2009 CAP Congress DNP Business Meeting Minutes
The meeting was called to order by (outgoing) DNP Chair Malcom Butler circa 12:30, Monday 8 June 2009. He reported that the DNP presently has 167 members, of whom 123 are full members and 44 students. The Chair noted that Geoff Grinyer received the Thesis Prize of $750 and Garth Huber made a motion to increase the cash value of the prize to $1000. The motion was seconded by Barry Davids and passed. Malcom Butler then presented the outgoing secretary/treasurer Greg Hackman’s report in abbreviated form. Our bank balance as of 1 January 2009 was $10 299. There was a $298 surplus in 2008, but this is misleading because it does not include the $750 cheque for the 2008 DNP Thesis prize paid in 2009. As a result, an $800 deficit is predicted for 2009. Our financial position is sustainable, and membership is stable.
The election of the 2009-2011 DNP executive was the next order of business. There were two nominees for each position: Jens Dilling and Jeff Martin for Chair-Elect, and Barry Davids and Rob Pywell for Secretary-Treasurer. Fifty ballots were returned but only 45 were valid, because 4 were from people with lapsed memberships and one was incorrectly filled out. The results were:
Secretary Treasurer: 25 votes for Barry Davids and 19 for Rob Pywell.
Chair Elect: Jens Dilling received 26 votes and Jeff Martin 18 votes.
The the 2009-2011 DNP executive members are:
Chair: Kumar Sharma (Manitoba) sharma-at-physics.umanitoba.ca
Chair-Elect: Jens Dilling (TRIUMF) jdilling-at-triumf.ca
Secretary-Treasurer: Barry Davids (TRIUMF) davids-at-triumf.ca
Past Chair: Malcolm Butler (Saint Mary’s) malcolm.butler-at-smu.ca
Erich Vogt noted that the venue for the 2010 International Nuclear Physics Conference is Vancouver, with DNP Chair-Elect Jens Dilling acting as chair. Wim van Oers brought up the fact that the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics will award 3 Young Scientist awards at this conference, and expressed his hope that a Canadian would be among them. Nominations can be made through the IUPAP website at http://www.triumf.info/hosted/iupap/C12/IUPAP_prize.html .
Kumar Sharma made a few remarks about the interactions between the Canadian Institute of Nuclear Physics (CINP) and the DNP, and Malcom Butler suggested that the CINP scientific working groups should play a role in the selection of the program for the 2010 CAP Congress and in the NSERC long range planning process, which will begin in spring or summer 2010.
Erich Vogt suggested that the DNP should take a role in commenting on Atomic Energy Canada Limited’s radiopharmaceutical debacle, attributing its difficulties to layoffs and early retirements of nuclear physicists and reactor engineers in the 1990’s. Adam Sarty suggested that CINP and CAP might make a joint statement, and Shelley Page promised to bring the matter before the science policy committee of the CAP. Finally, Art MacDonald suggested that nuclear engineering education is faltering in Canada, and noted that education is one of the 4 pillars of the government’s science and technology policy. The meeting adjourned circa 13:15.