The British Chapter of the Society of Magnetic Resonance

ISSUE 2

June 1997

In our first newsletter, the reasons for setting up a British Chapter of the ISM RM were detailed by Prof Griffiths. In a nutshell, the combined size of the merg ed SMRM and SMRI and its firm base in the USA made the voice of members from Great Britain and Ireland seem very small, despite the fact that there is a thriving MR community here. The purpose of the British Chapter was to fulfil the role of the parent society within the British Isles, and its formation in 1994 was strongly supported by UK members of the ISMRM at the time. Fortunately it has continued to be supported by its membership and has succeeded in its stated intention to provide regular meetings at which clinical and scientific interactions could be discussed and to provide a forum for workshops and conferences. The British Chapter bylaws also emphasise its role in promoting research activity and commun ication of research findings in MR in the British Isles, and the Chapter is part icularly keen to support and encourage junior researchers in th is respect.

Committee Membership of the British Chapter of ISMRM

There are currently 10 committee members including three officers :

Professor John Griffiths (Chairman)
Professor Roger Ordridge (Secretary)
Professor Peter Morris (Treasurer)
Ms. Ann Case
Dr Mike Conway
Dr. Donald Hadley
Dr. Jane Hawnaur
Professor David Gadian
Professor Martin Leach
Professor Ian Young

Members of the committee normally serve a three year term, although this is flex ible in the early years, to allow a balance between continuity and turnover of m embership, and to ensure that there is representation for all British Chapter members, including clinical radiologists and radiographers. Ann Case (radiographer) and David Gadian (physicist) will end their committee membership at the end of 1997. On behalf of all the membership, we would like to thank them for their services to the British Chapter. Nominations for two replacement committee memb ers are invited from the British Chapter membership, who should support their no mination with a petition signed by at least five Chapter members of good standing. Nominations should be sent to Professor Roger Ordidge at the Department of Medical Physics and Bioengineering, UCL, 1st floor, Shropshire House, 11-20 Capper Street, London WC 1E 6JA. Dr David Lomas (radiologist) and Mrs Kathy Westbrook (radiographer) have been nominated by the committee as potential members and will be automatically elected if no other nominations are received by the closing date of 1st August 1997. Voting will be by a postal ballot.

Annual meeting of the British Chapter of the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine

The 1996 Annual meeting was held in London on December 19th and 20th, and by all yardsticks was a great success. The organising committee (led by Roger Ordidge) had to juggle the schedule almost to the last moment to accommodate the large number of high quality abstracts submitted. By running parallel sessions for presentations and having a large number of posters, the meeting provided a broad ran ge of current MR research from animal studies to zeugmatography. Attendance was up compared to last year (from 90 to 180) including a larger proportion of students. The main social event, the jazz supper, was popular with all and the lunche on vouchers kept us in sandwiches for weeks afterwards. The final measure of suc cess was that the meeting finances finished in positive balance, even given the subsidised student registration fees.

This year's meeting will be held in Manchester on December 22nd and 23rd. This has to be late in the month to enable us to take advantage of low-cost University accommodation, but has the advantage that the venue is likely to be within walking distance of the city centre for last minute Xmas shopping. The aim will rem ain to provide a forum for scientists, clinical radiologists or technicians to p resent their research and to encourage cross-fertilization of ideas and experien ces. To that end, it is planned to invite the Magnetic Resonance Radiologists Asociation (MMRA) and members of the MRI group of the British Institute of Radiology (BIR) to take part in the meeting. The British chapter is particularly keen t hat its student members take part in the Annual meeting and has instigated a sys tem of bursaries to encourage their participation (vide infra).

Annual PhD Student/Post-Doc Meeting at Hammersmith Hospital on 11 March 1997

This highly informed meeting, with no registration fees, at which only students and newly-qualified post-docs are allowed to present their work, was held once more. The Hammersmith Hospital provided an excellent venue and the organisation, under the leadership of Dr Jimmy Bell, was flawless.

Annual Subscription to the British Chapter of ISMRM

Membership fees for 1997 are now due and are unchanged at 20 pounds sterling for members of the ISMRM. Fees should be forwarded to Professor Peter Morris, Department of Physics, University Park, Nottingham, NG7 2RD. Students Eligibility for student membership of the British Chapter will use the same criteria that the main Society uses to decide eligibility for Student membership of the ISMRM. Stu dent members will be eligible to apply for bursaries to assist with the cost of attending the annual British Chapter meeting. Details will follow together with announcements of the next meeting.

Tax relief on annual subscriptions:

Professor Morris has received formal approval from the Inland Revenue for tax relief on subscriptions to the British Chapter of the ISMRM (but not the main ISMRM membership fee). This is back-dated to 6th April 1996, but it may take some time before the Chapter's name appears on the approved list of charities.

Advanced Notice on Future Workshops/Meetings

Organisation of many of these meeting is ongoing but you may like to make a note of those of interest:

MRI and MRS in Sports physiology. Joint meeting of BIR/ IPEMB/ MRRA, London January 1998
Non-oncological clinical MRS. March 1998
European workshop on Cardiac MR ? late 1998
Annual meeting of British Chapter of ISMRM, Nottingham 1998
Annual meeting of ISMRM, Glasgow 2001

Last modified: September 23, 1997

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