Vision For 2020

The 13th International Congress of the International Radiation Protection Association in Glasgow, Scotland has just finished.  IRPA 13 set a new IRPA record by attracting 1,500 participants.  It was certainly a very well organized and successful event.  The papers and posters can now be downloaded from the IRPA 13 Web Site.  Podcasts can be viewed as well.  The 3 Webcasts will be available in the near future.

Two prestigious awards were awarded during the Congress.  Richard Osborne presented the Sievert Lecture – A Story of Tritium - during the Congress opening on Monday.  The Congress concluded with the Swedish Academy medal given to Keith Eckerman, Oak Ridge National Laboratory on Friday.

On Thursday, the Congress delegates met to make some key decisions for the next four years and beyond.
•    A proposed Constitutional amendment that would have created a new membership class – Affiliate – failed to pass.
•    The proposed 2012 – 2016 budget, which included a $0.50 per member dues increase, was adopted.
•    The South African delegation presented a report on plans for IRPA 14 in Cape Town.
•    South Korea was given to go ahead to begin work on IRPA 15 in 2020.  In the event they are no able to follow through, Australia would pick up the ball for the Congress in Adelaide.  Brazil’s proposal for Rio de Janeiro came in third.
•    New officers selected to replace Ken Kase, Jacques Lochard and Dick Griffith, who left the Executive Council:  Vice President, Renate Czarwinski, was selected to be President.  Roger Coates moved from Vice President for Congress Affairs to Vice President.  E.C. Member, Bernard Le Guen, is the new Executive Officer.  Canadian and ICRP Scientific Secretary, Chris Clement was selected by the E.C., with affirmation by the general Assembly to be the new Publications Director.
•    Four new members were selected by the General Assembly.  Ana Maria Bomben, Argentina; Alfred Hefner, Austria; and Sigurdur Magnusson, Iceland were elected for eight year terms, and Richard Vetter, USA was given a four year term to complete the term of Bernard Le Guen, who became Executive Officer.

The Congress had some new features this year.  Social media – Twitter and email - was used to submit questions for many technical sessions to help streamline the question and answer process.  The podcasts and live webcasts were also new to the IRPA Congress.  Emphasis was given to encouraging young professionals with a competition for the best papers.  Eighteen candidates submitted papers.  Jad Farah, France took first place with a prize of £ 1,000; Olaf Marzocchi, German-Swiss was second, winning £ 500; and Nataly Shagiba, Russian Federation won third place for £ 250.

Dr. Keith Eckerman, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, has been selected to receive the 2012 Gold Medal of the Swedish Academy.  The award is to be made at the concluding session of IRPA 13 on Friday, May 18 in recognition of his long standing contributions to internal dosimetry.

Dr. Keith Eckerman received his undergraduate degree in mathematics and chemistry from University of Wisconsin-Platteville in 1962. He undertook an M.S. degree program at the Oak Ridge Associated Universities (Oak Ridge, TN), and while in Oak Ridge he became interested in health physics as a career choice. He obtained a Ph.D. in radiologic physics from Northwestern University (Evanston, IL) in 1972. From 1972 to 1974 he was a staff member at Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), and from 1974 to1978 he served as senior radiological physicist with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission in Washington, DC. In 1979 he became group leader of the Dosimetry Research Group at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), where he has been for past three decades.

Dr. Eckerman’s interest in the dosimetry of internal emitters began in 1970 when he was involved in the studies of radium dial painters. He has been an active member of Committee 2 of ICRP since 1984 and has chaired the ICRP Task Group on Dose Calculations from 1984 to 2007. During this period, the role of age and gender on dose from intakes of radionuclides was a major focus of ICRP Committee 2. Dr. Eckerman is a distinguished emeritus member of the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurement. He received the Distinguished Scientific Achievement Award from the Health Physics Society in 1995 and the Loevinger-Berman Award from the Society of Nuclear Medicine in 2001.

The International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) is inviting comments on the "Draft Guidelines for Limiting Exposure to Electric Fields Induced by Movement of the Human Body in a Static Magnetic Field and by Time-Varying Magnetic Fields Below 1 Hz". To participate in the review, please visit the ICNIRP Web Site.

The draft is presented there solely for the purpose of the review. Please do not refer to or cite this document. The open external review gives the opportunity to everyone with an interest in NIR protection to make comments. Comments will be used to improve the guidelines and are as such very valuable to ICNIRP.

The consultation process ends on May 24. After consultation, all comments will be submitted to the Commission members for finalization of the draft.

ICMP 2013 - International Conference on Medical Physics
September 1 to 4, 2013,  Brighton International Centre, UK

This exciting conference is a joint venture between the International Organization of Medical Physics (IOMP) the European Federation of Organisations for Medical Physics (EFOMP) and the Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine (IPEM)
We are delighted to be hosting this conference in the UK, and specifically the seaside town of Brighton.

Keep an eye on the ICMP 2013 - http://www.icmp2013.org/ - website for future announcements or for further information email;  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it  or telephone Candi Colbourn on +44 (0)1904 610821.

Organised by the IPEM Conference Team, Fairmount House, 230 Tadcaster Road, York, England, YO24 1ES

@ICMP2013