Industry forum spotlights cancer

Frontiers in quantitative imaging for cancer detection and treatment was the theme of this year’s Industrial Physics Forum (IPF). The meeting, sponsored by the American Institute of Physics, was embedded in the American Association of Physicists in Medicine conference in Anaheim, California, in July. Among the topics covered were the role of computers in medicine, advances in breast imaging, advances in ultrasound, and nanotechnology in imaging and therapy.

Jerry Hobbs, one of the event’s organizers, notes that in meshing the IPF with a society meeting, “it boosts scientific content and ends up being an additional draw” for people to attend the host meeting.

One of the highlights at the annual IPF meeting is a session on frontier areas of physics—in any field. This year the session included talks on real-time DNA sequencing; opto-genetics; and breakthroughs in high-energy accelerators and the implications for smaller, cheaper medical accelerators.

The next IPF, which will be held in conjunction with the Optical Society of America’s fall 2010 meeting in Rochester, New York, will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the invention of the laser by focusing on advances in lasers and laser-related products.