43rd Bioassay Conference - Second Announcement

43rd Annual Conference on
Bioassay, Analytical and Environmental Radiochemistry

SECOND ANNOUNCEMENT

Dates: Sunday Nov 9 - Thursday Nov 13, 1997 Place: Francis Marion Hotel 387 King Street Charleston, SC 29403 Phone : 803-722-0600
The 43rd Annual Conference on Bioassay, Analytical and Environmental Radiochemistry will take place in the heart of the historic district of Charleston, SC at the Francis Marion Hotel. The annual conference is a vehicle for chemists, physicists, and dosimetrists to gain insight, share experience, and develop solutions to problems in a very informal setting. The sponsors for the 43rd annual conference will be Environmental Physics, Inc., Westinghouse Savannah River Company, Florida State University, Eichrom Industries, and The College of Charleston. The Conference Committee this year is making a concerted effort to plan the programs as far ahead as possible to enhance the coordination and overall quality of the meeting. We would like to solicit your help to accomplish this goal by sending in your registration form (page 6 of this announcement) and abstracts as soon as possible. The earlier we have your input concerning workshops or presentations, the better job we can do in fitting in your paper into the overall schedule.

HOTEL

Recently renovated, the Francis Marion is one of Charleston's most elegant hotels. Listed in the National Register of Historic Places, the Francis Marion has provided a magnificent setting for special occasions and important meetings for over 70 years. Located in the heart of the historic district, the Francis Marion Hotel is within easy walking distance of Charleston's wonderful restaurants, galleries, King Street shopping, and many historic attractions. The hotel has reserved a block of rooms for conference attendees at $92.00 plus tax. This rate will be good from November 6 through November 16. The block of rooms will be held only through October 8, 1997, so make your reservations early (Tel: 803-722-0600). For those requiring government per diem rates, a limited number of rooms have been reserved at a hotel outside of the downtown area that is accessible to the Francis Marion by public transportation. Information on how to obtain one of these rooms will be included in the next notification for this conference.

AUDIO/VISUAL EQUIPMENT

We will have an overhead projector, a 35-mm slide projector and flip charts available as well as a video player for the presentations during the technical sessions. Following the precedence set in previous years, we will not provide equipment for computerized slide presentations. If you have special needs or requirements other than those mentioned above, please contact Nancy Slater at Environmental Physics, Inc. (803-556-8171).

TRAVEL

Charleston is served by several major airlines including Delta, U.S. Air, Continental, Midway, Air South, and United Express. All major rental car agencies are located in the airport in Charleston. The Low Country Limo (Tel: 1-800-222-4771) provides transportation to downtown Charleston for approx. $15. The official travel agent for this conference will be Abbott & Hill, Inc. (Tel: 1-800-535-0956). Delta Airlines will be the official carrier for the conference and is offering a conference discount which can be obtained through Abbott & Hill.

REGISTRATION

In order to encourage early registration, we are offering a special rate for those registering prior to August 1, 1997. We urge you to pre-register as early as possible.

Early registration (prior to Aug. 1, 1997)	$110
Pre-registration (Aug. 1 - Oct. 8)	$120
Student registration prior to Oct. 8	$ 75
After Oct. 8 or on-site registration	$140
Spouse/Accompanying person registration	$75
Vendor exhibit (entitles 2 free registrations)	$750
Vendor exhibit after June 30 (entitles 2 free registrations)	$1000

As before, the main technical sessions will be held Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Vendors will exhibit their materials on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. On Sunday evening, an informal reception will be held at Environmental Physics, Inc. Other special events include a vendor reception on Monday evening at the Francis Marion, and a vendor-sponsored luncheon on Tuesday. There will be a low-country dinner and beach party on Wednesday evening at a beach house on Sullivan's Island. A Fun Run/Walk through historic Charleston is tentatively scheduled for Wednesday morning before the sessions. A tour and/or field trip of sites of interest to the participants is being arranged for Friday — details will be in the next announcement.

TECHNICAL PROGRAM

This year's conference, as in past years, will consist of a series of thematic workshops on Sunday and Monday with individual presentations in a general plenary session Tuesday through Thursday. We are happy to receive abstracts from all radiation professionals interested in discussing the latest techniques available for assessment of environmental radioactivity, bioassay, and related issues. The conference organizers are especially interested in receiving abstracts in the following areas: instruments/radioanalytical techniques, chemical separations, QA/QC considerations, whole body bioassay, and dose/risk assessment.

Please direct any questions concerning the technical program to: Bill Burnett, Environmental Radioactivity Measurement Facility, Department of Oceanography, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32306-3048; Tel: 904-644-6703; Fax: 904-644-2581; email: burnett@ocean.fsu.edu.

ABSTRACTS

We will accept preliminary abstracts at any time and in any format. Final abstracts (those to appear in the conference binder) must be submitted on hard copy in camera-ready form no later than August 31, 1997. Authors are encouraged to submit either extended abstracts (up to five pages inclusive of figures, tables, and references) or more traditional 1-page abstracts. The format is optional but we suggest: (1) all abstracts be submitted in camera-ready form without page numbers; (2) the name of the author who will be making the presentation should be underlined; (3) abstracts may be either single or double-spaced using a 10 or 12 point font; and (4) provide at least a 1" margin on all sides of standard 81/2" x 11" paper.

Send all abstracts to: Ms. Nancy Slater, Environmental Physics, Inc., 2040 Savage Road, Charleston, SC 29407; Fax: 803-766-1178; email: nancy.slater@gel.com

MEETING SCHEDULE

	Sunday 9 Nov 97	Monday 10 Nov 97	Tuesday 11 Nov 97	Wednesday 12 Nov 97	Thursday 13 Nov 97
AM	Golf Outing Workshop	Workshops	Technical Sessions	Fun Run/Walk Technical Sessions	Technical Sessions

Noon			Luncheon		End of Conference

PM	Workshops	Workshops	Technical Sessions	Technical Sessions	Tour/Field-trip (Friday)

Evening	Reception at EPI	Vendor Reception		Beach Party

TENTATIVE WORKSHOP SCHEDULE

The regular technical workshops are being held on the Sunday and Monday preceding the start of the Bioassay Conference on Tuesday. The workshops are designed to provide in-depth presentations and group discussions of radiochemistry issues and technologies in an informal setting. The tentative schedule for regular technical workshops is presented in the table below.

	Session I	Session II
Sunday Morning
9:00-12:00	Ordela PERALS Workshop VII
Sunday Afternoon
1:30-3:30	Packard	Canberra
3:45-5:30	EG&G ORTEC	Canberra
Monday Morning
8:00-10:00	DOE QA Program Pam Greenlaw	Oxford New Technology in LL alpha/beta counting
10:15 - 12:00	Eichrom	MDA and Detection Limits M. Hotchandani/ Rao
Monday Afternoon
1:00-3:00	DOE Mixed Waste Performance Evaluation program (MAPEP) Stan Morton	State-of-the-art in bioassay measurements
3:15-5:00	DOE/MAPEP continued Stan Morton	3M Empore Rad Disks

VENDOR EXHIBITS

A vendor exhibition will be held from Monday evening through Wednesday afternoon on the mezzanine level of the Francis Marion Hotel. Potential vendors should contact Mr. Mike Fern of Eichrom Industries, Inc. (630-963-0320), who is acting as the vendor liaison for the meeting.

CONFERENCE CONTACTS

General Information:	Ms. Nancy Slater; Address: Environmental Physics, Inc., 2040 Savage Road, Charleston, SC 29407; Phone: 803-556-8171; Fax: 803-766-1178; Email: nancy.slater@gel.com
Technical Program:	Dr. Bill Burnett; Address: Environmental Radioactivity Measurement Facility, Department of Oceanography, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32306; Phone: 904-644-6703; Fax: 904-644-2581; Email: burnett@ocean.fsu.edu
Workshops:	Dr. Moheb (Mo) Khalil; Address Westinghouse Savannah River Co., Building 735-16A, Aiken, SC 28908; Phone: 803-725-1997; Fax: 803-725-3272, Email: moheb.khalil@srs.gov
Vendors:	Mr. Mike Fern, Address: Eichrom Industries, 8205 S. Cass Ave, Suite 107, Darien, IL 60561; Phone: 630-963-0320; Fax: 630-963-1928; Email: mfern1409@aol.com

For additional information please see the Bioassay Home Page that has been designed and maintained by Donivan Porterfield at Los Alamos National Laboratory (Email: dporterfield@lanl.gov ). The internet address is: http://mwanal.lanl.gov/bioassay/bioassay.html

Bayesian Statistical Methods Workshop (Tentative)

A special 2-day workshop on "Bayesian Statistical Methods for Bioassay, Radiochemistry, and Internal Dosimetry" is tentatively planned to be held in conjunction with the Bioassay Conference. If arrangements can be made, the workshop will be held all day Thursday (Nov. 13) and until 3:00 p.m. on Friday (Nov. 14). This workshop/training session is being organized by Daniel Strom of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. The workshop is aimed at a Master's level person performing or using radiobioassay and radiochemistry measurements, will feature a detailed introduction to Bayesian and classical statistical methodologies, their application to radioactivity measurements and internal dosimetry, and a panel discussion session on regulatory acceptability and other issues. Contact Dan Strom at (509) 375-2626 or dj_strom@pnl.gov for additional information.