For us in the Accelerator Section and the Northern California Chapter of the Health Physics Society (HPS), the old Chinese proverb "may you live in interesting times" has come true. There has been a tremendous amount of work going on for both the 2008 midyear meeting and the professional development school (PDS). I am sure the frenzy of activity will continue into February 2008. As you know the scope of this midyear went beyond accelerators and covers homeland security, medical, and industrial radiation-generating machines. If you get a chance, look at the submitted abstracts on the midyear website; there are many interesting talks on these topics. Note the deadline for uploading your presentation has been extended to January 10.
I am happy to report that the HPS Presidents Awards Committee has approved two Morgan Lectures for the midyear. Our two Morgan Lecturers are Dr. Nikolai Mokhov, who will be chairing the Shielding and Shielding Codes Session, and Dr. Fred Mettler, who will be chairing the Medical Therapy and Imaging Session. I look forward to hearing the opening presentations by these two world-class experts.
Registration for the midyear opened up near the end of October. At the time of this writing the Oakland Marriott City Center Hotel's conference-rate rooms have filled up, but there are many hotels within a short walking distance that offer reasonable rates. This meeting has reached out to a broader community than just the accelerator population, and I am sure we will have a very well-attended meeting.
The past president, Scott Walker, has arranged for a panel discussion on nanoparticles, which is a new area of many safety concerns. There are many health physics questions regarding the safety of activated nanoparticles. I am not sure if the standard organ-dose-weighting factors apply to them. This would be a very interesting discussion to attend.
Right after another burst of e-mails to different groups (including the US Particle Accelerator School) advertising the school's different and interesting courses, probably just by coincidence the enrollment for the PDS jumped to 60 students, which will probably continue upward. I am sure you will read more about the PDS news in this issue. The accelerator community has many experts who are also very good teachers and are willing and have volunteered in the past to teach courses on accelerator-related health physics subjects. We could easily have a week-long school, because there is enough interest in the subjects that are proposed and have been taught before. I am hoping to promote Accelerator Section sponsorship of the PDS to occur once every few years.
We have requested a special accelerator session for the 2008 annual meeting to be held in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, July 13 - 17. (Yes, we have started to think about the next annual meeting.) The Accelerator Section's president-elect Henry Kahnhauser will send you the upcoming call for abstracts later.
As always we will be evaluating students’ presentations and posters at the HPS meetings for Wade Patterson Award nominations. Students and/or their sponsors: please do not forget to submit your work for award consideration.
All the best for the holiday season and the new year! I hope to see you all at the midyear meeting in Oakland, California!