Peter Smith, Ph.D.
     Technical Chair
     2010 IEEE International
      Ultrasonics Symposium

   McMaster University, UH-203
   1280 Main St. West, Hamilton
   Hamilton,ON L8s 4K1,Canada
     smithpm@mcmaster.ca

On behalf of the Technical Program Committee I would like to invite you to join us at the 2010 IEEE International Ultrasonics Symposium to be held October 11 – 14 in San Diego, California. Since the first Symposia held in the 1960s, the meeting has continued to grow significantly in size. We now receive about 1,000 abstract submissions for each meeting. These abstracts cover the five areas of focus of this meeting: Medical Ultrasonics, Sensors, NDE & Industrial Applications, Physical Acoustics, Microacoustics, and Transducers & Transducer Materials. After reviewing all the abstracts in each group, the Technical Program Committee will put together a program of oral and poster sessions. In order to accommodate the anticipated number of presentations, the oral sessions will be organized into six parallel tracks over three days. We will continue the tradition of invited papers with 18 papers that either highlight new technologies or give overviews of key areas. As in the past, we will try to arrange the invited oral presentations so they do not overlap each other, allowing attendees the opportunity to attend these key presentations in all areas. There will also be a Student Paper Award. Finalists for the Student Paper Award will be selected from each of the five focus areas and these will be judged by a panel of experts. The five winners will be announced at the Symposium Dinner on the Wednesday evening and will each receive a certificate and a $200 cash award. Their names will also be published in the IEEE UFFC Newsletter. I hope that, in addition to the short courses and the technical program, all the attendees will participate the social and guest programs and will take the opportunity to enjoy the sites of San Diego.