Newsletter 9 – May 2007

Newsletter 9

May 30, 2007

Dear PORSEC Association Members!

A note this time to let you know the status of our activities.

PORSEC 2006 in Korea had some very good sessions, some of which were summarized in the bulletin of the PORSEC Association Volume 1, Issue1, which appeared in March, 2006. You should have received a notice at that time. I hope you enjoyed this new modest publication that we have started.  More PORSEC 2006 sessions will be summarized in Issue 2 of the Bull. PA, which is due to appear in July, 2007.  I hereby solicit short article for Issue 2 on subjects that you would like to share with your PORSEC colleagues. We are open also to receiving Letters to the Editor regarding any concern about our science or the organization that you feel need airing. Please submit your material to katsaros at porsec.nwra.com  or to Gad Levy at gad at porsec.nwra.com by July 10, 2007. These articles will not be peer reviewed and should be very short.
(Convert the at to the @ sign when emailing us. We remove the @ to avoid harvesting by Òwrong-doersÓ.)

More information about PORSEC 2008 will be presented in issue 2 of Bulll. PA as well. The South China Sea Institute of Oceanology (SCSIO) will host the 2008 PORSEC.

A Special Issue of peer-reviewed articles based on the PORSEC 2006 is 
in preparation for the International Journal of Remote Sensing. Gad Levy is the Special Editor with J. Gower contributing as Associate Editor. Numerous submissions were received which are currently under review. We are very happy about this outcome.

A summary of theTsunami Workshop on Nov.1 at Pukyong NatÕl University is being published to reach a wide audience by EOS of the American Geophysical Union. Look for it soon.
 
We need everyone to pay up their membership. It gives us some operating funds. We have established the PORSEC Association as a non-profit corporation in the State of Washington, U.S.A. and have a PORSEC Association bank account with U.S. Bank. Since it is very costly to transfer money internationally ($10 per transaction at a minimum), we have opened an internet account in Paypal. Please see below how you will be able to send in your membership fee for 2006-2008, if you did not pay up at the PORSEC 2006. All folks who claim membership in the PORSEC Association ought to have a paid up membership. You can also donate money to the PORSEC Association.  Such funds will be well used for student scholarships and travel to the next PORSEC. You can direct us how to use your contribution. In the U.S. such contributions would be tax-deductible.

We also need some major support from institutions or foundations. Ideas for this aspect are welcome. We would like to have a fund to support students and speakers for 2008. We need such funds well in advance of the conference in order to select students in a way that allows them to plan their travel and save on tickets. You can approach your own institutions already and ask support for a student or two in addition to your own travel needs.

Yours,
Kristina Katsaros—
President of PORSEC Association
 
Vice President: Antony Liu,   LiuA at onrasia.navy.mil
Treasurer: W. Timothy Liu,  W.Timothy.Liu at jpl.nasa.gov
Executive Secretary: Gad Levy,   gad at porsec.nwra.com
Past President: Yasuhiro Sugimori ,
Past Vice ÐPresidents : Ming-Xia He, Z. S. Liu, James Gower,

PORSEC Association Committee–Chairs:
Publications: Bill Emery
Awards: Mal Heron
Elections: Pankajakshan Thadathil.

MEMBERSHIP
Please help keep up on the email contacts. When you have a change in email, please send a note to Dr. Gad Levy;  gad at porsec.nwra.com. We appreciate hearing from members with ideas and comments. In the next two months or so, the Executive Officers will be working on completing the membership spread sheet. For some of you, we only have the email address, and need more complete data including full name, place of work, position/title, interests in remote sensing etc. We would appreciate an email with such detail any time after receipt of this Newsletter sent to katsaros at porsec.nwra.com.

MEBMERSHIP FEES:  We encourage all members to pay their membership fee of $20 per year, $10 per year for students, usually paid in 2 year installments. These funds can be sent by check to our treasurer, Dr. W. Timothy Liu, Jet Propulsion Lab. Mail Stop 300-323, 800 Oak Grove Dr.,Pasadena, CA 91109-8099   if you have a U.S. bank account. If you donÕt have a U.S. bank account, the cost of cashing a foreign check is too high for these sumsÑof the order of $10. We have therefore established an internet payment account through Paypal. Payment this way will only cost about 4% of the transaction, not too bad.

If you did not pay the membership fee at PORSEC 2006 and we donÕt receive a check in the next 2 months, K.Katsaros (katsaros at porsec.nwra.com) will send you a request for a credit card payment via the Paypal site. It is reportedly very secure. The funds then appear in our Paypal account and can be transferred to the PORSEC AssociationÕs bank account. Thank you! It is your association, so please do support it.