This is my first communication to you as Accelerator Section president. All of your executive board joins me in looking forward to a productive year for our section. I am enthusiastic about the opportunity to continue the fine work that the Accelerator Section has accomplished since its start at the 1990 Health Physics Society (HPS) annual meeting in Anaheim. I especially want to thank Scott Schwahn for his leadership and many contributions as our president.
I hope that all of the Accelerator Section members who attended the HPS annual meeting in Tampa had a productive and enjoyable meeting experience. My thanks to all of the presenters in our Accelerator Section for their fine papers. Scott Schwahn did an excellent job of chairing our session in my absence, and I am grateful for his support. We had a full session of papers contributed from our section membership in addition to a number of accelerator posters.
My absence at the Tampa HPS annual meeting was the first meeting that I missed since 1989. As some of you know, my son was getting married during that time on the North Carolina Outer Banks, and there were essentially daily activities that I needed to be there for. I am looking forward to seeing many of you next year at the July 20-24, 2003, meeting in San Diego.
I hope to increase the Accelerator Section participation by our colleagues from the many accelerator facilities not associated with the U.S. national laboratories. We have historically had a broad and viable membership from these fine national labs, but I strongly feel that our next goal is to be more inclusive of the many other national and international accelerator facilities and labs. I welcome YOUR thoughts and suggestions on accomplishing this important initiative.
Our section has continued to grow and prosper to the point where we may want to consider expanding to a full-day Accelerator Section session in the future. Our half-day session at Tampa did not allow for a G. William Morgan lecturer, which has been a focal part of other recent Accelerator Section sessions.
When you get the opportunity to thank the past year's executive board, please do so. Please acknowledge especially Scott Schwahn for serving as our president, James Liu as past president, Nolan Hertel and Bob Casey as directors, and especially Linnea Wahl, newsletter editor. Linnea has done an excellent job of keeping our far-flung group connected throughout the year.