I am happy to report that we recently concluded a very successful 2024 Nuclear Science Symposium, Medical Imaging Conference, and Room Temperature Semiconductor Detector conference (October 26^th – November 2^nd) in Tampa, Florida. Despite recent threats and anxiety surrounding the potential disruption from mother nature, I hope attendees got to enjoy the balmy Tampa weather.

The hybrid nature of the most recent three NSS/MIC/RTSD conferences has allowed delivery of content to folks who cannot attend. It also provides attendees the chance to view any parallel sessions they missed, or sessions they would like to revisit again. A reminder that by the time this update goes to press, there will only be a short window to review recordings from this conference.

Radiation Instrumentation Awards

The conference provided the opportunity to present the annual Radiation Instrumentation Awards which are awarded during the NSS plenary session at this conference.

The Emilio Gatti Radiation Instrumentation Technical Achievement Award (RITAA) recognizes a mid-career individual who has made 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 prize consists of US$2,000 and an engraved plaque. This year’s recipient is Dr. Ge Yang from the North Carolina State University for “contributions to the development of compound semiconductor radiation detector materials and devices, which have enabled a wide variety of radiation imaging and spectroscopic detection applications”.

The Radiation Instrumentation Early Career Award (RIECA) 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 US$1,500 and an engraved plaque. Dr. Francis Loignon-Houle, presently at the Universitat Politècnica de València, received the Radiation Instrumentation Early Career Award for “contributions to the development of time-of-flight positron emission tomography technologies and advanced scintillation detectors”.

Congratulations to both the award recipients!

In addition to the above two awards, we also have the prestigious Glenn F. Knoll Radiation Instrumentation Outstanding Achievement Award (RIOAA). It is given to an individual in recognition of outstanding and enduring contributions to the field of radiation instrumentation. The prize consists of $3,000 and an engraved plaque. We know there are several candidates within our community who are deserving of this award. On behalf of the Awards sub-committee, consider identifying and nominating them for this award. We realize that everyone is busy, but even if you do not have the time to complete the entire nomination package, reach out to the RISC Awards Chair with a brief description of their accomplishments, and we can follow-up for further consideration. It is never too early to start thinking about the 2025 RITC awards…

In addition to the RITC awards, there are also the NPSS awards to consider. There are several awards/grants to consider, and I strongly encourage reviewing the full list at the NPSS website. Most of the nominations are due January 31^st, 2025, and so I urge everyone to do so before the holiday season for a timely submission.

Besides passing the baton to the 2025 NSS Program Chairs, at the closing session of the NSS program, the best student paper awards for presentations at this year’s conference were also presented.

The best poster presentation award was presented to Umberto Follo from the Politecnico di Torino for the paper titled “Characterization of Monolithic CMOS Sensors with Internal Gain in a 110 nm Technology Node”, and the runner-up poster award was presented to Beatrice Pedretti from Politecnico di Milano for the paper titled “CASPER-AI: a Machine Learning Method for Enhanced Active Collimation in Multichannel SDDs”.

The best oral presentation award was awarded to Raffaele Aaron Giampaolo from Université de Sherbrooke for the paper titled “Development of a Configurable Photon-to-Digital Converter in 65 nm“, and the runner-up was awarded to Ricardo Latella from the I3M in Spain for paper titled “Comparative Analysis of Novel Time-Walk Correction Methods for Metascintillators”.

Congratulations to all of the awardees!!!

During the conference in Tampa, we also held a special lunch time forum “RISC Forum at Tampa NSS/MIC/RTSD”. The event was specifically organized to highlight the several volunteering opportunities available within RISC and across NPSS, both for the younger and mid-career attendees.

Upcoming at RISC

A reminder that the 2025 edition of NSS/MIC/RTSD will be held in Yokohama, Japan from November 1^st – 8^th. For future NSS/MIC conferences, contracts have either been signed or in the final stage for the 2026 (Granada, Spain) and 2027 (Pasadena, USA) editions. The NSS/MIC Conference Joint Oversight Sub-committee (JOS) is actively working on site selection for the 2028 conference.

This is my last year as the RISC Chair, and Christer Fröjdh takes over as the new Chair starting January 1^st, 2025. I take this opportunity to thank the several current and past RITC members who have helped me serve in this capacity. Finally, a reminder that you do not need to be an elected member to serve the radiation instrumentation community. I would encourage everyone to check the website to review further information about the Radiation Instrumentation Technical Committee, its current roster and reach out with questions, comments and feedback.

Wishing everyone a happy end of the year, and a happy 2025!

Srilalan Krishnamoorthy, University of Pennsylvania, can be reached at [email protected]