Particle Accelerator Technical Committees will also nominate candidates for AdCom. Watch for ballots and be sure to vote! Robert Miyaoka also submitted a report to be found under Technical Committees with more information on the upcoming NSS/MIC/RTSD conference. Both MIC and NSS have worked on improving their program organization and the poster area for 2010 should be much better. MIC will have some parallel oral sessions but they have worked hard to avoid paper conflicts. Attendance is expected to be about the same as in Orlando last year.

Stan Schriber reported that Sandra Biedron is working on nominations for the AdCom seat she will vacate at the end of the year. Stan also noted that TRIUMF generously absorbed a part of the 2009 PAC financial loss. In every other way PAC 2009 was a great success. Planning for the 2011 PAC, in New York City, chaired by Thomas Roser of BNL, is well under way. AdCom will hold its first 2011 meeting just prior to the start of PAC 2011. IPAC2011, in the fall, has asked for technical cosponsorship by NPSS and have also asked for support for a Women in Engineering program sponsored by NPSS.

The Pulsed Power Technical Committee chair, Edl Schamiloglu, reports that

there will be an issue of TPS with about 45 papers from the 2009 Pulsed Power conference held in Washington, DC last year. In 2011 the conference will be held in Chicago the week before the ICOPS/ SOFE conference and in 2013 ICOPS and Pulsed Power will once again combine to present a PPST conference in San Francisco. The Electromagnetic Launch Conference (EML) was also discussed as were the Megagauss and the EAPPC/BEAMS conferences.Dan Fleetwood reports on the 2010 NSREC in his Technical Committee report. Attendance was high; there was excellent attendance at the short course and a very large exhibit with 53 booths and 51 exhibitors. 2013 will be the 50th anniversary of NSREC so keep an eye open for special events. Dan also noted that when the conference was held in Quebec City in 2009, there was a spike in international attendance. Steve Gold presented John Luginsland’s report on Plasma Science and Applications. The 2010 conference, chaired by Mounir Laroussi was held in Norfolk, VA and had a few more attendees than budgeted. ICOPS attendees are still having problems obtaining visas, which reduced attendance. Exhibitors were down but that may be due to meeting alone. In 2009 they had a combined meeting with fusion. The 2012 conference will be in Edinburgh.

FUNCTIONAL COMMITTEESCraig Woody reported on behalf of Awards Chair Bill Moses that Ned Birdsall will be the first recipient of the Curie Award, an IEEE Field Award endowed by NPSS last year. (See p. 26) We are proud to have one of our own be the recipient of this award, selected from a large and distinguished group of candidates. The award will be presented in 2011. The 7-member committee comprises members of NPSS, DEI, EMB and IM and terms are one year with a three-year service limit.

W W W . I E E E - N P S S . o r G 13

Neither here nor there

We never would have got to here if we wouldn’t have gone there.Stephen Walkom


Shades of belief

A likely impossibility is always preferable to an unconvincing possibility.Aristotle

Membership recruitment is down from the corresponding period in 2009, but there have also been fewer conferences. Member retention is the key focus now.

Of our 19 chapters, 17 are active according to Steve Gold, Chapters, Local Activities and Distinguished Lecturers liaison, and one chapter is slated for dissolution later this year. So far in 2010 five Distinguished Lecturers have made presentations. Three of these have used the NPSS travel reimbursement possibility.

Our Fellow Evaluation Committee, now chaired by Jane Lehr, received a large number of applications—18 in total. The reviews and rankings took longer than necessary because of web problems and because of less than ideal communication from IEEE concerning the revamped evaluation process. However, the committee conclusion was that we received high-quality nominations.

The Finance Committee, headed by Hal Flescher, is considering issues related to publication of material from technically cosponsored conferences. Is the material valuable to Xplore? Is it created in a timely way to have some advantage for us? How should guest editors be selected and evaluated to maintain IEEE-level quality? A dedicated Publications Committee has been suggested for each technically cosponsored conference that publishes with IEEE.

Publications chair, Paul Dressendorfer, reminded us of last year’s survey request for more review articles. Radiation Effects will use its short course instructors to write journal review articles. Other possibilities are special issues consisting of reviews or surveys of the technical areas covered by the journal. Review articles will be reviewed no less stringently than any other journal papers.

Carmen Menoni, a VP of the Photonics Society, talked about the on-line

Photonics Journal. This had been discussed in the Photonics AdCom for several years. Their initial proposal to IEEE included open access. They dropped this as IEEE objected. They were not allowed to transition one of their print journals either, so a new journal using fast turnaround was created. The review quality is the same, but there is no copy editing. It takes about four weeks for the review process and then about two weeks for IEEE to get it online and into Xplore. There is a one-column layout for which there is a Latex template, but use of the template is not required. There are page charges above 10 pages for contributed papers and above 14 pages for invited papers. The acceptance rate is ~45%. If authors want open access to their papers there is a fee of $2500. They also have added more reviewers than for their paper journals to ensure rapid response and have a good system in place for controversial reviews. They have also initiated Breakthroughs in Photonics—a set of two-page articles that review new findings in different areas.

Peter Clout reminded us that conferences start early in 2011 so the new 2011-2012 brochure is needed early in the year. If you have great pictures of appropriate experiments, send them to Peter ([email protected]). Remember that the higher the megabytes the better the reproduction. Be sure to provide accurate titles. Peter would also like to see more trifold leaflets to include with meeting materials. What part of our activities would you like to see documented in this way? Let either Peter or me know.

Peter has also done some nice analysis of membership retention and there has been, despite the saw tooth ups and downs, a net growth of 3-4% over the last year.Ron Keyser reports that the Germanium 325 standard remains in limbo and the



Mismatch

All science would be superfluous if the outward appearance and the

essence of things directly coincided.Karl Marx

CZT standard working group is stalled. Can you help?

Christoph Ilgner reports that a GOLD session has been organized for Knoxville. GOLD members will receive an invitation with their registration packets. A template is being developed for our other conferences, but each conference needs to designate a GOLD host from that community. A mentoring program is also being designed.

Jean-Luc Leray noted the need for a membership directory to help locate people in regions 8–10. He also reported for Patrick LeDû some of the RT2010 data and provided an update on the 2011 ANIMMA conference that NPSS technically cosponsors. The conference will be held in Ghent, Belgium the last week in May, 2011.

Craig Woody reported on the progress of the Constitution and Bylaws Revision Committee in the report above. Be sure to read the C&B when it appears.

LIAISON REPORTSRay Larsen reported extensively on the Community (Electrical) Solutions group that was formed from the Humanitarian Technology Challenge effort initiated by the UN and Vodaphone Corporation through the IEEE. The group now has 35 members, about 60% of whom are IEEE members. The other members are from Nongovernmental Aid Organizations (NGOs), industry, non-IEEE academia and consultants. Their focus is in bringing off-the-grid electricity to remote communities that have no electricity and where dangerous things such as kerosene lamps are used for light. The model includes a business plan that allows for local control and maintenance of systems and, ultimately, ownership. The committee is much in agreement that teaching someone how to earn a living has far greater long-term value that providing

charity. Their first target is Haiti where 80% of the population had no electricity before the January 12th earthquake.

Sandra Biedron reported the IEEE-USA DOD Science and Technology position statement has been approved by the committee and is now working its way up the chain for final approval and release. The DOE report, Accelerators for America’s Future, was completed with input from several of our AdCom and TC members and can be seen at http://www.acceleratorsamerica.org/files/Report.pdf.

Peter Clout attended the ICALEPCS International Scientific Advisory Committee meeting in Versailles. Paul Vanarsdall gave a very positive report on NPSS operations based on attending our March AdCom meeting and retreat and other discussions with Peter. An MOU for technical cosponsorship of ICALEPCS 2011 is in process. The 2013 meeting will be held in San Francisco.

Jim Schwank is replacing Ron Schrimpf as RADECS co-liaison with Hal Flescher. RADECS has decided to develop its own paper submittal and registration software rather than use that developed by Bo Yu. Their 2010 conference is in Langenfeld, Austria, 2011 in Seville, Spain; 2012 in either Sardinia or France and 2013 in Oxford, UK. Hal is working to ensure that technical cosponsorship MOUs are in place for these meetings. They are also working through publications issues to ensure that proceedings are issued in a timely way and that papers submitted to TNS are also timely and that the review process is clear.

Allan Johnston reported on Women in Engineering. The focus continues to be in academia, but NSS/MIC and PAC have WIE functions that are well organized and well attended.

Our Biometrics Council liaison, David Abe, has suggested that we no longer support this council. Its interests are not



W W W . I E E E - N P S S . o r G 15


Robert MiyaokaNMIS Technical Committee Chair

in alignment with ours. Our authors are free to offer papers to the Biometrics Compendium.

ADCOM ACTIONSIt was moved, seconded and passed thatl We technically cosponsor IPAC 2011,

the International Particle Accelerator Conference;

l We support a WIE function at IPAC 2011;

l That we withdraw from the Biometrics Council.

Our next AdCom meeting will be held on Saturday, November 6th in the Knoxville Convention Center, Knoxville, TN.Albe Larsen, NPSS Secretary and Newsletter Editor, can be reached at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, MS66, 2575 Sand Hill Road, Menlo Park, CA 94025; Phone +1 650 926-2748; Fax: +1 650 726-0368; E-mail: [email protected].

T EC h N I C A L CO M M I T T E ES

G reetings! As summer winds down for many of us it means that the IEEE

Medical Imaging Conference is right around the corner. This year’s meeting will be held in the Knoxville Convention Center with David Townsend serving as MIC Chair and Charles Watson serving as MIC Deputy Chair. Some of the plans for this year's conference include: four joint sessions with NSS, one of which will also involve room temperature semiconductor devices (RTSD); three to four refresher courses planned for the mornings (initial topics include MR basics and CT reconstruction); an MR/PET workshop on the Monday before the MIC officially begins; and, finally two plenary sessions are scheduled. Two excellent plenary speakers have been confirmed for the first session. The first speaker is Professor Gregory Sorensen of Harvard Medical School/Massachusetts General Hospital, a leader in MR/PET related research. He will give us a clinical perspective on MR/PET applications. The second speaker is Professor Anthony Campbell, Department of Infection, Immunity and Biochemistry, Cardiff University, a widely known expert on bioluminescence. He will speak on

“Life That Sparkles.” Professor Campbell is also a Director of the Darwin Centre in Wales and will give a presentation on the inspiration of Charles Darwin at the MIC banquet on Friday. During the second plenary session we will honor the Hoffman Medical Imaging Scientist and Hasegawa Young Investigator award winners. In addition to giving tribute to our MIC award recipients, we will also recognize Drs. David Townsend and Ronald Nutt for winning the IEEE Medal for Innovations in Healthcare Technology. They are the first recipients of this prestigious award. In bookkeeping for the conference, the final numbers on MIC submissions were 603 abstracts submitted with 538 accepted. Of the 538 submissions accepted, 88 are MIC orals; 10 are joint session orals; and 440 are MIC posters. To allow for more oral presentations, the organizers are also planning to have some parallel oral sessions.

Please make your plans soon to attend the meeting.

In addition to planning for the MIC meeting, you should have received


Nuclear medical and Imaging Sciences



your ballots for this year’s NMISC Committee elections and also for election of an NMISC AdCom representative. This year's candidates for five NMISC Committee positions are: Adam Alessio, Freek Beekman, Jennifer Huber, Jinhun Joung, Andrew Reader, Andres Santos, and Arkadiusz Sitek. If you are interested in becoming more involved in the oversight of the MIC meeting please consider running for an NMISC council position. Five individuals are elected each year for 3-year terms. For more information please go to the NMISC webpage (http://ewh.ieee.org/soc/nps/nmisc/). This year's candidates for one AdCom position are Alberto Del Guerra and Georges El Fakhri. Both will make excellent representatives and I hope that you will vote in the election.

Now on to more news on upcoming MIC meetings: In 2011, the meeting will be heading back to Europe to Valencia, Spain. David Townsend is the General Chair, Alberto Del Guerra will serve as MIC Chair and Juan José Vaquero will serve as MIC Deputy Chair. Valencia is Spain’s third largest city, situated on the eastern Mediterranean coast, with many cultural and recreational attractions. The meeting will be held in the Valencia

Conference Center and the neighboring Sorollo and Hilton Hotels. In 2012, the IEEE NSS/MIC meeting will be held in Anaheim, California. Tom Lewellen is the General Chair, Vesna Sossi will serve as MIC Chair and Alex Converse will serve as MIC Deputy Chair. The meeting will be held at the Disneyland Hotel. Along with having excellent facilities to host the meeting, the Disneyland Hotel will be undergoing a major renovation that will be complete for the 2012 meeting. In 2013, the IEEE NSS/MIC meeting will be held in Asia for the first time. Host city for the meeting will be Seoul, Korea. The meeting will be held at the Coex Convention Center within the Coex Mall. This site will provide us with plenty of space to host the meeting as well as offering many tourism opportunities. The General Chair for the meeting will be Hee-Joung Kim and the MIC Chair will be Jae Sung Lee.The site selection process for the 2014 IEEE NSS/MIC meeting is well underway with three of the front running cities being Denver, Colorado; Seattle, Washington; and Albuquerque, New Mexico. Robert Miyaoka can be reached at University of Washington, Department of Radiology, Box 357987, Seattle, WA, 98195-7987 USA; Phone: +1 206-543-2084; Fax: +1 206-543-8356; E-mail: [email protected].

Who won?

I had sentimental rhetoric on my side and no evidence, and he

had the evidence and no sentimental rhetoric.

Adam Gopnik


Jennifer HuberMIC Short Course Director

Charles WatsonMIC Deputy Program Chair

W W W . I E E E - N P S S . o r G 17


Stan SchriberPAST TC Chair

ChairStan Schriber serves as the Chair of the Particle Accelerator Science and Technology (PAST) Technical Committee (TC) from 2009 January 1 until 2012 December 31.

OrganizationThe PAST TC has been organized with the following responsibilities. As the past PAST Chair, Ilan Ben-Zvi (BNL) is in charge of the Fellows and Awards subcommittee; responsible for nominating our PAST award candidates and fellows. As the former past PAST Chair, Bruce Brown (FNAL) is in charge of our Web and Communications subcommittee; responsible in part for our PAST TC web site. Our elected PAST TC member for IEEE-NPSS AdCom, Sandra Biedron (ANL), is chair of our Nominating, Education and Outreach (includes our interests in Women in Science and Engineering) subcommittee; responsible in part for nominating members who could be elected to serve on the IEEE-NPSS AdCom. And finally, Paul Schmor (TRIUMF) is chair of our Conferences subcommittee.

ConferencesThere has been a significant change to the IEEE-NPSS and APS-DPB jointly sponsored Particle Accelerator Conferences (PACs) held in North America. These will no longer be held every odd year, alternating with the EPAC conferences held in Europe in even years as in the past. A new series of international particle accelerator conferences has been initiated with agreements between Europe, Asia and North America. The first international conference IPAC’10 was held in Kyoto, Japan in May 2010, the second will be held in San Sebastian, Spain in September of 2011 and the third will be held in New

Orleans, Louisiana in May of 2012. The cycle will then continue every year in the spring, repeating the order of Asia, Europe, North America, etc. IEEE-NPSS and APS-DPB will cosponsor only the IPAC conferences held in North America. In addition, because three years is considered to be too long a period of time between North American conferences, we will continue the PAC conferences as regional conferences midway between the IPACs that will be held in North America, except for PAC’11 which was planned before the IPACs were formalized. So, there will be an accelerator conference held in North America every 18 months with the regional PACs held in the fall and the IPACs held in the spring—IPAC’12 spring 2012, PAC’13 fall 2013, IPAC’15 spring 2015, PAC’16 fall 2016, etc. All PACs and IPACs held in North America will be cosponsored by IEEE-NPSS and APS-DPB.

PAC’09The twenty-third Particle Accelerator Conference, PAC’09, took place at the Hyatt Regency Vancouver and Fairmont Vancouver in downtown Vancouver, the largest city in British Columbia, Canada, from Monday to Friday, 2009 May 4th to 8th. The meeting was attended by 1327 delegates from 31 countries (47% North America, 33% Europe, 18% Asia and 2% other). In addition to regular delegates there were 74 registered industrial exhibitors, raising the total attendance to 1401. The conference was held under the auspices of the two professional societies that oversee and make holding the PAC series of conferences possible, namely the Division of Physics of Beams within APS and the Nuclear and Plasma Sciences Society within IEEE. As host of the conference, Canada’s National Laboratory


Shape up or…

The real message from America on this and almost every other thing is: Be like us or we’ll punish you.Daphne Bramham

Particle Accelerator Science And technology News


for Particle and Nuclear Physics, TRIUMF, is especially thanked for their many contributions and assistance both prior to and during the conference.

The opening plenary session on Monday morning was held in the Fairmont Vancouver, and thereafter the conference moved to the Hyatt Regency for the remainder of the week; the two hotels are at opposite corners of a major street intersection. This unusual scheduling of venues provided the maximum possible floor space for delegates in the opening and closing sessions, while allowing the valued industrial exhibitors to occupy the largest ballroom space Monday through Thursday. These two hotels, in their vibrant downtown setting, were an ideal location for information sharing and discussions among the interdisciplinary participants of the accelerator community, as well attendees of the 28 satellite meetings. What the statistics above do not capture was the vitality of the meeting: several standing-room-only orals sessions, the throng at the enthusiastic and energetic poster sessions, and the myriad technical conversations – all of these are indicators of the strength and creativity of our field.

PAC’09 continued the practice begun with PAC’07 of offering reduced registration fees to members of the APS, EPS and IEEE as an incentive for joining these professional societies. In addition, PAC’09 offered substantially reduced conference registration fees to retirees and students.

As at previous conferences in the series, young scientists from all over the world were encouraged to attend. The total student attendance was 148. Of these, the attendance of 51 was made possible by sponsorship from AAPS, Argonne National Laboratory, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Diversified Technologies, Thomas Jefferson National Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National

Laboratory, and MDS Nordion. A single scholarship was sponsored by the European Physical Society (EPS-AG). The student grants were administered by Stanley Yen, TRIUMF. On Sunday afternoon May 3rd, a special student poster session was held to allow young researchers to interact with each other and to provide a forum for reviewing their work by peers in the community. The posters were presented in the beautiful and elegant Fairmont Pacific Ballroom. Two cash awards and two honorable mention certificates for best student papers were awarded, sponsored by PAC’09.

Paul Schmor, AAPS and TRIUMF, Chair of the PAC Organizing Committee (OC) was unable to open the conference due to the sudden and tragic onset of a life-threatening illness two weeks prior to the meeting. Shane Koscielniak, TRIUMF, opened the conference in Schmor’s absence. Shane noted that starting the conference without Paul was like a symphony orchestra without its conductor at the podium. Following the conference, Paul made an astounding recovery and was back on his feet in a matter of months. Michael Turner, University of Chicago, opened the scientific program with a presentation framed by the rhetorical question Why Accelerators? Nicholas Walker, DESY, gave the closing presentation Progress Towards the International Linear Collider. Two hundred and two invited and contributed oral presentations of very high quality were made during the week.

An excellent scientific program was organized by the Scientific Program Committee (SPC) chaired by Shane Koscielniak. It spanned five days, with scientific plenary sessions Monday morning and Friday afternoon. Also in plenary session were the Awards Ceremony and a special session on applications of accelerators to environment and security, and project



Today too?

He [H.L. Mencken] let a good deal of wind out of the country’s

fat stomach. Today the national flatulence is of another order—less

the acute pains from eating too much at Rotary luncheons,

more the large retchings of a persistent emptiness.

New York Times (1934)

W W W . I E E E - N P S S . o r G 19


management; all held on Thursday morning. Three parallel oral sessions were held the rest of the week, with eight poster sessions scheduled throughout the week. The scientific program boasted 116 invited papers, 86 contributed oral presentations, and more than 1560 poster presentations, and 1671 contributions are published in the proceedings.

An industrial exhibition (intermixed with coffee break areas and surrounded by poster areas) took place during the first three days of the conference. Seventy-four companies presented their high technology products and services to the delegates in an excellent atmosphere conducive to discussions and negotiations. Their participation enhanced the scope of the conference. The industrial exhibit was coordinated by Remy Dawson, TRIUMF.

The Louis Costrell Awards Session was a highlight of the conference. Satoshi Ozaki of Brookhaven National Laboratory received the APS Robert R. Wilson Prize; Ryochi Miyamoto of BNL received the APS Award for outstanding doctoral thesis research in beam physics. Two IEEE-NPSS (PAST) awards went to Chan Joshi of University of California, Los Angeles, for leadership in development of laser and particle-driven plasma accelerators, and to Kiyomi Seiya of Fermi National Laboratory for successfully implementing slip stacking of proton batches into the Fermilab Main Injector. The IEEE-NPSS (PAST) doctoral student award went to Efthymios Kallos of Queen Mary University, London, for advances in wakefield accelerators using multiple electron bunches. The US Particle Accelerator School awards went to Yoshiharu Mori of Kyoto University for contributions to FFAG design and construction, and to John Lewellen of Argonne National laboratory for his contributions to high-brightness electron beam source design. Furthermore, John Fox, SLAC; Peter Kneisel, TJNAF; Sekazi Mtingwa, MIT;

Triveni Rao, BNL; Andrei Seryi, Stanford University; and Vladimir D. Shiltsev, Fermilab; were announced as newly elected APS-DPB Fellows. Ilan Ben-Zvi, BNL was announced as newly elected IEEE-NPSS Fellow relevant to the field of particle accelerators.

Due to the overwhelming attendance, the conference banquet was staged simultaneously at two venues, the Hyatt Regency and Fairmont Vancouver. Carefully placed lighting gave an atmospheric ambience that provided the perfect backdrop to the two string trios that provided a calming musical counterpoint to the meal and animated after-dinner talk. The string trios were a special initiative of Paul Schmor, with a tip of the hat to the rich musical traditions of the Mennonite families of the neighbouring B.C. Fraser Valley and Paul’s childhood in Saskatchewan.

As in previous years when the PAC has been hosted by TRIUMF, a tour of the laboratory was offered. On Saturday May 9th, one hundred and seventy five conference delegates took the tour which included an explanatory welcome in the auditorium, the traditional salmon barbeque, and a fifteen-exhibit tour around the lab that highlighted the ISAC program accelerators (RFQ, DTL and SC linac) and experimental detectors (TRINAT, GRIFFIN, DRAGON, TITAN, TUDA, TIGRESS and EMMA), the technology transfer program through AAPS and Nordion, and high-energy physics data distribution from the CERN Tier 1 hub (motivated in large part by ATLAS Canada). Although there was a minor glitch with the buses, the participants left happy and satisfied. The tour was organized by Marco Marchetto, TRIUMF.The main medium for the proceedings of this conference is publication on the JACoW site (www.jacow.org). There will

Bare facts

The ladies of the Plum Street Church have discarded clothes of all kinds. Call at 44 North Plum Street and inspect them.The New Yorker (1925)



be no hard copy volumes. The processing of the electronic files of contributions prior to, during and after the conference, was achieved by a dynamic team composed of 17 “seasoned experts” and volunteers from the Joint Accelerator Conferences Website ( JACoW) collaboration. Particular thanks are due to local team leaders Martin Comyn and Jana Thomson; the JACoW chair and deputy-chair, Volker Schaa and Christine Petit-Jean-Genaz, and JACoW team members from other laboratories in Asia, Europe and the U.S. Thanks to the dedicated, professional job accomplished by this team, a pre-press version of these proceedings was published less than five working days after the conference. The final version is published at the JACoW site one month after the conference.Special thanks on behalf of the attendees, sponsoring agencies and the host institute go to all who helped in numerous ways before, during and after the conference. From the point of view of the LOC chair and acting OC chair, the conference whistled by as smoothly and speedily as a luxury express train; the French Train a Grande Vitesse or Japanese Shinkansen come to mind. The success of PAC’09 can be attributed to the efforts of the OC, the SPC, and the LOC chaired by Yuri Bylinsky, Sandi Miller, Lynne DeCaire, Dana Giasson and Shirley Reeve. The dedicated and enthusiastic efforts of the LOC members and a small army of TRIUMF volunteers made the conference a resounding success. Sandi Miller, the conference coordinator, worked tirelessly behind the scenes before, during and after the conference. Special mention is made of Gordon Roy who organized the high-quality audio-visual infrastructure—including CTV broadcast of the opening proceedings into an overflow salon—and of Nicole Bienvenu who edited no less than 5000 conference photographs into a photo-montage for the banquet and

Tunnel vision

The irony is that diversity now means only race, colour

and ethnicity—it is no longer about bringing different

perspectives forward.Raymond J. De Souza

closing ceremony. Special mention also to ex-TRIUMF staff Corrie Kost and David Gurd who tirelessly processed the variety of speakers’ slides into commonly displayable formats.

PAC’09 was the last accelerator conference before the start of the international IPAC series and the modified regional version of the traditional North American PAC series. The IPAC conference series starts in May 2010 in Kyoto, Japan, and is followed by PAC’11 in New York City in March 2011. The second IPAC is slated for September 2011 in San Sebastien, Spain. The IPAC has a three-year-cycle and will come to the U.S. for the first time in New Orleans, Louisiana, in May 2012. The organizers of PAC’09 wish these future conferences equal success and a comfortable ride on the express train.

PAC’11Conference DetailsDates: March 28-April 1, 2011

Location: New York Marriott Marquis Hotel, New York, NY

Website: www.bnl.gov/pac11

Host: Brookhaven National Laboratory

Conference Chair: Thomas Roser

Local Organizing CommitteeLocal Organizing Committee Chair: Michael Sivertz

Scientific Program Committee Chair: Vladimir Litvinenko

Editor: Todd Satogata

Co-Editor: Kevin Brown

Conference Secretary: Anna Petway

Industrial Exhibit Coordinator: Doreen Cantelmo

Treasurer: Susan Pankowski

Status of Conference Planning PAC’11 is the latest in the highly successful series of Particle Accelerator



W W W . I E E E - N P S S . o r G 21

Timely observation

In Italy, for 30 years, under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed. But they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo Da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The Cuckoo Clock.Graham Greene


Conferences and also the first regional North American PAC serving accelerator scientists, engineers, and students. The conference will take place from March 28 to April 1, 2011 at the New York Marriott Marquis Hotel in New York City. Brookhaven National Laboratory is hosting PAC’11, and Thomas Roser serves as Conference Chair.The Scientific Program Committee (SPC) for PAC’11 is being chaired by Vladimir Litvinenko. Planned sessions include topics related to Accelerator Technology, Beam Dynamics and EM Fields, Instrumentation and Controls, Light Sources and FELs, Sources and Medium Energy Accelerator, and other related topics. The program also includes a number of tutorials scheduled as the first talk in the morning. Invitation letters have been extended to 60 speakers who were nominated by SPC members and selected based on their expertise. The majority of speakers are from North America but with significant international representation.PAC’11’s contract with the conference hotel, the New York Marriott Marquis, was signed in 2005. PAC’11 has contracted with Freeman Decorating Company to set up the conference exhibit hall and provide signage for the conference. PAC’11 has also contracted with IEEE Meeting & Conference Management (IEEE MCM) to process participant registrations. Advanced participant registrations will be strictly web-based. It is worth noting that the PAC’11 budget was prepared using a conservative estimate for total exhibitors (due to the expected decline in total attendees when compared to prior PACs.) The local organizing committee has assigned one staff person to focus on exhibitor recruitment.

IPAC’12The IPAC’12 budget was estimated for an attendance of 1200. The break-even

attendance would be about 800.The contract for the Convention Center is signed and a down payment paid. There is another stage payment to be made in 2011. These payments are possible because of the loans from APS and IEEE. Requests for support of the student program will start following completion of PAC’11, to avoid confusion.Contracts have been signed with various hotels near the convention center for about 500 rooms per night.Negotiations with the Hilton Riverside New Orleans are underway concerning the OC meeting December 10, 2010. Final details from Vladimir Litvinenko of the PAC’11 SPC which is proposed to be held at the same hotel December 8th and 9th, 2010 will provide information the hotel needs.The LOC is starting to address various issues, such as the poster design, venue for the Chairman’s cocktail party, server arrangements at LSU, etc. An outstanding issue is ensuring that the nominated treasurer is an IEEE member.

PAC’13The Second regional North American Particle Accelerator Conference (PAC’13) will be organized jointly by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) and the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC). The conference will take place September 29–October 4, 2013. The conference will be held in the Pasadena Convention Center. Contracts with the Convention Center and hotels (Pasadena Inn, Sheraton and Hilton) have been signed. Projected attendance is 1,000 and the conference program will be geared toward early career scientists, engineers and students. We plan to offer a number of tutorials on the day before the conference and envision providing limited support to encourage attendance of minorities and students.



Organizing CommitteeConference Chair: Steve Gourlay, LBNL

Scientific Program Chair: Alex Chao, SLAC

Local Organizing Committee Chair: Chan Joshi, UCLA

Conference Secretary: “Sam” Vanecek, LBNL

Proceedings Editor: Joe Chew, LBNL

Conference Management: Paula Pair, Centennial Conferences

IPAC’15Conference Chair: Andrew Hutton, TJNAF

Program Chair: Stuart Henderson, ORNL

Date of Conference: May 4-8, 2015

As of this date, we have signed contracts with six major hotels in downtown Richmond, Virginia, all within easy walking or driving distance to the Convention Center, where the conference will be held. The contracts have been approved by IEEE with copies sent to APS/NPSS for review. The City of Richmond has offered to provide transportation between the hotels and the Convention Center at no charge to the conference, depending on the number of rooms picked up at the hotels.

With anticipated attendance of about 1500, the combined number of rooms blocked at the six hotels is approximately 950. The hotels are the Marriott, the Hilton Garden Inn, the Crowne Plaza Richmond Downtown, the DoubleTree

Hotel, the Omni Richmond, and the historic Jefferson Hotel, where the Chairman’s Reception will be held.

The Richmond Convention Center is a state-of-the-art facility. For IPAC 2015 we have reserved 67,549 sq ft for exhibits/posters, 34,437 sq ft for general sessions, plus an additional 37,732 sq ft for parallel and breakout sessions. The contract with the Richmond Convention Center is in the final stages of negotiation with IEEE. We also have reserved an additional 10 small meeting rooms at the Marriott for ancillary events.

The conference is officially registered with IEEE as Conference #17179. Officers have been identified and a Local Organizing Committee has been formed. Fulvia Pilat will be chairing the LOC. A preliminary budget has been drafted and will be submitted to IEEE for approval shortly.

PAC’16The third regional North American Particle Accelerator Conference (PAC’16) will be organized jointly by the Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) and the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (FNAL). The conference will take place in the fall of 2016 and will be held in the Chicago region. Details for this conference are being looked into by the acting Chair for the conference, Marion White of ANL. Projected attendance is 1,000 and the conference program will be geared toward early career scientists, engineers and students.

Stan Schriber can be reached at his home in Eagle, ID 83616 USA; Phone: +1 208 631-8208; E-mail: [email protected]



Found it!

It is a vulgar error to suppose that America was ever discovered.

It was merely detected.Oscar Wilde

W W W . I E E E - N P S S . o r G 23

To each his own

I like hearing myself talk. It is one of my greatest pleasures. I often have long conversations with myself, and I am so clever that sometimes I don’t understand a single word of what I am saying.Oscar Wilde


the 18th IEEE International Pulsed Power Conference will be held in

Chicago, IL June 19-24, 2011. The website is up and running: http://ppc.missouri.edu/index.html and abstract submission will be open in the Fall.

Nominations are now being accepted for the Pulsed Power Science and Technology Committee Awards for 2011.

Edl Schamiloglu, Chair of the Pulsed Power Science and Technology TC, can be reached at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, MSC01 1100, Univ. of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131-0001 USA; Phone: +1 505 277-4423; Fax: +1 505 277-1439; E-mail: [email protected].

Edl SchamilogluPPST Technical Committee Chair

Pulsed Power Science And technology technical committee


Annual Report from the Radiation Effects Committee—July 2010

D an Fleetwood serves as Chairman of the Radiation Effects Steering

Group, which oversees the NSREC Conference.

The IEEE Radiation Effects Committee (REC) held its annual Open Meeting on July 22, 2010, at the Sheraton Denver, Denver, Colorado, during the 2010 Nuclear and Space Radiation Effects Conference (NSREC). The meeting included reports from the chairmen of the 2009 through 2011 NSRECs. In addition, reports were made on the upcoming RADECS 2010 and 2011 conferences (for information on RADECS, please see www.radecs.net).

An election was held during the Open Meeting for Junior Member-at-Large to the Radiation Effects Steering Group (RESG). The RESG welcomes Vincent Pouget of IMS-CMRS as its newly elected Junior Member-at-Large. Vincent joins Mike Xapsos, NASA-GSFC, and Pascale Gouker, MIT Lincoln Lab, who are serving as Senior-Member-at-Large and Member-at-Large, respectively.

During the Open Meeting, Dan presented awards to outgoing Radiation Effects Steering Group members, and announced the General Chairs of the upcoming NSRECs. Kay Chesnut, Boeing, Ken LaBel, NASA-GSFC, Jeff Black, Vanderbilt University, and Robert Ecoffet, CNES, are the General Chairs of the 2011-2014 NSRECs, respectively.

Mark Hopkins, The Aerospace Corporation, 2009 Conference General Chairman, recognized each member of his conference committee with an award plaque. Mark and his team organized an outstanding conference for NSREC at Quebec City, Canada.

Joe Benedetto, Conference General Chair, summarized some statistics from the 2010 conference. A total of 585 people attended the technical sessions, the short course, or both. In addition, we registered 87 attendees for the industrial exhibit session only, for a grand total of 672 attendees. The technical sessions were very strong, with 131 papers presented during the four-day conference (47 oral presentations, 57 posters, 27 data workshop). There were four outstanding presentations during the short course on July 19. A record 53 booths were sold to 51 exhibitors at the 2010 NSREC. Kay Jobe, 2011 Conference General Chair, announced that the Nuclear and Space Radiation Effects Conference will be held on July 25-29, 2011, at the JW Marriott Resort and Spa, Las Vegas, Nevada. The Technical Program Chair will be Robert Reed, Vanderbilt, and Steve McClure, from JPL is organizing the tutorial Short Course. Once again, NSREC 2011 is planning a Poster Session (chaired by Philippe Roche, ST Microelectronics), a Radiation Effects Data Workshop (chaired by Craig Hafer, Aeroflex) and an Industrial Exhibit (chaired by Mike Fitzpatrick, Northrop Grumman). Dale McMorrow, NRL, is handling local arrangements and assembling the social program.Minutes from the REC Open Meeting are available at www.nsrec.com. For the most current information on the Nuclear and Space Radiation Effects Conference, including information on paper submission, please visit this web site.

Daniel M. Fleetwood, RE Chair, can be reached at Vanderbilt University, EECS Department, P.O. Box 92, Station B, Nashville, TN 37235; Phone: +1 615 322-2771; Fax: +1 615 343-6702; E-mail: [email protected]. Teresa Farris: [email protected]


Dan FleetwoodRE Chair, in Suzhou

Teresa FarrisVice-Chairperson of Publicity

Vincent PougetJunior Member-at-Large

Nuclear and Space radiation Effects

W W W . I E E E - N P S S . o r G 25

Political reality

The Americans are our best friends, whether we like it or not.Jean Chrétien (former Canadian PM)

F U N C T I O N A L CO M M I T T E ES


Bill MosesNPSS Awards Committee Chair

NPSS Society Awards &IEEE Marie Sklodowska-Curie Award Nominations are Due January 31, 2011

J anuary 31, which is the submission deadline for both the IEEE Marie

Sklodowska-Curie Award and the NPSS Society level awards, is fast approaching. This is an excellent opportunity to recognize the contributions of a mentor, a colleague, or a student by nominating them for one of these prestigious awards—surely you know somebody who deserves one!

The “Curie Award” is an IEEE Field Award and is among the most prestigious awards in the IEEE hierarchy; the recipient will receive a US $10,000 honorarium, a bronze medal, and a certificate. As this is an IEEE award, it is not restricted to NPSS members. This award recognizes contributions in areas of technology that are associated with nuclear and plasma sciences and engineering. This covers a fairly broad scope of activities, but the unifying themes are ionizing radiation and ionized gases, especially their behavior, measurement and effects. Specific areas include, but are not limited to, radiation instrumentation, radiation effects, nuclear medical imaging, plasma science, pulsed power, particle accelerators, controlled nuclear fusion and computer applications.

Four NPSS Society-level awards are also given annually and all NPSS members are eligible for them. The awards are the Merit Award ($5000), given for scientific and technical achievement; the Early Achievement Award ($3000), given for scientific and technical achievement within the first decade of a career; the Richard F. Shea Award ($5000), given for service to the NPSS, and four Graduate Scholarship Awards ($1500 each).

Nominations for the Curie Award and the Merit, Early Achievement, Graduate Scholarship, and Shea Awards are due on January 31, 2011. There are also a larger number of Technical Committee Awards given each year. Nominations for these are generally due later in the year (typically in the spring), and the next Newsletter article will feature them.

More information on these and other relevant Awards, including submission information and tips for writing a successful award nomination, is available at http://ewh.ieee.org/soc/nps/awards.htm.

Bill Moses, the NPSS Awards Committee chair, can be reached at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Mailstop 55-121, 1 Cyclotron Road, Berkeley, CA 94720; Phone: +1 510 486-4432; Fax: +1 510 486-4768; E-mail: [email protected].

Awards



ChARLES K. (NED) BIRDSALL FIRST CURIE FIELD AWARD RECIPIENTCharles K. (Ned) Birdsall, Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley, was selected as the inaugural recipient for the IEEE Marie Sklodowska-Curie Award. This Technical Field Award is one of the highest awards in the IEEE hierarchy, and recognizes outstanding contributions to the field of Nuclear and Plasma Sciences and Engineering. His citation is “for theoretical investigations and fundamental discoveries involving microwave tubes, electron beam physics and particle-in-cell simulation of plasma physics.” The award, which includes a US $10,000 honorarium, a bronze medal, and a certificate, is to be given at the 2011 IEEE International Conference on Plasma Science ( June 27-30, Chicago, IL).

Ned made a strong impact in the microwave tube industry early on. In the 1950s, he and his collaborators invented the resistive-wall, reactive-wall and rippled-wall amplifiers, as well as the ring-bar traveling-wave tubes that remain in use to this day; he also performed analysis that led to the first multikilowatt TWT at X-band. These significant achievements in industry led to Ned’s election to IEEE Fellow in 1962, at the age of 36.

Ned is one of the founding fathers of many-particle simulation in plasmas. He and his PhD student discovered virtual cathode oscillation, which may well be regarded as the most important theoretical development in diode physics since the discovery of the Child-Langmuir Law. He later led the invention of the Cloud-in-Cell (now usually called Particle-in-Cell) concept, with various methods in removing short wavelength fluctuations due to the use of a few hundred to a few thousand “superparticles” during plasma simulations. His book, Plasma Physics via

Computer Simulation [C. K. Birdsall and A. B. Langdon, McGraw-Hill (1985)], has attained a classic status, with over 2100 citations in Google Scholar, and continues to be cited at an average rate of over 300 citations per year.

In the early 1980s, Ned originated another development, namely, that of bounded-plasma simulation codes. This effort represented a quantum jump in realistic simulations of whole plasma devices, culminating in a series of very powerful and versatile simulation codes that are used worldwide, from fusion (e.g., tokamak edge plasmas), to technologically relevant discharge plasmas (e.g., semiconductor materials processing, lighting, high-power microwave sources and pulsed power systems) as well as teaching. The codes, developed by Ned and his group, are readily available in the public domain, free of charge, graphics included. Users of these codes number in the thousands.

During his long tenure at UC Berkeley, Ned built two groups from scratch: the Plasma Theory and Simulation Group; and the Energy and Resources Group. These two groups have nurtured a large number of PhD students and junior faculty members, quite a few on a veritable “Who’s Who” list of leaders in science and engineering. They include the top experts in their respective fields, major society awards winners, members of the National Academy of Science and National Academy of Engineering, and a Science Advisor to the President.

Ned was also the first recipient of the IEEE Plasma Science and Applications Committee (PSAC) Award, 1988; and the first recipient of the Dawson Award, given at the 2003 International Conference on Numerical Simulation of Plasmas.

Professor Birdsall may be reached at the EECS Department, Cory Hall, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720. E-mail: [email protected].

But make us feel better

Good resolutions are useless attempts to interfere with

scientific laws.Oscar Wilde

Charles K. (Ned) BirdsallFirst Curie Field Award Recipient


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W W W . I E E E - N P S S . o r G 27


2010 COMPUTER APPLICATIONS IN NUCLEAR AND PLASMA SCIENCES AWARDAdriano Luchetta, recipient of the 2010 Computer Applications in Nuclear and Plasma Sciences award, has had a distinguished career in the development of control and data acquisition systems for fusion experiments. His work began with several systems for the RFX experiment where he developed the slow control of the poloidal and toroidal coil power supply systems, among others. He also participated in the control and DAQ development at the Italian Research Council (CNR), and became manager of the scientific staff developing these systems for fusion research. He has been involved in the development of a wide variety of control systems for other experiments as well, including the T2R-Entrap in Stockholm, Sweden. He has taught fundamentals of computer science

at the University of Padua (Padova). He has been part of the ITER CODAC conceptual design and since 2009 has been Project Leader for the ITER Neutral Beam Test Facility control and diagnostics systems. His publications in reviewed journals are many, as are his community contributions including chairing the 3rd IAEA Technical Meeting on Control, Data Acquisition and Remote Participation for Fusion Research.

Citation: “For remarkable contributions in the development of plasma control systems for nuclear fusion devices.”

Jean-Pierre Martin, Chair of the CANPS Award Committee, can be reached at University of Montreal, CP 6128 Succursale Centre-Ville, Montréal, Qc, Canada H3C 3J7; Phone: +1 514-343-7340; Fax: +1 514 343-6215 ; E-mail: [email protected]

Adriano Luchetta2010 CANPS Award recipient

Before you Submit an IEEE Fellow Nomination FormAs a nominator, you initiate the process to nominate a colleague who has made outstanding contributions to the advancement or application of engineering, science and technology. The first thing you need to do is fill out a nomination form. The process of completing the form is not an easy task. You need to check and see if the nominee meets all the requirements, assemble the names of the individuals who will be supporting the nomination and then explain why the nominee’s contributions are worthy of this honor. It is a lot of work. So give yourself plenty of time to do it right. To avoid mistakes, use the following checklist prior to your submission.

1. Meet the deadline. All forms (nomination, reference, endorsement) must be received no later than 1 March. Keep in mind, when you complete a nomination form and submit it very close to the deadline that References and Endorsers need time to complete their form. Waiting until the last minute is not a good idea.

2. Use current forms for the nomination process. Unfortunately, there are times when old forms are submitted, and they cannot be accepted. We strongly encourage you to use the Online Nomination Process. This way there is a guarantee that all the forms (nomination, reference, endorsements) are current.

3. Make sure the nominee is eligible for nomination. The nominee must


And the moral is...

After all, one never trusts anyone that one has deceived.J. Lynn & A. Jay

Fellows committee


Not according to most

You have reached the pinnacle of success as soon as you become

uninterested in money, compliments or publicity.O.A. Battista


be an IEEE Senior Member or IEEE Life Senior Member in good standing (dues must be current) and who has been an IEEE member for five years or more preceding 1 January of the year of elevation. Don’t assume that your colleague holds the correct member grade, that he/she is in good standing, or has met the minimum requirement for membership years. All forms are checked thoroughly and the ones that do not meet the requirements are not accepted. We verify the actual date that the nominee joined IEEE versus the years of service noted on the IEEE membership cards; system validation counts by date joined!

4. Know how to spell the nominee’s name. Many times the nominees' names are misspelled and the first and last name are transposed. Pay special attention to international names with special characters and/or names that are hyphenated. This can cause problems later on in the nomination process. Our system validates the nominee’s name against our IEEE membership database.

5. Check references eligibility. A reference must be an IEEE Fellow or IEEE Life Fellow in good standing with an exception for Region 9 (Refer to instructions for explanation). In addition, verify that your references do not currently serve on Boards or Committees that would make them ineligible to support the nomination. We strongly encourage you to solicit the maximum of eight references rather than five. This way you have a stronger chance of fulfilling the reference requirement in case some references do not qualify.

6. Listing endorsers on the nomination form. When entering a name of an endorser (non-Fellows writing support letters), input the last name, first name and e-mail address in the appropriate fields. If entering the name of a society, corporation, chapter or region, input the information in the “organization name” field and leave the “first name” field blank, then enter the e-mail address for the contact issuing the endorsement.7. Entering e-mail addresses. Input only “one” e-mail address references (IEEE Fellows only) and/or endorsers. Entering multiple e-mail addresses causes system errors. 8. Nominees who are “self-employed” or “retired”. Do not enter anything in the “organization’s name” field. 9. Proposed Citation. This should always begin with the word “FOR”, e.g. for contributions to…; for the development of….10. Printable version. Prior to submitting the nomination form, remember to hit the printable version button and print a copy of the completed nomination form for your records.To nominate a Senior or Life Senior Member for IEEE Fellow, please visit the Fellow Web site at http://www.ieee.org/fellows

Jane Lehr, Chair of the NPSS Fellow Candidate Selection Committee, can be reached at Sandia National Laboratories, P.O. Box 5800, MS1193, Albuquerque, NM 87185-1152 ; Phone: +1 505 844-8554; E-mail: [email protected].


W W W . I E E E - N P S S . o r G 29

m ore than 300 scientists, engineers, and business leaders from several

professional societies visited Capitol Hill on 28-29 April 2010 as part of the fifteenth “Congressional Visits Day,” an annual event sponsored by the Science-Technology-Engineering-Mathematics (STEM) Work Group. Represented by 42 members, ranging from students to retirees, IEEE-USA had the largest single contingent. Participants, usually in small groups, visited the offices of their Senators and Representative to emphasize the impact that research and development makes upon the economy and security of the United States.

While visiting congressional offices, participants emphasized the importance of the nation’s broad portfolio of investments in science, engineering, and technology to promoting our country’s prosperity and innovation. Most importantly, they provided a constituent perspective on the local and national impact of these programs and their significance to their home districts.

The visits were particularly timely this year, because they occurred while the America Competes Act was being considered in the House of Representatives. The legislation was passed by the House soon thereafter and is now being considered by the Senate. Participants also argued strongly for DOD S&T and for strengthened STEM education.

More than 50 percent of all industrial innovation and growth in the United States since World War II can be attributed to advances pioneered through scientific research, with publicly funded R&D the vital foundation for today’s scientific and technological progress. Achievements from federally funded science, engineering, and technology include global environmental monitoring,

lasers, liquid crystal displays, the Internet, among many other scientific and technical advances.

The federal government supports a unique research and education enterprise that fuels the American economy. This enterprise provides the underpinning of high-technology industries and expands the frontiers of knowledge in every field of science. Much of this research is carried out at academic institutions across the country, ensuring knowledge transfer to future generations of scientists, engineers, mathematicians, physicians and teachers. Additionally, technology transfer from academic research adds billions of dollars to the economy each year and supports tens of thousands of jobs.

Other highlights of the two-day event included a series of briefings and talks by Member of Congress and Executive Branch officials, including Dr. Kei Koizumi, Asst. Director for Federal R&D on the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy; Mr. Patrick Clemins, Director of the AAAS R&D Budget and Policy Program; Mr. Dixon Butler, Majority Staff Assistant for the Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies Subcommittee, House Appropriations Committee; and Dr. Tom Baer, Executive Director of the Stanford Photonics Research Institute.

The George E. Brown Award for outstanding leadership in support of Federal R&D was presented during a Capitol Hill reception the first evening to Representative David Wu and Representative Ralph Hall. Both are Members of the House Science Committee. They were recognized for outstanding efforts to advance and promote science, engineering, and technology in Congress. CVD participants also had an informative

OT h E R A R T I C L ES

uS congressional Visits Day 2010

Brendan B. Godfrey



breakfast meeting with Representative Vernon Ehlers.

The Science-Engineering-Technology Work Group is an information network comprising professional, scientific, and engineering societies, institutions of higher learning, and trade associations. The sponsors represent more than one million researchers and professions in


science and engineering. The Work Group is concerned about the future vitality of the U.S. science, mathematics, and engineering enterprise. Additional information concerning Congressional Visits Day can be found on the Web at http://www.setcvd.org. Related IEEE-USA activities are described at http://www.ieeeusa.org/policy/ care/default.asp.Brendan B. Godfrey can be reached by E-mail at [email protected].


By Dennis MeredithFrom Today’s Engineer, July 2010

E ngineer/Author Henry Petroski, in more than a dozen books, has

taken readers on engrossing adventures into subjects ranging from the pencil to collapsing bridges. In his latest book, The Essential Engineer: Why Science Alone Will Not Solve Our Global Problems, Petroski eloquently challenges a fundamental and profound bias in our society—the relegation of engineers and engineering to second-class status among professions.

Even though every manmade object—including the computer on which you read this review—was invented by engineers, they remain all-but-invisible in the media and in the public conscious. For example, an analysis by researchers Deborah Illman and Fiona Clark of two decades of research coverage in The New York Times found that mentions of science and scientists consistently outnumbered by two to one mentions of engineers and engineering.

In The Essential Engineer, Petroski traces the roots of the perceived primacy of science over engineering, declaring that

…our Western Platonic bias has it that ideas are superior and prerequisite to things. Hence, scientists who deal in ideas, even ideas

about things, tend to be viewed as superior to engineers who deal directly in things. This point of view has no doubt contributed to the mistaken conclusion that science must precede engineering in the creative process.

In America, the origins of the science-before-engineering bias arose in the 1940s, when science administrator Vannevar Bush promulgated a simplistic linear model of science and engineering “that put research before development in name, status, fact, and deed.”

Petroski demonstrates the fallacy of this model by pointing out that technologies including the steam engine, powered flight and rockets “provide incontrovertible evidence for technology leading science. Basic research, in short, has long been suggested and motivated by and intertwined with technological development–and often has been led by it.”

In short, he writes, R&D could just as well be D&R, and “both R&D and D&R are really linked segments of a long and continuing line of interdependent activities and results. Perhaps we should speak of R&D&R, or even longer strings of D’s and R’s, as if they were part of an industrial genome.”

“Science is a tool of engineering,” writes Petroski, “and as no one claims that the

A champion of Engineering makes an Eloquent case

That’s right

The purpose of every physicist is to prove yourself wrong as soon

as possible.Richard Feynman

W W W . I E E E - N P S S . o r G 31


chisel creates the sculpture, so no one should claim that science makes the rocket. Relying on nothing but scientific knowledge to produce an engineering solution is to invite frustration at best and failure at worst.”

What’s more, he writes,”…engineering and technology often precede science, because so many instruments and devices are needed to carry out the experiments essential to making scientific observations and testing scientific hypotheses.”

The media in general, and not just The New York Times, have done their part to minimize the importance of engineers, writes Petroski who suggests that “…as a way of dismissing their individuality…that engineers are often subsumed by careless journalists and layperson into the general rubric of scientist.”

Petroski also addresses the interchangeable use of “engineers” and “scientists” in newspaper headlines, asking “…could it be promulgated—if unwittingly—by science writers and reporters in the media whose members have overwhelmingly studied science rather than engineering in college?”

One problem, points out Petroski, is that too many of engineering’s accomplishments are “underground, behind architectural facades and associated with other professions.” Another problem is that when engineers are placed front and center in media

coverage, it too often tends to be in the context of disaster.

The Essential Engineer is far from a negative screed, though. Petroski deftly describes the optimistic, challenging, rewarding nature of engineering, declaring that “The design of engineering structures is a creative process in the same way that paintings and novels are the product of creative minds. ” He writes that

Scientists also warn us of the entropic disasters associated with climate change, asteroid strikes, and the like, but warnings are not solutions—nor are they necessarily a death knell. It will be the optimistic engineers who hear the warnings not as doomsday scenarios but as calls to tackle significant problems.

And as for the complexity of engineering’s challenges, Petroski emphasizes that the profession entails more than a rote designing of widgets:

The engineering of things is “pervaded by choice,” something that cannot be easily said about science or even engineering science, to which the natural and made world are givens. Whatever scientists may wish, they cannot credibly propose a theory of motion that does not comport with the facts of the universe.

In a declaration that might surprise many unfamiliar with engineering, Petroski cites its connection with humanities, declaring that “… it behooves scientists and engineers to be connected with the

cultures of the humanities and social sciences. Solutions to global problems must take into account matters of humanity and society…. The goal, after all, is not science and engineering for their own sake, but for the sake of the planet and its inhabitants.”To demonstrate the richness of engineering, Petroski takes the reader through a tour of technologies as seen through the eyes of an engineer, including speed bumps and humps, dams, climate change, “geoengineering” of the earth to combat climate change, renewable energy, nanotechnology, robotics, structural earthquake engineering, hurricane protection, airline accidents, the electric power grid, evolution of the automobile, and “financial engineering.”And, he firmly establishes engineering’s place in solving the daunting problems such as climate change and energy shortage, facing humanity, writing “In the final analysis, it will be engineering that possesses the same qualities involved in accomplishing the great achievements of the last century that will be the key ingredient in a solution.”The Essential Engineer—an accessible, enjoyable tour of engineering—is essential reading, not only for engineers and students, but for all of us who benefit from the vast wealth of technology that makes modern life possible.

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