From the Editor

December 2002 was a month of Medical and Biological Engineering Conferences:
the International Congress on Biological and Medical Engineering www.icbme.org and the 2nd European Medical and Biological Engineering Conference www.embec.org. We gathered together in two beautiful cities; Singapore and Vienna. In addition to the scientific achievements presented, both conferences were important social events. In addition to the participants, the events were visited by representatives from the political scene, industry and other segments of the society.

In this Issue of IFMBE News (dedicated to ICMBE and EMBEC) you will find several short reports describing many of the events that were organised in the framework of the Conferences. Meetings of working groups and our young colleagues who were the lucky winners of the Young Investigator Competitions at the Conferences are also given mention.

The organisers of the World Congress on Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering, to be held in Sydney, Australia (www.wc2003.org) have launched the Call for Abstracts and/or Papers. Be aware of the deadline, March 10, 2003!

The World Congress brings the elections for new IFMBE officers and Administrative Council members. The IFMBE affiliated societies are invited to nominate their members for the open positions. Find more on open positions, nomination and elections procedure in this issue. The Nominees will be introduced in the May issue of the News.

The competition for organisation of the World Congress on Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering - 2009 has begun. Let me remind you that the WC2006 is to be held in Seoul, South Korea. National societies are invited to send their proposals for the venue of the WC 2009. The WCs are common congresses, sponsored by IUPESM as the umbrella organisation of biomedical engineers and medical physicists. The venue of the World Congresses (to be organised six years prior to the event taking place) is decided in quite a complicated way, through parallel voting procedures in IFMBE and IOMP. We will learn the decision on the site during the World Congress in Sydney.

Ratko Magjarevic ratko.magjarevic@fer.hr