The meeting was attended by 29 people, according to the sign-in sheet. The items of business were:
(1) Thanks to B&B special-session organizers Doug Mast (for "Beamforming and Adaptive Aberration Correction", joint with Signal Processing in Acoustics), Christy Holland (for "Novel Imaging Techniques in Biomedical Ultrasound", also joint with SP), Brian Fowlkes (for "Ultrasound Bioeffects"), and Pei Zhong (for organizing the Brad Sturtevant Memorial Session in Lithotripsy, joint with Physical Acoustics). Thanks also to contributed-paper session chairs Glynn Holt, Paul Carson, Bill O'Brien, and Carr Everbach. Special thanks also to Tom Royston for organizing the B&B student paper contest in Chicago (about which more below) and to Robin Cleveland for ably chairing the "Hot Topics" session and thereby doing us proud. Thanks to all the student paper contest judges (too numerous to name). Brian Fowlkes was the hero of the meeting for being the TPOM representative (arranging the papers into sessions and juggling room choices). At the Chicago meeting, B&B had 78 papers in 8 sessions, all of which were well-attended (typically 40-60 attendees per session).
(2) Kudos and congratulations to B&B old-timers Floyd Dunn and Ed Carstensen for 50 years of membership in the ASA, and to Christy Holland, Shira Broschat, and Carr Everbach, who were made New Fellows at this meeting. Tim Leighton was awarded the first Medwin Prize.
(3) Comments on the logistics of the Chicago meeting included concern for the number and availability of slide carousels and the lack of staff to swap them, the importance of having plastic covers on carousels, and the desire to have a higher-resolution computer projector. The B&B projector has more than paid for itself already, and problems using it were few in Chicago, but the picture quality is inadequate for the medical images we typically show. The Technical Council has charged the Meetings Committee with finding an ASA-wide solution to the problem of computer projection at meetings.
(4) The student paper contest organized by Tom Royston in Chicago was very successful, with 13 entries and 18 judges. First prize of $400 goes to Oliver Kripfgans (Univ. of Michigan) for "Acoustic vaporization of single droplets;" second prize of $250 goes to Sandy Pliachik (U. Wash/APL) for "Role of high intensity focused ultrasound induced cavitation on platelet activation;" and third prize of $100 goes to Mark Haun (Univ. of Illinois) for "Efficient three-dimensional cylindrical-geometry ultrasound imaging." Recipients should receive their checks within a few weeks, and notices will be placed in JASA and Echoes. (n.b.: Following this meeting, the prize amounts and rules for student paper contests will be standardized across ASA technical committees). Congratulations to all who presented an exceptionally fine series of papers at this meeting.
(5) The Ft. Lauderdale, FL, meeting will take place 3-7 December 2001 at the Marriott/Convention Center. Subha Maruvada has agreed to be our TPOM representative (the Technical Program Organizing Meeting is scheduled for Friday and Saturday, August 17-18, 2001). If you would like to chair a contributed-paper session at that meeting, please reply to me via return email and I'll forward your name on to Subha.
In keeping with our plan to use the Fall meetings for innovative formats, we have currently planned a one-day Topical Meeting on "The Physics of Ultrasound in Relation to the Biology of its Therapeutic Effect," organized by Pierre Mourad and Larry Crum. Here is Pierre's description:
"This proposed meeting consists of a one-day colloquium made up of four special sessions, each session containing a few invited presentations followed by a short panel-based discussion that includes audience participation. The emphasis is on how the physical effects generated by ultrasound in any form create associated biological effects that are therapeutic. Examples include: (1) High-Intensity Focused Ultrasound or HIFU, typically used for hemostasis, tumor destruction, and destruction of kidney stones (i.e., lithotripsy) (2) LOw-intensity (sometimes Focused) Ultrasound or LOFU, typically used for accelerating healing; (3) ultrasound with adjunctive agents such as chemicals, radiation, contrast agents, genes - such as ultrasound-assisted thrombolysis, ultrasound-activated/enhanced drug or gene delivery, etc. Note that the discussion of the biology of ultrasound for therapy is to be as valued and detailed in these special sessions as the discussion of the physics. The proposed four special sessions are as follows: (1) HIFU alone, (2) LOFU alone, (3) ultrasound with adjunctive agents, and (4) the imaging of acoustic lesions. Special sessions of contributed papers will complement these invited sessions. Suggestions for invited speakers, including self referrals, are welcome, and should be sent to Pierre D. Mourad, University of Washington: pierre@apl.washington.edu.
Other than this one-day Topical Meeting, with its internal special sessions, there are no plans for additional special sessions in Ft. Lauderdale (we will co-sponsor a SP tomography session). Contributed papers will be grouped into sessions by Subha at the TPOM.
(6) The Pittsburgh, PA, meeting of the ASA will take place 3-7 June 2002 at the Hilton Hotel. Due to the compressed schedule dictated by advance preparation of the Cancun meeting (about which more below), special sessions for both Pittsburgh and Cancun need to be finalized in Ft. Lauderdale. Proposed special sessions for Pittsburgh currently include:
(7) The Cancun, Mexico, meeting of the ASA will take place 2-6 December 2002, at the Fiesta Americana.
The companion group to B&B is headed by Dr. Jorge Becerra Garcia (Mexico), who has suggested the broad special session topic "Ultrasound and its applications" with proposed invited speaker Gilberto Gonzalez Suarez (Mexico). Robin Cleveland suggested Lithotripsy as a special session for Cancun, and he is willing to organize it. Perhaps some of the suggestions above for Pittsburgh could be moved to Cancun, or variations of them (e.g., "Acoustics in Multiphase Media", possibly co-sponsored with Physical or Engineering Acoustics). We will need to finalize these plans at Ft. Lauderdale.
(8) Future ASA meetings beyond Cancun will be as follows:
(9) Nominations (self or otherwise) for B&B chair will be collected until mid-November, 2001. A ballot will be emailed two weeks before the Ft. Lauderdale meeting and the votes, combined with those in attendance at Ft. Lauderdale (but no double-counting!), will allow announcement of the winner by that meeting's end. The incoming chair will overlap with the current chair at the Pittsburgh meeting and then fly solo starting in Cancun. Chair's term is 3 years, so the chair is obliged to attend six consecutive ASA meetings Monday through Friday (since Technical Council meets Monday and Friday). Please send your ballot suggestions to me and I'll verify candidates' willingness to serve.
(10) The IEEE-UFFC mailing list has been obtained and a letter similar to last summer's AIUM letter is attached for your comments. This letter inviting IEEE members to our meetings will go out in mid-summer 2001, so please get back to me with suggestions for improvement, etc.
(11) Sandy Poliachik reported that the Student Council of the ASA is developing a website (that will offer suggestions for inexpensive rooms at meetings, etc.) and planning a prize for mentors, among other things. As she will be graduating soon, nominations (self or otherwise) will be accepted via email until the Ft. Lauderdale meeting, at which point a new student council representative for B&B will be chosen.
The meeting adjourned after an hour and three minutes.
Respectfully submitted,
E. Carr Everbach, Chair
BU/BV Technical Committee
(If you have comments or corrections to these minutes, please send them to me at CEVERBA1@swarthmore.edu.)
June 2001
Dear IEEE-UFFC member:
For over seventy years, the Acoustical Society of America has been the premier organization for the study of acoustics, and recently we have formed a technical committee on Biomedical Ultrasound and Bioresponse to Vibration. We wish to inform you about upcoming opportunities to share your interests and expertise with other experts in the field.
The Technical Committee on Biomedical Ultrasound/Bioresponse to Vibration includes individuals whose interests lie in the use of ultrasound for biomedical applications. Members include research scientists, engineers, professors, physicians, consultants, and students of acoustics. Recent topics of special sessions at our meetings have included therapeutic applications, lithotripsy, heating, and image processing in biomedical ultrasound.
Our upcoming meetings are listed below. In our meeting in Ft. Lauderdale, FL, we will hold an all-day topical meeting on the physics and biology of ultrasound therapy. Experts will discuss (and debate) how the physical effects generated by ultrasound in any form create associated biological effects that are therapeutic. Examples include: high-intensity focused ultrasound, typically used for hemostasis, tumor destruction, and lithotripsy; low-intensity ultrasound, typically used for accelerating healing; ultrasound with adjunctive agents such as chemicals, radiation, contrast agents, genes - such as ultrasound-assisted thrombolysis, ultrasound-activated/enhanced drug or gene delivery; and the imaging of acoustically-induced lesions.
In our Pittsburgh meeting, we plan to offer special sessions on flow characterization and monitoring, scattering theory in biological media, ultrasonic field characterization, ultrasound propagation in bone, and acoustic microscopy. Regular contributed paper sessions will cover other topics in biomedical ultrasound. In general, we have most of our special sessions at the Spring meetings, and use the Fall meetings for colloquia, short courses, or topical meetings.
If you are interested in finding out more about the Acoustical Society of America, please visit our website at http://asa.aip.org/committees.html or contact us through the above address. We look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
E. Carr Everbach
Biomedical Ultrasound/Bioresponse to Vibration Technical Committee Chair
3-7 December 2001: Ft. Lauderdale, FL (Marriott/Convention Center)
3-7 June 2002: Pittsburgh, PA (Hilton Hotel)
2-6 December 2002: Cancun, Mexico (Fiesta Americana)
28 April-2 May 2003: Nashville, TN (Convention Center)
10-15 November 2003: Austin, TX