Where can you buy the very first issue of Health Physics journal, dated June 1958 and autographed by none other than Wade Patterson, generally considered the first professional accelerator health physicist? How can you contribute to a scholarship fund that will sponsor, for the first time ever, a student to attend the Health Physics Society’s (HPS's) professional development school?
The answer to these "first" questions is through the silent auction that will be held at the 52nd annual HPS meeting in Portland, Oregon. Dr. Ralph Thomas has generously donated for auction more than 20 autographed texts and reports of great interest to all health physicists (and especially valuable to the accelerator community).
Have you had trouble finding rare volumes such as Accelerator Health Physics by Wade Patterson and Ralph Thomas, Radiation Biology by A. P. Casarett (signed by Lola Kelly), and an autographed edition of Concepts of Radiation Dosimetry by Ken Kase and Ralph Nelson? Looking for unique texts such as Accelerator Health Physics written in Chinese or Strahlungschutz an Hochenergie-beschleunigern by Eberhard and Freytag (DESY)? All these and more will be included for auction in Portland.
The beneficiary of this auction will be a student seeking to attend the 2008 Professional Development School, "Topics in Accelerator Health Physics," in Oakland, California. We hope that Dr. Thomas’s generous donation (and your generous bid!) will fund travel, tuition, and lodging for a struggling young accelerator health physicist.
If we’ve piqued your interest, plan to visit us at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland. Look for our table near the 2008 midyear exhibit. To get ready for the big event, check out the auction details, including the list of available texts in English and in other languages and the minimum bids. Start saving now and plan to be the first to bid on these A-number-one, first-class values!
P.S. Your bid is tax deductible, so you can help yourself while you help another.
Note: This article appeared in the June issue of the Health Physics Society's newsletter, Health Physics News.