The 2007 annual meeting in Portland, Oregon, was a very busy time for the Accelerator Section officers. Starting Sunday afternoon we had daily meetings with the Northern California Chapter of the Health Physics Society (NCCHPS) and the Health Physics Society (HPS) Program Committee members, HPS secretariat, and other HPS committees and officials. Although a lot had been accomplished since the 2006 annual meeting, there was a lot more left to do. By the time of the meeting we had received five abstracts and there were 20 days left to the first abstract submission deadline. Through an intense (aggressive) and concerted effort by the NCCHPS and the Accelerator Section officers, by the July deadline we had 54 abstracts. An additional one-month extension was requested and granted. I am happy to report that by the end of the August deadline we had received more than 120 abstracts! We have also been advertising the 2008 midyear worldwide. In parallel to this work, the NCCHPS has also been working hard on the local arrangements. From what I have heard there are many entertaining tours and other activities being planned in and around Oakland. Don't get too distracted from the meeting! There will be several parallel sessions and a poster session. Registration for the midyear is expected to open in mid-October. We have submitted nomination letters for two William G. Morgan lecturers to the Presidents’ Awards Committee. Both nominees are internationally known experts in their field of expertise. We are looking forward to their presentations.
The 2008 HPS Professional Development School (PDS) is offering several very well constructed courses about accelerator-related health physics. There are courses from accelerator beam physics for health physicists to material radiation damage courses and more. Any health physicist who is interested in finding out about accelerator health physics or is intending to change to accelerator health physics work would find these courses most appropriate. The registration has been open for the PDS for several weeks now. Please visit the midyear website and the PDS site.
The Accelerator Section Board of Directors met on Sunday night. Of course the progress on the preparation for the midyear was reported. The previous years’ minutes were not available, but we discussed what we could remember. For the minutes of this year the treasurer and I have combined our notes from the meeting. The past president reported on the election results. However, it appears that in recent years there have been some problems with communication with potential nominees and what is expected from each of the officer positions. I have discussed this with the president-elect and we hope in the coming years to be able to put some revisions to the bylaws to the vote, to mitigate some of the existing ambiguities in the election process. Scott Walker reported on the progress on ANSI43.1. This standard is in the final stages, getting ready for publication. Scott Walker has submitted a new logo for the Accelerator Section. It was decided that it will be put to vote at the 2008 midyear meeting. There will be an Accelerator Section board meeting at the midyear.
This year we had a good selection of accelerator-related student research papers for the Wade Patterson Award. Lorraine Day and I reviewed more than 40student papers. Bryan Bednarz from RPI won the Wade Patterson Award and Maxwell Ankrah from Idaho State University received honorable mention. See Lorraine's nice article in this issue for details and pictures.
Our section’s technical session started, on Wednesday morning, with the Morgan Lecturer presentation and was followed by 10 very interesting papers. As I have mentioned before, the Morgan Lecturer Anthony Sullivan was not able to attend the meeting, but one of the founders of our section, Dr. Ralph Thomas, kindly came to our rescue. Ralph presented Dr. Sullivan's talk titled, "Radiation Safety around High Energy Particle Accelerators (As Seen with the Benefit of Hindsight)" (available as both a Powerpoint presentation and a paper), which he annotated with his own commentary to a packed room. There was a lot of interest in the presentations and questions that we had to relegate to after the meeting, due to lack of time.
The section business meeting at noon followed the accelerator session. Scott Walker reported on the activities for the 2008 midyear meeting and on the status of the ANSI 43.1 standard, and we received a report on the Sunday night board meeting and the treasurer's report. The results of the election of the new officers were presented to the members and were approved. Marcia Torres, the Accelerator Section Treasurer, reported income and expenses: the account balance as of April 2007 was $8147.42. The Wade Patterson Award consisting of a plaque and $300 was presented to the winner Bryan Bednarz (the plaque is in the mail) and the runner-up Maxwell Ankrah was presented with the honorable mention certificate.
I would like to welcome the new officers of the Accelerator Section, President-Elect Henry Kahnhauser, and our new directors Mike Duran and Mike Singh. I look forward to working with you. My thanks also go to the out-going board members, Gary Zeman and Doug Wells. Thanks to the immediate-past president Scott Walker for his tireless efforts on the preparation for the midyear. We all appreciate the past-past president Lorraine Marceau-Day's enthusiasm and energy with which she continues to be a great source of guidance and support for the 2008 midyear.
Congratulation to Steve Musolino, one of our past presidents, for being named an HPS fellow.