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Dear Colleagues and Friends, It's Fall and it's time for the NSS/MIC meeting again! This year we again break new ground and hold the Nuclear Science Symposium and Medical Imaging Conference in the Caribbean at the El Conquistador Hotel in Puerto Rico. Of course the principal focus of the conference remains the same—to provide a unique opportunity for scientists and engineers from all over the world to participate and present their original works in many areas related to nuclear science and medical imaging. The Nuclear Science Symposium continues to provide an outstanding forum for scientist and engineers interested or actively working in the field of nuclear science, radiation instrumentation, software, and their applications. Similarly, the Medical Imaging Conference continues to be most productive international scientific meeting on the physics, engineering, and mathematical aspects of nuclear medicine based imaging. In addition to the normal sessions, we will have a workshop on the OpenGATE collaboration, a roundtable discussion on technology transfer, and several special afternoon interest sessions. Some of those sessions were still being organized as we sent this booklet to press, so do check the conference web site for updates. We will also have an afternoon seminar on new developments from several of our commercial vendors. This year, the Symposium on Nuclear Power Systems will not be held due to the retirement of Jay Foster and the lack of a new chair. Our technical chairs have once again assembled a varied and outstanding program of presentations. Their task was particularly difficult this year. When the conference site was selected over four years ago, the maximum number of papers predicted was 850. This year we received over 1100 submissions and were only able to accept 980 papers due to the space limitations. In addition, the committee felt that more joint sessions were important—further challenging the layout of the program. While we were all disappointed that we could not accommodate a larger meeting, we also felt it important not to compress the space any more than we have already been forced to do. To further enhance the intellectual exchange at the meeting, we are going to take full advantage of the venue and provide many areas where colleagues can hold relaxed conversations. We also recognize the value of family members traveling with the attendees and have set up the meeting with a 3.5 hour break in the middle of the day. That provides the time for informal meetings, family fun, and a few special sessions (e.g., the OpenGATE workshop and other special interest sessions). The 2005 meeting promises to be a new experience in many ways and yet preserve the essence of the NSS/MIC conferences. I look forward to seeing you all in Puerto Rico.
E-mail: nss2005@u.washington.edu |