A Brief History of the Radionuclides in Nephrourology Group (ISCORN)

The meeting that stimulated the formation of the International Scientific Committee of Radionuclides in Nephrourology (ISCORN) group was held in Liege, Belgium, from June 22-26, 1967, in association with the 32nd Belgium Congress of Urology and on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the University of Liege. The symposium was organized by Drs. L. Timmermans, a urologist, and G. Merchie, a nuclear medicine physician. Papers were presented by participants from 32 countries and were subsequently published in book form in July 1969.1 A highlight of this volume is the review of the applications of radionuclides in diseases of the kidneys and urinary tract at that time by Drs. Timmermans and Merchie. This review contains approximately 800 references and is a classic in the history of the applications of radionuclides to nephrourology. Another remarkable thing about this meeting is that the majority of the speakers were invited by Dr. Timmermans during an extensive trip to the laboratories of the major contributors to the field at that time. The presentations included free communications, but the majority was composed of invited speakers and panels. Among the individuals who spoke at that meeting and are currently still active in the radionuclides in nephrourology group are myself and Keith Britton. I presented a paper on “Measurement of Mean Transit Time of 131I” and also cochaired the session on “Radioisotope Studies of Renal Transplantation of the Single Kidney and of Other Stresses on the Kidney.” I presented a lecture on “Renal Function following Homo-transplantation of the Kidney.” Keith spoke at the plenary session on “A New Method of Separation of Renal and Nonrenal Components of the Hippuran Renogram” and on “The Use of the Renogram Modified by Computer Assisted Blood Background Subtraction (CABBS) in Clinical Medicine.” Many other speakers at the meeting went on to become members of subsequent scientific committees of ISCORN, and they will be mentioned later. This monograph is a classic in the field, and I recommend it to anyone who has a genuine interest in this area.1 Another noteworthy fact about this meeting is that the inaugural address was given by J. Hamburger, from the Clinique Nephrologique, Hopital Necker, Paris, France. This set the stage for the integration of a multidisciplinary approach to the organization of these sessions. Drs. Timmermans and Merchie described this gathering in their forward as a First International Symposium, and they stated: “Only a part of the huge field has been covered during the symposium and we hope that this publication will encourage others to organize, in the near future, a second international symposium on the same subject.” During a visit to the United States in 1969, Jean-Louis Funck-Brentano from the Hopital Necker visited my laboratory to discuss the concept of a follow-up to the first symposium with planned recurrences. Jean Louis had chaired the session at the first meeting on “New Methods of Functional Examinations of the Kidneys by Radioisotopes.” He and I met in New York and again in Paris to formulate the organization of such a group. During his visit to New York, he, my wife, and I had our first look, with his urging, at the recently completed Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. We developed the concept of a Scientific Committee that would be a self-perpetuating group from which the chairman of each meeting would be chosen and which would choose members to rotate on and off the committee as needed. The Scientific Committee was to be an international group of people active in the field representing many disciplines. Their charge would be to raise money for the meeting, review the submitted abstracts, and carry out the organizational responsibilities associated with such a group. It was agreed that the organization would not be a formal society, dues would not be requested, and it would have no permanent ties to any other existing society but would exist as an independent committee whose goal was to sponsor research in the use of radionuclides in nephrourology. The aim was to attract an audience of participants that would include nephrologists, urologists, renal physiologists, radiochemists, nuclear medicine physicians, and scientists from other related disciplines with an interest in the kidney. The purpose of the meeting was to bring together a moderate-sized group for intensive discussion of the activities in this area. It was initially planned that the meetings would take place at approximately 3 yearly intervals to allow sufficient activity to occur to provide a strong basis for discussion. It was also decided that the meetings would rotate between the United States and Europe, that there would be a chairperson at the site of the meeting and the secondary chair would be from the opposite continent and would host a Scientific Committee Meeting at least once between Symposia. The first of the symposia based on this model occurred on January 25 to 27, 1971, for 3 days in New York City. It was sponsored by the International Society of Nephrology and the Society of Nuclear Medicine, although there was no formal or financial tie to either of these organizations. Jean Louis and I and the Scientific Committee raised enough money to invite all of the participants at our expense. There were 100 invited participants from 17 countries. Drs. Claudio Bianchi from Italy, Mark Joekes from Great Britain, Sam Kountz from the United States, Claude Raynaud from France, and Karl zum Winkel from Germany were invited to join the Scientific Committee. In addition, in recognition of his chairmanship of the initial symposium, Dr. L. Timmermans from Belgium participated in the Scientific Committee. A photo of this group is shown in Figure 1. Dr. Kountz did not participate in the meeting. Unfortunately, a few years later, he contacted encephalitis during a visit to Africa and died. Since the formulation of the first committee, 46 individuals from 18 countries have served on the committee (Table 1). Funding was obtained from no less than 8 organizations in the United States, 7 organizations in France, 2 in Great Britain, and 1 in Germany, including a contract from the Health Services and Mental Health Administration of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare. Notable topics that were included were renal blood flow, radioimmunoassay, metabolism and body composition, autoradiography, clearances, imaging procedures, and radionuclide renography. The participants constituted a who’s who in the study of renal function and disease. The Proceedings were published by Grune & Stratton in 1972.2 Again, Keith Britton and I are the only members of the currently active group who presented papers at this meeting. Drs. Timmermans and Merchie from the original group attended. Among some of the more recognizable names of individuals who presented papers are L. Rosenthall from Montreal General Hospital, Montreal, J. Ladefoged from Copenhagan, E. Oberhausen from the Institute for the University of Biophysics, Saar, A.C. Barger, Harvard Medical School, Boston, N.K. Hollenberg, Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, Boston, J. Laragh from Columbia University, New York, and M. Maxwell from the University of California, Los Angeles, as well as many other prominent individuals and members of the Scientific Committee.

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Figure 1. This group photograph of the Scientific Committee was taken in New York City at the Radionuclides in Nephrology Meeting at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in 1971. From left to right are Claudio Biachi, Italy, Karl zum Winkel, Germany, Jean-Louis Funck Brentano, France, M. Donald Blaufox, United States, Mark Joekes, United Kingdom, and Claude Raynaud, France. Missing from the photograph is Dr. L. Timmermans, who can be seen Figure 3.

Table 1. Radionuclides in Nephrourology: Scientific Committee Members

	Name	1971 New York	1974 Berlin	1977 Boston	1981 London	1986 Lausanne	1989 Williamsburg	1992 Chester	1995 Santa Fe	1998 Copenhagen	2001 Monterey	2004 LaBaule	2007 Antalya
	M. Aurell – Sweden							x	x
	A. Basu – India						x
	U. Berg – Sweden									x
	C. Bianchi – Italy	x
	M. D. Blaufox – USA	x,c	x	x	x	x	x,c	x	x	x	x	x	x
	K. Britton – UK								x	x	x	x
	N. J. Brown – UK				x
	B. Bubeck – Germany									x	x
	T. Constable – UK				x	x
	A. Bischof- Delaloye – Switzerland				x	x,c	x	x	x
	D. de Palma – Italy												x
	E. Dubovsky – USA								x	x	x	x
	H. Eliahou – Israel			x
	B. Erbas – Turkey											x	x,c
	A. Eskild-Jensen – Denmark												x
	E. Fommei – Italy								x	x	x
	J. Frokiaer – Denmark											x	x
	J.-L. Funck-Brentano – France	x	x	x
	G. Granerus – Sweden									x	x
	N. Grenier – France											x	x
	N. Hollenberg – USA			x,c	x	x	x
	K. Itoh – Japan							x	x	x	x
	A. M. Joekes – UK	x	x	x	x,c	x
	S. Kountz – USA	x
	J. Kuywenhoven – Netherlands												x
	L. Linkoping – Sweden									x
	T. Machida – Japan				x
	T. Minami – Japan		x
	O. Munck – Denmark		x	x	x	x
	R. Nagel – Germany		x
	J. Nally – USA						x	x	x	x	x,c	x
	P. O’Reilly – UK					x	x	x,c	x	x	x	x
	P. Orellana – Chile											x
	A. Piepsz – Belgium							x	x	x	x	x	x
	A. Prigent – France									x	x	x,c	x
	C. Raynaud – France	x		x	x	x	x
	G. Riccabona – Austria						x
	L. Rosenthall – Canada						x	x	x
	M. Rossleigh – Australia										x	x	x
	M. Rutland – New Zealand										x	x
	M. Samal – Czech Republic												x
	J. Takeuchi – Japan			x
	W. Tauxe – USA				x
	A. Taylor – USA					x	x	x	x,c	x	x	x	x
	H. Testa – UK							x	x
	H. Thomsen – Denmark						x	x	x	x,c	x
	L. Timmermans – Belgium	x		x	x
	B. Truniger – Switzerland			x
	K. zum Winkel – Germany	x	x,c	x	x	x

The members of the scientific committees for the ISCORN symposia are indicated by an “x” in the appropriate column; “c” indicates that the person served as chairperson of the meeting listed in that column.

The next Scientific Committee Meeting took place in Paris in the spring of 1973. It is indelibly stamped in my memory because this was the time of the impending impeachment of Richard Nixon. I remember to this day having dinner with the Scientific Committee in a lovely bistro and the ensuing discussion. The Europeans in the group were very pro-Nixon, and I strongly defended the fact that the United States allowed no man to rise above the law and that whether he was impeached or not, calm and continuity would prevail. The Scientific Committee at this time, was chaired by Karl zum Winkel, and had been formulated in anticipation of the third Symposium to be held in Berlin, April 1-3, 1974, under the sponsorship of the Ministerium fur Forschung und Technologie of the Federal Republic of Germany. By this time, the custom had developed to have the host of the Scientific Committee Meeting pay for the hotel and dinner expenses for all of the Scientific Committee. Meetings that were hosted by Funck-Brentano were always exceptional. It was his custom to have visitors up to his home on the Left Bank of Paris opposite Notre Dame Cathedral. In that magnificent setting he served copious amounts of Dom Perignon champagne. During this visit, he took us all to a charity event, where we had the opportunity for a close up of Maria Callas. The subsequent symposium was held in Germany and was attended by 130 participants from 18 different nations. The clinical subjects covered were similar to the preceding Symposia.3 I attended the meeting directly from a lecture tour in Russia and entered West Berlin by way of East Berlin. The remarkable contrast between Russia, East and West Berlin cannot be forgotten.

The next meeting was held in 1977 in Boston under the chairmanship of Norman Hollenberg. That meeting turned out to be one of the largest ever, with 170 participants. In the preface to the publication,4 Dr. Hollenberg wrote “The publication of a Monograph provides the most visible but perhaps not the most substantive product of a small international meeting. In the long run, the most substantive product will be the new ideas and new insights which individuals who share common interests, common goals and common technical and methodologic problems, but who work in a wide variety of disciplines must achieve when a small meeting brings them together and provides an opportunity for them to talk and listen. Perhaps the safest prediction for the next ten years is that a continuation of these meetings will provide the same important product.” The Scientific Committee chose Mark Joekes to chair the next meeting in London, England, when Dr. Munck declined. This meeting took place in London from September 2 to 4, 1981, at the Royal Society. Although the Symposium was published under the title “Radionuclides in Nephrology,” several modifications to the format occurred at this session. It was proposed that future meetings be called “Radionuclides in Nephrourology” to emphasize the importance of the techniques to urology and at the meeting itself, obstructive uropathy and kidney transplantation were stressed in the presentations. The Scientific Committee chairman was Mark Joekes with Newlon Tauxe, cochairman and with the intent to have the next meeting in the United States. Tony Constable served as secretary.5 The organization differed a little in having two chairmen, a local organizing committee and an international committee. This structure was unique to this meeting and was abandoned in subsequent meetings.

Dr. Joekes wrote in the preface “There can be no serious nephrourological unit that can now undertake clinical work without the aid of radionuclide investigations.” At this meeting Dr. Tauxe was elected chairman of the next symposium that was to be held in the United States. Subsequently, the group came very close to meeting its demise. Whereas the chairs of the previous meetings had all participated actively in the planning sessions before taking over sole responsibility for a meeting, Dr. Tauxe had never actually attended a planning committee and was not familiar with the process. The sixth meeting was planned for June 9-11, 1984, without consultation with the Scientific Committee. It was turned over to the Society of Nuclear Medicine to distribute the abstracts and actually run the meeting. Abstracts were due May 1st for the June meeting which made it impossible to convene the Scientific Committee, review the abstracts and plan a scientific program. In addition, most members of the committee had already made other commitments and could not attend the actual meeting. Therefore, the planned meeting in Los Angeles was cancelled. An emergency meeting was called for the Scientific Committee at the Ciba Foundation House in London on Saturday, November 10, 1984, to review membership on the Scientific Committee, the choice of a new chairman, a proper time to hold the next meeting and some form of operational principles to guide the organization in the future to prevent similar misunderstandings.

As a result of the involvement of the Society of Nuclear Medicine in planning for the aborted meeting, the Scientific Committee was presented with a bill for $4,510.59 for their services. The emergency meeting took place as planned and was attended by Drs. Bischof-Delaloye, Hollenberg, Joekes, Munck, Raynaud, zum Winkel, and Tony Constable and me. At that time, Dr. Delaloye volunteered to chair the next meeting as well as a meeting of the Scientific Committee to plan for the next symposium that was held in Lausanne on the 15th of April, 1984. During the London meeting, the Scientific Committee was reconstituted. Tony Constable was chosen as treasurer to disburse the funds that were left over from the meeting in London. A position of past chairman was created which would be the third officer of the group. The chairman of each meeting would be given the option of choosing an individual who would work to help organize the meeting and would be designated secretary to the chairman. However, the secretary would not serve as an official member on the Scientific Committee and this option was seldom exercised. The Scientific Committee was expanded to include at least nine members. A category of life membership was developed but was never put into action formally, although Dr. Taylor and I continue to serve. The name of the meeting was also discussed and although Dr. Hollenberg was not in agreement with this concept, it was changed from Radionuclides in Nephrology to Radionuclides in Nephrourology. Subsequently, the multidisciplinary participation in the meetings began to decline somewhat and the participation by renal physiologists and other related disciplines was not as great as in the initial meetings. Needless to say, the correspondence surrounding the aborted meeting in Los Angeles and the attempt to resolve the issues that arose in London was voluminous and this is a brief synopsis. Fortunately, we were able to gain enough support to bring the group back together and to hold the projected meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland in 1986 under the leadership of Dr. Delaloye. The meeting was held May 5-7, 1986. There was a small local committee to help with the arrangements. The topics included in this meeting were somewhat different from previous topics, with some overlap. They included renal physiology, radiopharmaceuticals, renal function, renal imaging, comparative/competitive methods, metabolic disease, hypertension, transplantation, pediatrics, and urologic disease. The abstracts were published for the first time in the Journal of Nuclear Medicine. Also, registration fees were now being charged, which were at the rate of 180 Swiss francs for full participation. In May of 1984, Dr. Tauxe paid the Society of Nuclear Medicine $2,530.44, settling our debt to that group and restoring our independence.

It was decided in Lausanne that Drs. M.D. Blaufox, N.K. Hollenberg, and C. Raynaud would serve as chairmen for the next meeting. One hundred seventy-seven individuals from 21 countries attended the meeting in Lausanne. The general format of the meeting began to change at this time as we switched over to the use of invited speakers to provide review topics. Reviews were given by Drs. O’Reilly, Macintyre, and Blaufox and H.R. Brunner on urologic applications of radionuclides, nuclear magnetic resonance imaging, renal physiology and renal radiopharmaceuticals, and the renin system in hypertension, respectively. The possibility of sponsoring a multi-institutional study of captopril renography was also discussed at this time, but it never came to being under the group sponsorship. The meeting in Lausanne also introduced the use of poster sessions to facilitate a greater exchange of information since there was not enough time on the oral program to accommodate everybody. Because of space limitations in the book, only the oral contributions were published.6 Although the stationery reflected the change of name of the group to Radionuclides in Nephrourology, the book continued to be published under the title Radionuclides in Nephrology. The site for the next meeting was chosen as Williamsburg, Virginia. A Scientific Committee Meeting was held under the auspices of Dr. Claude Raynaud, January 19-20, 1989, in Paris. A letter in 1989 stated that each chairman would allocate $1,500 from the meeting for the next chairman. The general lack of an organized financial repository had caused start-up problems for many of the chairs of the meeting and, later at the 2004 meeting in LaBaule, it was decided to keep the money centrally in Paris in Euros. The Williamsburg meeting abstracts were published in the Journal of Nuclear Medicine. This meeting was held during the week of May 7, 1989, with 120 physicians and scientists from 19 countries in attendance. Attendees included physiologists, chemists, urologists, nephrologists, pediatricians, and nuclear medicine physicians as well as representatives from other specialties. Captopril renography had begun, at this time, to have a significant impact on the practice of radionuclides in nephrology. MAG3 had appeared on the European market but was not yet approved in the United States. More than 100 abstracts were received for 35 places on the program.

The eighth meeting of the group was designated to be under the chairmanship of Dr. Patrick O’Reilly with Dr. Andrew Taylor and Dr. Leonard Rosenthall serving as cochairpersons. A repetition date of approximately every 3 years was reaffirmed. A special invited paper was given in Williamsburg by Dr. Hollenberg on “ACE Inhibition and the Renal Circulation: Pathogenesis and Nonmodulation in Essential Hypertension.”7 This was the first time that the title of the published Proceedings of the meeting was changed from Radionuclides in Nephrology to Radionuclides in Nephrourology, although this term was being used to describe the Scientific Committee and the meeting in general. At the time of this meeting, it was agreed again to request each of the members of the Scientific Committee to raise 500 U.S. dollars toward subsequent meetings to provide seed money for the group. This was the first indication that commercial support funds were becoming scarcer. This meeting was listed as a satellite meeting of the American Society of Hypertension, which was held in New York the following week. The Scientific Committee Meeting before the next meeting in the United Kingdom, which was to take place in Chester, England, was held under the auspices of Dr. Leonard Rosenthall in Montreal, Canada. Before that time, all of the Scientific Committee meetings had been held in either New York, London, or Paris, with one in Lausanne and before the London meeting there was a gathering of the group in Bath, England, where we all got to try to catch a “blown cow” (Fig. 2). One Scientific Committee was subsequently held in Copenhagen, and the majority of the Scientific Committee Meetings were held in Paris because of its convenience in terms of proximity for all of the European members of the Committee. Attendance at the meeting in Chester, UK, in 1992 was quite good with approximately one hundred thirty attendees. The subjects emphasized at that time were radiopharmaceuticals, renal function and hypertension, pediatric problems and urodynamics, as well as the developing role of captopril renography and hypertension. The Proceedings of the Symposium were published.8

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Figure 2. While we were grading abstracts at the country farm of Mark Joekes, someone came in and exclaimed there was a “blown cow” (a cow with colic). We all donned farming gear and after unsuccessfully trying to catch the cow, posed for this photo. Shown from left to right are Angelica Bischof-Delaloye, Mark Joekes, N.J. Brown, Dub Tauxe, Ole Munck, Don Blaufox, Claude Raynaud, and Tony Constable. (Color version of figure is available online.)

The next meeting of the group took place in Santa Fe. This meeting was chaired by Dr. Taylor with Drs. Nally and Thomsen serving as vice chairs. The meeting was held May 1-3, 1995, and one of the accomplishments at the meeting was to review the three consensus reports that had been worked on since 1992 when the group decided that there was sufficient controversy over various radionuclide methodologies to warrant an effort to resolve their utilization and try to develop a consensus. The 3 consensus reports were devoted to renovascular hypertension, renal clearances and obstructive uropathy. The consensus reports were published both in the Proceedings of the meeting9 and in the Journal of Nuclear Medicine.10, 11, 12

The consensus on evaluation of renal infection with scintigraphy in children began to be formulated in November of 1996.13 The accepted abstracts were published in Nuclear Medicine Communications. The concept of developing consensus reports was the single greatest innovation introduced at this meeting. This meeting was sponsored by the Education and Research Foundation of the Society of Nuclear Medicine. The next meeting of the group took place in Copenhagen Denmark, May 14-16, 1998 (Figure 3, Figure 4).14 The meeting attracted 125 participants and another unique organizational decision was made. The meeting was preceded by educational workshops that were meant to bring people who were not actively involved in the field up to date. The Scientific Committee was joined in discussion by J. Djurhus, J. Frokiaer, O. Munck, and M. Rehling, who were not official members of the Scientific Committee at this time but represented rather a very active organizing committee. During 1999, several additional consensus reports were published: Quality control of quantitative measurements of renal function obtained from the renogram, chaired by Dr. Prigent,15 Renal cortical scintigraphy in children with urinary tract infection chaired by Dr. Piepsz,13 and a report on evaluation of the transplanted kidney chaired by Eva Dubovsky.16

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Figure 3. Dr. Timmermans on the left and Ole Munck are engaged in a boisterous conversation during a pleasant boat excursion that took place in Copenhagen. (Color version of figure is available online.)

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Figure 4. This photograph was taken at the dinner of the Scientific Committee in June 1998, Copenhagen. Shown in the photograph from left to right are Dr. Itoh, Japan, Keith Briton, United Kingdom, M. Donald Blaufox, United States, Eva Dubovsky, United States, Enza Fommei, Italy, Henrik Thomsen, Denmark, Amy Piepsz, Belgium, Angelica Bischof-Delaloye, Switzerland, Alain Prigent, France, Bernd Bubeck, Germany, Goran Graneus, Sweden, Joseph Nally, United States, Jorgen Frokiaer, Denmark, Andrew Taylor, United States, Ole Munck, Denmark, and standing behind Dr. Fommei is Michael Rehling, Denmark. (Color version of figure is available online.)

Following the tradition that had been established in 1971 with the exception of the meeting in Lausanne in 1986, the symposium rotated back to the United States, and the next meeting was held in Monterey under the auspices of Dr. Joseph Nally. The Scientific Committee Meeting for Monterey took place January 13-14, 2001, in Paris under the hospitality of Alain Prigent. Registration for the Monterey Symposium was $350 for the symposium and $175 for the course. This continuing relatively low fee for the meeting reflects the successful efforts of the various chairman and members of the Scientific Committee to raise support from industrial supporters at large. Many major firms have contributed to the Symposia and in recent years Tyco International and Mallinckrodt have been major supporters. The group is appreciative of the many commercial and nonprofit sponsors that helped make this possible. None of the commercial sponsors have ever made an effort to influence the content of the meetings. The concept of having a web site for the group was suggested by Andrew Hilson at the meeting in Monterey. The meeting in Monterey was particularly memorable for me since I received the first Lifetime Achievement Award of the International Society of Radionuclides in Nephrology. Another unique thing about the meeting in Monterey was that the decision was made for the first time, not to publish the Proceedings because of the great deal of expense involved. Instead it was agreed to publish the abstracts of the meeting in the Alasbimn Journal, which can be found at www.alasbimnjournal.cl/revistas/12/abstracts/index.html. The workshops were continued, a new consensus committee was formed to deal with transit time, which proved to be a very difficult one to tackle. There was a special ad-hoc committee meeting in May 2002 to deal with problems related to the constitution of the group, the frequency of the meetings, term of service of the officers, relationships with other organizations, roll of postgraduate courses, and broadening the audience. This meeting was held Thursday, May 2, 2002, at the hotel d’Aubusson in Paris and was attended by Drs. Blaufox, Britton, Dubovsky, Frokiaer, Granerus, O’Reilly, Piepsz, Prigent, and Taylor. A follow-up meeting in 2003 of the Scientific Committee took place in Rye, New York and for the first time introduced the current name of the group ISCORN, which is meant to stand for International Scientific Committee of Radionuclides in Nephrourology. The concept of using invited speakers who were acknowledged experts in their various areas related to radionuclides in nephrourology was expanded and it was agreed that at the next meeting that would take place in LaBaule France in 2004 would have speakers in related fields including functional and molecular imaging, not only with nuclear techniques but also magnetic resonance, computed tomography, and positron emission tomography. These multidisciplinary sessions provided a comprehensive overview of the whole field of molecular imaging of the kidney. At the planning meeting for LaBaule that was held at the Rye Town Hilton, March 15, 2003, in New York, it was agreed to continue with the consensus report on renal transit, which was initially chaired by Dr. R Rutland and later by Drs. Durand and Blaufox. The meeting was attended by Drs. Blaufox, Frokiaer, Nally, Prigent, Piepsz, and Taylor.

The LaBaule meeting had a total attendance of 118 people. Rather than publish a proceedings, which the group had already declared was not financially viable, Drs. Prigent and Piepsz undertook the daunting task of preparing a book compiled from the expert presentations.17 One of the disappointing trends noted at the meeting in Monterey and LaBaule was the decreasing number of Americans who were attending the meeting. Because of a decline in interest in nuclear medicine in nephrourology in the United States, it was decided that the next meeting would be held in Europe instead of the United States, and Dr. Erbis agreed to chair this session in Antalya, Turkey. The planning meeting for Antalya was in Paris, June 5, 2006. Drs. Blaufox, Erbas, Eskild-Jensen, Frokiaer, Kuyvenhoven, Piepsz, Prigent, and Taylor attended. The meeting in Antalya was attended by 105 registrants from 22 countries (Figure 5, Figure 6). At a meeting of the Scientific Committee in Antalya, Dr. Martin Samal was elected chair of the next meeting that will take place in 2007 in the Czech Republic. This will be the first time the meeting has been held in an Eastern European country. Dr. Samal has already launched efforts to make this meeting a success and has obtained preliminary agreement for support of the meeting from the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, Austria.

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Figure 5. A group of attendees and members of the Scientific Committee from the meeting in Antalya, Turkey. Dr. Erbas, who chaired the meeting, can be seen fourth from the right. Standing behind her is Andrew Taylor and on the far left Eva Dubovsky. Several “significant others” are there as well. The photograph was taken during a balloon ride at the post-meeting trip to Cappadoccia. (Color version of figure is available online.)

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Figure 6. Shown above are Dr. Amy Piepsz with me, during a visit to a Greek Amphitheater in Turkey enjoying an afternoon break from the meeting. (Color version of figure is available online.)

So this remarkable recurring Symposium has persisted for 40 years. This has been accomplished with no members’ dues and no ties to any organization. It is a testimony to the dedication of a few individuals to the continuing development of a vital field. It has been a wonderful rewarding experience for me both intellectually and socially. Further information about the group can be found on the website: www.ISCORN.org that is currently managed by Drs. Taylor and Blaufox.