From October 27 to November 2, the 2013 Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Nuclear Science Symposium & Medical Imaging Conference & Workshop on Room-Temperature Semiconductor X-Ray and Gamma-Ray Detectors (IEEE NSS/MIC/RTSD) conference took place at the COEX Convention Center in Seoul. Notably, Professor Gyu Seong Cho of KAIST Department of Nuclear and Quantum Engineering assumed the position of NSS Chair at the conference. The IEEE is the world’s largest professional association of academics and engineers that deals with a vast number of fields, including nuclear science and medical imaging, and according to 2010 figures, has over 395,000 members from around 160 different nations.

One of the most prodigious conferences in the field of nuclear science and medical imaging, the annual IEEE conference had some 1500 participants from South Korea alone and over 2000 participants overall from 50 nations, and some 1700 new works were presented. Held with the theme “Beyond Imagination of Future Science,” this year’s conference was set to be a major event not just for sharing research results, but for the opportunity to vitalize South Korea’s medical imaging industry. While this conference has previously taken place mostly in the United States, this year’s conference marks the first time it has been hosted by a country in the Asia-Oceania region in recognition of the recent achievements of South Korean researchers. This year also happens to be the 60th anniversary of this conference.