12th Nordic-Baltic Conference, Reykjavik, Iceland, June 2002

Whenever one travels to attend a Conference, he expects to get some new scientific information and to exchange thoughts with colleagues from other countries, and in addition to learn something about the country - in this particular case, Iceland.

IFMBE Administrative Council meeting in Reykjavik, June 2002. From left to right, first row: A.. F. Catelli Infantosi, Myoungho Lee, Dov Jaron, Walter H. Chang,; second row: Heikki Teriö, Allan Muray, Joachim Nagel, Makoto Kikuchi; third row: Jos A.E. Spaan, Didier Geiger.

The 12th Nordic-Baltic Conference on Biomedical Engineering and Medical Physics was held in Reykjavik from 18th to 22nd June 2002. We will get a detailed report on the scientific impact, the numbers of attendance and the results of the Student competition from the organisers, in the next issue of the IFMBE News. Let me therefore briefly express my opinion that the conference was a great scientific event. I would also like to thank the Organising Committee chaired by Prof. Thordur Helgason for their efforts and achievements in organisation of the conference.

The sessions began each day with Keynote Lectures and later continued in two tracks. All presented papers are published in the IFMBE Proceedings "The 12th Nordic Baltic Conference on Biomedical Engineering and Medical Physics", Vol. 2, 2002, Stefan Sigurdsson (Ed.), ISSN 1680-0737. For additional copies, please contact the organisers (stefsig@hi.is). The participants of the conference were able to visit the exhibition "Health Technology Forum" where a lot of exhibitors showed the latest developments of their products.

Allan Murray presenting the Federation Journal for the participants of 12th NBC.

The conference hosted the meetings of the IFMBE Administrative Council and the IFMBE Secretaries Committee meeting. The preliminary report of the latter meeting is published in this issue of the News. The most important decision made was to finally enable free access to the Federation's Journal, the Medical and Biological Engineering and Computing. I am sure that many of you have already taken advantage of this opportunity.

The organisers have also showed a part of the beauty of Iceland to the participants of the conference. We visited the Blue Lagoon and many of us took the opportunity to bathe in the naturally hot water that nature has bestowed on Iceland. The light blue colour of the water as a result of dissolved minerals seemed to lend the event an additional charm. Travelling to the Lagoon, we saw many contrasting aspects of the Icelandic countryside: from the fields of lava containing black, volcanic rocks, to the dramatic shapes of mountains and hills, often covered by snow in the middle of summer. The many hours of sunshine are definitively an advantage - one can enjoy the beauty of Iceland day and night!

R. Magjarevic

Sunset over Reykjavik - approximate time: midnight
The cover of the IFMBE Proceedings - Vol. 2, 12th NBC