IS&T President’s Message

Please note: This text is taken from the latest Annual Report of the Society.

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Society and Its Activities

During the last 12 months, the Society for Imaging Science and Technology has maintain its position as the leading Society for applied imaging sciences. Our members comprises engineers, scientist, and managers, our conferences span from corporate to academic research and applications and our regional reach is truly international, with local chapters in the US, Japan, and Europe, and one being formed in Korea.

In relation to the harsh economic environment that the imaging industry has faced in 2009/2010, IS&T seems to be only mildly affected financially, as well as in its membership and activities. I am grateful to my predecessor Eric Hanson for his foresight leading the society through tumultuous times safely, which allows me to continue in his path with serenity.

While attendance in some conferences and membership figures were slightly down, similar fluctuations have been seen over the last 10 year period. Our volunteers and staff have continued to support us as in the previous years. Nevertheless, the fast changing economic climate and fast changes in technologies poses challenges for the future planning of our activities that have a 2-3 year horizon.

The strength of our Society is the dedicated base of volunteers that serve on the board, in the conferences, as editors, and in various functions on committees. We have volunteers from all over the world and their professional background spans all areas of imaging science from materials to mathematical modeling. This breadth allows us to keep abreast the fast changes that images science and technology faces. I would like to acknowledge all of those that have served for IS&T in the last 12 months in the various functions on national or international level, during conferences and in committees. Your commitment is crucial and of high value to us. We hope to be able to count on you in the coming years.

The volunteers are seconded by a small and efficient staff with long professional experience and a very strong commitment to IS&T. Our Executive Director Suzanne Grinnan has lead and guided this group with efficiency and a strong background in conference organization. I appreciate very much to work with her and her team.

It is important for us to stay close to our members and conference attendees. Most functions in our volunteer organization comprise an automatic rotation of offices, which allows us to bring in new people with new ideas. I would like to invite all that care about imaging science and education to consider joining one of our various activities. I am convinced that it is a very rewarding experience to work with one of our groups of volunteers.

My special recognition goes to the two editors of our journals, namely Mel Sahyun (JIST) and Jan Allebach (JEI) with their group of associate editors. The publication of our communities research is an important task in a challenging environment as the tools and means to do so are in constant evolution.

Board of Directors

I amalso grateful to the dynamic and dedicated IS&T board members that have served this term 2009/2010. The IS&T Board met three times, in May connected to the Archiving conference, in September just before the NIP conference, and in January at EI. Task forces work on open innovation as part of our conferences, IS&T's role in the color community and our journal and publishing future. The Board has also appointed a committee to encourage nominations for awards and one to help select auditors and to update up auditing procedures.

Besides updating the bylaws to current practice, the board meetings looked at the longer term future of IS&T. You are invited to share your thoughts about our future direction with any Board member.

Conferences

An important part of our mission as a Society active in the technical development and research field is to identify topics that lead the way into the future. We welcome suggestions for new and exciting topics. Apart from sharing knowledge and experience, our conferences are meant to promote personal networks.

IS&T held seven major conferences during the July 2009 - June 2010 year. The Electronic Imaging Symposium, our largest conference comprises all major fields in Imaging. NIP / Digital Fabrication co-located meeting focuses more on output. The medium-sized Archiving is dedicated to digital image archival and preservation issues and counts many libraries, museums and archives among the participants. It is generally held close to a capital city and was held in Den Haag, the Netherlands in 2010. The Color Imaging Conference in the fall of 2009 in Albuquerque and CGIV in June 2010 in Finland served the color and vision community. Finally, the small Symposium on Technologies for Digital Photo Fulfillment takes our photo legacy into the future. In addition, IS&T cooperated with ICIS for their 2010 Congress in May in Beijing, China.

Corporate Members

We are grateful to our more than 20 corporate members for their financial support. Even more important to us, Corporate Members provide many of our volunteers, speakers, and participants at conferences and thus recognize the importance of our engagement in education and in the promotion of imaging sciences and technology.

Honors and Awards

One role of our Society is to acknowledge accomplishments of individuals and recognize the progress and leadership they have brought to the imaging community.

Ken Lindblom chaired the Honors and Awards Committee and James Reilly the HP Image Permanence Awards Committee. They selected 13 scientists, two important papers, and a worthy student for recognition. David McDowell received the IS&T Honorary membership for his "energetic and tireless support of standards in the graphic arts and imaging industries." My congratulations go to all our honorees.

I would like to thank the chairs and members of the committees for Honors & Awards, the HP image Permanence award and the Land medal for their commitment and diligence.

As every year, the recognitions represent the full range of technical and scientific areas in imaging. We rely heavily on expert in the various fields to provide names of worthy candidates. I would like to encourage all of you to consider proposing candidates for the 2011 nominations

Rita Hofmann
IS&T President, 2010 - 2011