This is now my second and final year serving RISC as its Chair. As was true last year, I am being well supported by John Valentine (Past Chair), Christer Fröjdh (Vice Chair), and Lodovico Ratti (Secretary). Let me start by thanking Cinzia Da Via, Stefan Gundacker, Patrick Le Dṹ, and Michael Lerche who at the end of 2023 completed their three-year terms on RISC. Some of them continue to be part of subcommittees, and I am sure everyone will continue to be involved in RITC-related activities in one form or another. We also welcome Etiennette Auffray, Angela Di Fulvio, Abdallah Lyoussi, and Gianluca Traversi as they begin their three-year RISC terms in 2024.

Notes from 2023 NSS/MIC/RTSD Conference in Vancouver

The hybrid 2023 NSS/MIC/RTSD was recently completed in Vancouver. The conference marked the 15^th anniversary of the Valentin T. Jordanov Instrumentation Travel Grants. These Grants have been funded through a generous donation to endow the program through the IEEE Foundation. To celebrate this milestone, the conference awards committee reached out to past awardees, several of whom provided testimonials to acknowledge the positive impact the Grant made early in their careers. The donor, Valentin Jordanov, was also in attendance and based on the experience from the past 15 years, it was decided that terms of administration for the Grants be revised. One of the proposed changes is to increase the Grant award. The proposal was reviewed in Vancouver by both RISC and AdCom, and in consultation with the donor, the IEEE Foundation is now tasked with revising the “Delegation of Authority for Expenditure of Funds” which defines the terms to administer this Grant.

The annual 2023 RISC awards were also presented in Vancouver:

• The Radiation Instrumentation Early Career Award is given to a young investigator in recognition of significant and innovative technical contributions to the fields of radiation instrumentation and measurement techniques for ionizing radiation. The prize consists of $1,500 and an engraved plaque. The award was presented to Gerard Ariño Estrada from the University of California, Davis, USA. The citation reads “For contributions to radiation detectors, notably fast timing in semiconductor detectors using Cerenkov light.”

• The IEEE Emilio Gatti Radiation Instrumentation Technical Achievement Award is given to an individual in recognition of mid-career significant and innovative technical contributions in the field of radiation detectors, radiation instrumentation, and/or nuclear electronics, and/or measurement techniques for ionizing radiation. The award consists of US$2,000 and an engraved plaque. The award was presented to Gian-Franco Dalla Betta from Universita’ degli Studi di Trento, Italy. The citation reads “For the original design of double-sided 3D silicon pixel detectors.”

• The IEEE Glenn F. Knoll Radiation Instrumentation Outstanding Achievement Award is given to an individual in recognition of outstanding and enduring contributions to the field of radiation instrumentation. The prize, consisting of $3,000 and an engraved plaque, was presented to Anatoly Rozenfeld from the University of Wollongong, Australia. The citation reads “For outstanding innovations leading to industry-relevant radiation instrumentation and incredible achievements in educating and training generations of world-class researchers.”

The following papers were also selected as recipients of the NSS Student Paper Awards

• First place — Daniel J. Rutstrom from the University of Tennessee in USA for the paper titled “Development of Novel CsCl-based Ultrafast Scintillators.” See ARTICLES to read this paper adapted for the Newsletter.
• Second place — Yoshiharu Kitayama from Tohoku University in Japan for the paper titled “Experimental Evaluation of Novel a 4π Field of View Gamma-ray Imaging Method.”
• Third place — Katerin Herweg from RWTH Aachen University in Germany for the  paper titled “Timing limits of ultrafast cross-luminescence emission in CsZnCl-based crystals for TOF-PET and TOF-CT.”
• Fourth place — Hamza Ezzaoui Rahali from the Université de Sherbrooke in Canada for the paper titled “Optimizing FPGA-based Sparse Coding for Real-time Processing in X-ray Instrumentation.”

Congratulations to all the winners!

Looking Forward to 2024 Activities

With the conclusion of the 2023 conference, the committee for the 2024 NSS/MIC/RTSD has already begun work on putting together an equally exciting program for the conference in Tampa, Florida. By the time this newsletter is distributed, the conference Abstract submission deadline will only be ~eight weeks away. Through generous donations from several sources, the conference will also provide financial support opportunities for student and early-career attendees.  I would thus encourage everyone to check the conference website (https://nssmic.ieee.org/2024/) for the most recent updates and deadlines for grants as well as other conference awards.also

This is also a reminder for everyone to nominate a deserving colleague for the RITC awards!

Your voluntary participation in Technical Committee activities is important to successfully organizing future events, and for better serving the RITC community. There are several possibilities. I strongly encourage everyone to contribute, and to reach out to me or any Elected member for further information.

More information on the Radiation Instrumentation Technical Committee, RISC Awards and its current member roster is available at https://ieee-npss.org/technical-committees/radiation-instrumentation/

Wishing everyone a happy and productive 2024!

Srilalan Krishnamoorthy, RISC Chair, is with University of Pennsylvania; E-mail: [email protected]