Conference Overview

The 2011 IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium, Medical Imaging Conference, and 18th International Workshop on Room-Temperature Semiconductor X-ray and Gamma-ray Detectors was held at the Conference Center, Sorolla and Meliá hotels in Valencia, Spain, from October 23 to October 29, 2011. There were 2260 registered attendees and 1692 presentations. These numbers confirm the trend of achieving higher attendance for events held in Europe, ever since the first meeting in Lyon, France to celebrate the millennium in 2000. At this latest European meeting, the first to be held in Spain, there were two workshops held immediately before the conference and one held on the Sunday afterwards. Six short courses were offered resulting in a record attendance of over 370 students. The continuous training program was further complemented by scheduling seven refresher courses and, even with an early 7:30 am start, many courses experienced an attendance similar to that of the main scientific sessions.

At this meeting, the venue for the activities included the Valencia Conference Centre (VCC) and rooms at the Sorolla and Meliá Hotels used for posters and various oral sessions. According to feedback received from the attendees, this distribution of events did not impose any major restrictions on the activities.

The success of the scientific sessions was made possible by the outstanding efforts of all the Program Chairs, Topic Conveners, and Session Chairs. NSS regrouped the 21 topics offered on previous occasions into just five, assigning two conveners per topic to organize the sessions. Consequently, there were 441 NSS posters as well as 108 RTSD posters that were displayed from Monday 24th to Wednesday 26th in two poster areas. The NSS Program was completed with 336 oral presentations. Once again, the NSS and RTSD Program Chairs worked together successfully to eliminate as many overlapping and conflicting papers as possible.

With contributions solicited for 13 topics, the MIC received 765 submissions and they accepted 684, comprising 131 orals and 553 posters. As for NSS and RTSD, all MIC posters were displayed during the whole period of the MIC in the two poster rooms.

In terms of attendees, it is of interest to note that 51% of participants came from Europe, 28% from USA, 16% from Asia (mainly from China, Japan, Korea and Singapore) and 5% from other parts of the world, including Australia; there was a similar distribution for the presentations per geographical region.

It is also a pleasure to report that with the usual financial sponsors of the meeting that contribute each year, together with some new industrial and governmental support, we were able to award 178 trainee grants, an increase of 31% over 2010. These grants are of great importance as they allow young researchers to attend the meeting and meet more senior scientists to exchange ideas and results. Many younger researchers, and especially those from developing countries, would not be able to attend the meeting without such an award.

This year as many as 44 companies participated in the industrial exhibition. The exhibition was located in two areas on two different levels and, as for previous meetings, provided a valuable and lively meeting point for researchers and commercial participants.

Participants and their companions were able to fully enjoy the attractive region of Valencia, including its compact and cultural downtown, its more modern areas, the port and maritime region, thematic parks and the beautiful surrounding environment. Eleven tours offered for the companion program made the visit to Valencia even more enjoyable. The weather cooperated to a large extent, allowing the attendees to experience a mix of sunny and warm days with a few rainy days. The welcome event for the attendees on the evening of Sunday, October 23rd was graced with a beautiful rainbow!

In conclusion, I want to sincerely thank the 2011 committee members, the local committee from Valencia and all the staff for their dedication and outstanding efforts on behalf of the conference, efforts that were directly responsible for the success of this complex event. Special mention should also be made of the 35 enthusiastic volunteers from all over Spain who provided dedicated support for many aspects of the conference. Finally, the 2011 IEEE NSS-MIC-RTSD organizing committee want to sincerely thank all you attendees who took the time and made the effort to travel to Valencia and contribute to the success of the meeting.

With this DVD of the Conference Record, we hope you will be able to access all the papers that you found useful during the conference and to study any others that you may have missed during the intensive activity of the meeting.

David W. Townsend
2011 NSS MIC RTSD General Chair