Technical Program Message
It is our pleasure to introduce the Technical Program Steering Committee. The TPC Co-Chairs are Larry Kushner and Mark Gouker. We co-chaired the workshop subcommittee for IMS2000 in Boston, and together we have nearly 40 years of IMS experience through work on steering committees, on technical program committees and as attendees. We have lots of ideas on how to make the symposium a better experience for the attendees and will be introducing these over the next few months in the IMS Insider.
The workshop subcommittee is lead by Greg Lyons with help from Cheryl Liss, Matt Straayer and Doug Teeter. Bob Jackson will be overseeing the selection and operation of the short courses. Greg has many years of experience with workshops both as an organizer and through his role on the MTT-S Technical Committee. He is putting in place steps to improve the organization of and interaction during the workshops as well as make it easier for attendees to select which workshops to attend.
The panel session subcommittee is lead by Phil Smith with assistance from Frank Sullivan and Chris Liessner. Phil promises to add some new excitement and rekindle some of the controversy of previous panel sessions. Tim Hancock is leading the focus and special sessions, and John Heaton is leading the plenary session planning.
The student papers and contests is lead by Jim Komiak with the assistance of Carey Rappaport. The growing number of student design contests is bringing a new dimension to the student activities at the Symposium. The interactive forum is lead by Dan Swanson with assistance from Chris Galbraith (and the other new guys).
At IMS2009 we will introduce virtual participation to allow students and engineers that can not attend the Symposium to experience some of the sights, sounds and activities. This activity is lead by Charlotte Blair with help from Jon Comeau, Dru Reynolds, Matt Morton, Chi-soon Teoh and Ke Wu.
Finally, we have asked Cheryl Liss to be the feedback Czar in charge of gathering feedback on the workshops, panel sessions and technical sessions through out the week. We want to get your feedback to keep the IMS the premier microwave symposium. Speaking of which, we would love to hear thoughts and comments from previous IMS attendees about what works and what needs improvement. We want you to feel not only that your time at IMS2009 was time well spent, but that if you did not attend you would have missed learning about the latest technical and industrial advances and missed the opportunity to network with business associates and socialize with colleagues.
The first deadline is 19 September when the proposals for workshops, special and focus sessions and lunch time panels are due. See the website for more details.
Larry Kushner and Mark Gouker, TPC Co-Chairs of IMS2009