No. 34 January 1999Scientific Program Plans Underway for Chicago’2000 World Congress The next World Congress of Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering will be on July 23-28, 2000 in Chicago, Illinois. This triennial World Congress is a joint effort of six societies (International Union for Physics and Engineering Sciences in Medicine, International Federation for Medical and Biological Engineering, International Organization for Medical Physics, American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, American Association of Physicists in Medicine, and the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society). The Congress also has collaboration commitments from twenty-two other scientific and educational organizations. On the basis of these partnerships the Organizing Committee now predicts Chicago’2000 attendance in excess of 8000 at the first World Congress of this type in the USA since 1988. The theme for the Chicago’2000 is “Global Information Networking for the Twenty-first Century.” The information technology theme includes uses and impact on research, education, and patient care. The theme will be reflected in the opening session, plenary sessions, panel discussions, and other invited presentations throughout the week. The Scientific Program will include approximately 1500 scientific presentations over a five-day period. International peer review committees will select presentations from submissions by physicists and engineers throughout the world. Although several sessions of scientific presentations will be devoted specifically to information networking, presentations will cover the entire scope of current topics in medical physics, medical and biological engineering. For the first time in World Congress history, the submission, selection, and distribution of program information for the year 2000 meeting will be entirely electronic. An International Advisory Committee has been formed to ensure, among other objectives, that all submitters have access to the technology to use electronic submissions to the program. The Scientific Program Executive Committee will work closely with the International Advisory Committee to ensure that the needs and interests of Chicago’2000 participants from all countries are incorporated into the planning process. Chicago’2000 Co-Presidents, Bill Hendee and Al Potvin, formed the Scientific Program Executive Committee in 1995. It consists of two medical physicists, Russ Ritenour, and Bruce Thomadsen, and three Biomedical Engineers, John Enderle, Joe Bronzino, and Morton H. Friedman. The Executive Committee has defined the overall scientific program and is working with the various organizing and collaborating societies to form a 30 member General Scientific Program Committee (GSPC). The GSPC, which will be hard at work by early 1999, consists primarily of the chairs and co-chairs of the various program tracks, or subject areas. The track chairs and co-chairs have responsibility for reviewing and selecting proffered papers and subdividing the program tracks by detailed subject area as needed. Dr. Russ Ritenour chairs the Scientific Program Executive Committee and reports directly to the Congress Co-Presidents. Dr. Ritenour is an academic Medical Physicist since 1979. He has taught for the last nine years at the University of Minnesota, where he is Chief of Physics for Radiology in the Medical School and Director of Graduate Studies in Biophysical Sciences and Medical Physics in the Graduate School. He has long-standing interests in the use of electronic systems for distance learning, as well as the general physics of ionizing and non-ionizing radiation. Russ lives in Bloomington, Minnesota with his wife Julie and their two children. A Preliminary Scientific Program along with a wealth of other information about Chicago’2000 and the participating societies is found on the official web site for the meeting (http://www.wc2000.org). Comments or suggestions for improvement are welcome. Photo Russell Ritenour, ChairmanScientific Program Executive CommitteeUniv Minnesota Medical SchoolRadiology Dept.Email: riten001@tc.umn.eduWWW: http://www.drad.umn.edu/faculty/ritenour | ||