President´s Message

At this moment I am returning from the Indian Antenna Week (IA W) workshop, which was coordinated by the Calcutta AP-SIMTT Chapter. This is the first AP-S financially co-sponsored conference outside North America. The workshop was held in Puri, a costal resort city south of Calcutta, and home of many sacred Hindu temples. After 35 years of attending workshops, I can say that this was the best ever, largely due to the effort and dedication of the IA W Chair Dr. Debatosh Guha and a remarkably active organizing committee. Every detail was careful1y handled, including the meals, the always-on-time schedule, and the mixture of academic-, government-, and industry-related presentations, which included a couple of tutorials. A particular treat was a presentation on the "Evolution of the Antenna Activities at ISRO Satellite Center" [ISRO is India\´s equivalent of NASA in the US]. This was given by Dr. S. Pal, a distinguished scientist who has been with the India satellite antenna program since its inception, in the early 1970s. I cannot tel1 you how refreshing it is to go to a small multiday conference with dedicated knowledgeable engineers and exceptional students. It\´s a rich experience we should all have regularly, one that many of our members have told us they want for the chance to interact in a small intimate setting, and also because it is not feasible for everyone to travel to the summer international Symposium every year. The AP-S AdCom has therefore approved two such conferences this year, and a third to begin next year.