New Year Brings Big Changes to AdCom

This year (2025) has brought with it some significant changes in NPSS AdCom, not the least of which was our long-standing Secretary, Albe Larsen, stepping down from her position on the committee at the end of 2024. Albe has served for many years as a dedicated and professional volunteer for our society, and I am very grateful for her support as I begin my tenure as the new Secretary.

In other changes for this year, Sara Pozzi takes the gavel as the new President of NPSS. Lorenzo Fabris was elected as Vice President, and five of the eight technical committees have new Chairs representing them on AdCom. They are CANPS (Pierre-André Amaudruz), PAST (Paolo Creievich), PSAC (Chungqi Jiang), REC (Kay Chesnut) and RITC (Christer Fröjdh).

The 2024 November AdCom meeting (November 1^st – 2^nd) was held in Tampa, FL in the Tampa Convention Center (also the site of the IEEE NSS/MIC/RTSD meeting), with the Finance and Communications meetings on Friday afternoon and the general meeting on Saturday. Attendance was healthy with around 85% of AdCom present, primarily in person (around 10% participated virtually).

Other topics discussed at the November meeting included the state of NPSS operations funding for 2024 which is lagging slightly from initial projections. There is still some flexibility to offset potential funding shortfalls, by reducing the planned NPSS Foundation Fund deposit. Also noted was that allocated initiative funds have been slow to be utilized to date. It was noted that all Initiative payments have to be reimbursed through Concur.

IEEE passed down new guidance to Societies that we are no longer allowed to subsidize IEEE memberships for new members signing up at our conferences. We are only allowed to cover the costs of the NPSS membership now. This may have a chilling effect on new membership drives which, for NPSS, did quite well in 2024 and in years past.

One of the primary tasks for NPSS in 2025 will be a full review and revision of the Constitution and Bylaws. A number of changes are required to remain consistent with our current operations and IEEE requirements. This will be done in a subcommittee headed up by our new VP Lorenzo Fabris.

Actions taken at the November 2^nd, 2025 AdCom general meeting

• PSAC proposed multiple changes to their C&BL but deferred action from AdCom until the March 2025 meeting to allow review by AdCom members.

• PPST moves that NPSS approve technical co-sponsorship for the 2026 IEEE International Power Modulator and High Voltage Conference (IPMHVC) in Las Vegas, NV. Approved by consensus (no objections). Note: there is no co-sponsorship fee as this is an IEEE conference.

• PPST moves that NPSS approve technical cosponsorship for the 2026 EAPPC/BEAMS/EML Conference in Nagoya, Japan in September. Approved by consensus

• PPST moves that NPSS covers the required cosponsorship fee for the 2026 EAPPC/BEAMS/EML Conference. Approved by consensus

• FinCom moves that NPSS AdCom approve $10K per year for three years to join IEEE Smart Village (ISV) Patron’s Board. The funds support ISV program administration. NPSS will appoint a representative to attend the quarterly virtual meetings. Approved by consensus

• FinCom moves that NPSS AdCom approve an increase of the budget for the Coalition for Plasma Science (CPS) in 2025 from $10K to $12K. The additional funds will be used to support an additional Science-Trust plasma/fusion ambassador to host a workshop on battling misinformation at an NPSS-sponsored conference. Approved by consensus

• The Publications Committee moves that Zane Bell be appointed to an additional term in 2025 as Editor in Chief for TNS. This is intended to be on an interim basis until a new EiC can be approved by AdCom. Approved by consensus

David Abbott, NPSS Secretary, can be reached at [email protected].