I R P S BULLETIN Newsletter of the International Radiation Physics Society Vol 27 No 4 December, 2013 IRPS COUNCIL 2012 - 2015 President : Ladislav Musilek (Czech Republic) Vice Presidents : EDITORIAL BOARD Africa and Middle East : M.A. Gomaa (Egypt) Editors Western Europe : J. Rodenas (Spain) Ron Tosh Larry Hudson Central & Eastern Europe : I. Krajcar Bronic (Croatia) Phone : +1 301 975 5591 Phone : +1 301 975 2537 F.S.U. : I.V. Shamanin (Russia) email : [email protected] email : [email protected] North East Asia : Ziyu Wu (P.R.China) NIST, 100 Bureau Drive, Stop 8460 Gaithersburg, MD 20899-8460, U.S.A. South East Asia : S.C. Roy (India) Australasia : C.T. Chantler (Australia) Associate Editors D.C. Creagh S.A. McKeown South and Central America : M. Rubio (Argentina) email : email : North America : L. Hudson (USA) [email protected] [email protected] Faculty of Education Science Technology and Mathematics Secretary : J.E. Fernandez (Italy) University of Canberra Canberra ACT 2601 Australia Treasurer : W. Dunn (USA) Chair, Advisory Board : O. Goncalves (Brazil) MEMBERSHIPS Vice President, IRRMA : R. Gardner (USA) Membership Secretary Executive Councillors: Elaine Ryan Department of Radiation Sciences R.P. Hugtenberg (UK) P.K. Sarkar (India ) University of Sydney E.M.A. Hussein (Canada) A. Sood (USA) 75 East Street ,(P.O. Box 170) I. Lopes (Portugal) J. Tickner (Australia) Lidcombe, N.S.W. 1825, Australia email: [email protected] F. Salvat (Spain) P.K.N. Yu (Hong Kong) IRPS BULLETIN : ISSN 1328533 Contacts : Tel 001 (905) 525 9140 Ext 23021 Items for the Bulletin : Ron Tosh, Larry Hudson cell 905 906 5509 Membership Enquiries : Elaine Ryan Layout and distribution of the Bulletin : ShirleyIRPS McKeown BULLETIN : ISSN 1328533 Web Pages : Shirley McKeown Contact addresses are listed in the IRPS information above. Printing and postage of the Bulletin, and support for the IRPS web pages, are courtesy of the University of Canberra, Canberra, A.C.T, Australia Internet Address : http://www.canberra.edu.au/irps The University is currently updating its websites, which includes our IRPS being transferred to a new site. The above address is still active and most of the information has been transferred, but there are some files yet to travel across which I have been advised will be there early in the new year. Although the new basic layout is that of the University, we will be keeping it updated with IRPS information ! And we have a developing “sister website “ !! : http://radiationphysics.org/ Vol. 27 No 4 . December, 2013 2. Contents of this Journal From the Editors : ....................................................................................... Page 4 President's Column : ................................................................................... Page 5 The Adventures of Shakardokht Jafari : ................................................... Page 7 The Australian Synchrotron Users Meeting, 2013……………………….... Page 10 Radiation Physics Groups in Croatia (part 2) …………………………….... Page 12 Monte Carlo Modelling in Radiation Dosimetry Exhibited at European Meetings …………………………………………..... Page 14 Obituary of P.K. Iyengar .............................................................................. Page 16 Information about the State of Preparation of ISRP 2015 ……………….. Page 17 Calendar : ..................................................................................................... Page 18 Conference Information : 9th European Conference on X-Ray Spectrometry ................................. Page 19 9th Industrial Radiation and Radioisotope Measurement Applications ..................................................................... Page 20 8th International Conference on High Levels of Natural Radiation and Radon areas .......................................... Page 21 New Memberships, Membership Renewals Membership form for new members, and details for payments by cheque for new and renewing members are on the last 2 pages of this journal and information for payment by credit card is given below If you are unsure when your renewal is due, contact Elaine Ryan email: [email protected] See Page 6 for Membership Payments by Credit Card Information Vol. 27 No 4 . December, 2013 3. From the Editors The time has arrived to close the book on 2013, new Australian National Facility for Synchrotron and as well, your IRPS Bulletin. Recalling the Science. We are also grateful to Gordana Zauhar exploding meteor over Chelyabinsk in February and and Ines Krajcar Bronic (both of Croatia) for a the ignominious fizzling out of Comet ISON just a second installment on radiation physics work, few weeks ago, one could say that it was a year present and past, in Croatia; to Richard that started with a cosmic bang and ended with an Hugtenberg (UK) for an overview of the growth of astronomical whimper – the first having caught the Monte Carlo modeling in radiation dosimetry; and to world unawares and ill prepared; the second, while Ziyu Wu (P.R. China) for reporting on preparations something of a disappointment to sky watchers underway for ISRP-13, to be held in Heifei, Anhui, among us, was otherwise remarkable for following a P.R. China in 2015. course and fate foretold with uncanny precision by professional astronomers plying tools developed As Professor Ladislav Musilek emphasizes in his painstakingly over many decades of sustained President’s Column for this issue, sustaining such effort. work requires broad cultivation of people who can motivate students and foster public support, and We are moved at this time of year to reflect thus we encourage submissions about society similarly on sustained efforts in radiation physics members who demonstrate such interests and that have contributed so greatly across diverse capabilities. For this, a special note of thanks areas of human interest and how contributions goes to Professor David Bradley (UK) for from you, our readers, help to tell that story. contributing both an appreciation of Shakardokht While our first issue of the year included an Jafari (his graduate student from Afghanistan) article by Professor Dudley Creagh (Australia) and a remembrance of former member and IRPS chronicling the birth and growth of a vibrant cofounder Professor PK Iyengar, shown below in a synchrotron radiation community in Australia, here picture taken at ISRP-4, in Sao Paulo, Brazil in in the concluding issue he has provided a status 1988. report on part of that very community, from a first Australian Synchrotron Users Meeting at the We conclude with our best wishes for a happy and prosperous new year! Ron Tosh and Larry Hudson IRPS cofounder PK Iyengar attending ISRP-4, 1988, in Sao Paulo, Brazil, shown with IRPS contemporaries Prof. A.M. Ghose, Prof. Richard Pratt and Prof. Didier Isabelle Volume 27 No 4 4. December 2013 President's Column Dear Colleagues laboratories, but also on obtaining better financing for the whole education system, from The IRPS, as a professional association, focuses on kindergartens, through elementary schools, science and research. Nevertheless, a large through high schools to universities and beyond. proportion of our members are on the staff of universities, and an important part of their work For so many years, the acronym ESR meant for involves educating and developing young scientists, me “Electron Spin Resonance”. Now, for better researchers and engineers. There are strong or for worse, it also means “Early Stage synergies between carrying out research projects Researcher”, i.e. doctoral students, postdocs and and educating the next generation of scientists and other young researchers. We need to push the engineers. For many of us, combining teaching with public authorities to set up, and fund, more research is a pleasant and fruitful way of working. positions for research fellowships for ESRs in Others find research more rewarding than teaching top scientific institutions. We need to convince or teaching more rewarding than research – this companies that fresh graduates from should not surprise us, as these two traditional basic universities are able to learn new skills rapidly, missions of a university staff member can require although they have only limited experience with quite different sets of skills. We will not talk here practical problems. We also need to convince the about the management, administrative and general public that science and technology is the fundraising roles that are time-consuming and often “spiritus agens” that leads to a more severely limit the ability of university researchers comfortable, more cultured and more interesting to give their full attention to science and research. life. The supply of future specialists to maintain and IRPS members, I am sure, overwhelmingly develop the field of science and research that they believe that better scientific education and perform is an issue that concerns all researchers, better support for ESRs is the way forward. particularly those working intensively with young Unfortunately, we seem to be up against people at universities. We IRPS members think that powerful forces that try to project and promote radiation physics is a very promising and important a different kind of “reality”. Young people see a field for science and research. Nevertheless, it is a brighter future through enrolling for law or hard science, needing a lot of mathematics, physics management or finance than through the hard and chemistry. And these subjects do not enjoy sciences. They see themselves