REPORT ON THE OPEN COMMISSION MEETINGS (BUSINESS MEETINGS)
Chair: Professor U. Stumper (Germany)
Vice-Chair: Dr. M. Kanda (USA)
The Commission held three Open Commission Meetings, respectively on 29, 30 August and 3 September, 1996. Dr. W.J. Klepczynski kindly volunteered his services as rapporteur for the first two business sessions, and Mr. R.W. Yell for the third.
First Open Commission Meeting (29 August 1996)
1. The first item of business was the approval of a list of 18 items for the agenda of the meeting. This was followed by the distribution and brief discussion of the minutes of the last Business Meeting held at the XXIVth General Assembly (Kyoto, 1996)
2. The discussion next centered on the Chair's report. The Chair pointed out that while Commission A is a small commission, it was involved in a lot of activity at this General Assembly. It organised four scientific sessions and was involved in 6 joint sessions which contained 111 papers.
Commission A, along with Commission G, nominated one of the General lecturers, W. Lauterborn (Germany), who lectured on Non-linear Physics and Chaos. The work of the Vice-Chair was recognized.
3. Discussion of the CPEM conference followed. This conference was sponsored by Commission A of URSI and 4 other organisations (BIPM, IEEE Instrumentation and Measurement, NIST and NRC). CPEM 94 was held in Boulder, CO, and CPEM 96 was held in Braunschweig, Germany. Another conference sponsored by Commission A, the EM Compatibility Conference, was also discussed. EMC 94 was held in Rome (September 1994) and EMC 96 was held in Zurich (March 1996). Since the aims of these conferences are acceptable and consistent with the aims of URSI, it was agreed to recommend continuing sponsorship of these Conferences.
4. Representatives of URSI Commission A to other activities gave their reports. Prof. S. Leschiutta (Italy) reported on the activities of IMEKO. Dr. Stumper reported on the CPEM Conferences. Dr. Lundén (Norway) reported on IEC and ISO. It was recommended that these gentlemen continue as URSI representatives to these activities.
It should also be pointed out that the Chair of Commission A is automatically the URSI representative to the CPEM, CIPM, CCDS, CCDM and CCE. It was also agreed to have James Mc Steele as the Commission A representative to the CCDS in place of the Chair. A report on the CIPM/CCE Meeting of 14-15 June 1995 was also given by the Chair. One of the major items at this meeting was the establishment of key comparison criteria for the demonstration of the equivalence of all national standards in order to reduce the number of comparisons now taking place.
5. The Chair distributed a copy of the current terms of reference for Commission A. These would be discussed at a later meeting.
6. The name of the 2 candidates for Vice-Chair were read: Dr. Bava (Italy) and Dr. Mathur (India); the Chair then explained the procedure for voting.
7. The meeting closed with a lengthy discussion on the Young Scientist Program. Dr. Kanda (USA) reported that there were 283 applicants for Young Scientist Grants. 120 were awarded and Commission A received only 3% of those awarded. It was recommended that Commission A National Members do more to encourage applicants. During the discussions it was pointed out that a large number of applications were denied because of formalities, i.e., application had not been properly or fully submitted. It was also mentioned that Commission A members favour that Young Scientists be considered at any age below 35 regardless of educational background.
Second Open Commission Meeting (30th August 1996)
1. Dr. Stumper opened the meeting by reporting that the ballots were coming in and the results of the election would be announced at the final Business Meeting.
2. Mr. Yell (UK) gave the report on the CCDS Meeting in place of Mr. Steele who could not attend the Lille General Assembly. The CCDS Meeting was held at the BIPM in Sèvres on 12th-13th March 1996. At the meeting the advances in commercial cesium beam frequency standards were reported, as well as the developments in cesium fountains. Also reported were the results of the CCDS Working Group on Relativity and the Working Group on Two-Way Satellite Time Transfer, the adoption of the Black Body Correction and the efforts made to coordinate the navigation satellite system used to distribute time.
3. Dr. O. Lundén gave a report on the IEC activities with interest to URSI Commission A.
During the last three years there has been rather limited activity in the technical committees that concern Commission A. Copies on relevant pages from the IEC yearbook 1994 and Catalogue of IEC Publications are enclosed in the Appendix. These show issued IEC publications from IEC Technical Committee 77 Electromagnetic Compatibility and IEC Technical Committee 85 Measurement Equipment for Electromagnetic Quantities. A draft circulated as a final committee draft of interest to Commission A is IEC 1786: "Definition and methods of measurement of low frequency magnetic and electric fields with particular regard to effects on human beings", and a subject under consideration is measurement and evaluation of high frequency (9 kHz to 300 GHz) electromagnetic fields with regard to human exposure.
4. Dr. M. Kanda (USA) reported on the efforts of Commission A with regard to the Reviews of Radio Science. Prof. D'Amore (Italy) was proposed as the next editor. He was subsequently elected. Dr. Celozzi (Italy) was proposed as editor of the Disk Reference for Commission A. It was requested that the National Chairs for Commission A should give him a list of significant references of articles from their countries, in order to includethem in the Disk Reference List.
5. Next, Dr. B. Mathur (India) was proposed and elected as Commission A Associate Editor for the Radio Science Bulletin. His duties include soliciting 2-3 pages per year on topics concerned with Commission A. He will also organise the reviewing of papers for the Radio Science Bulletin. Commission A members are requested to cooperate as much as possible with Dr. Mathur. Commission A members expressed their agreement with the new format of the Radio Science Bulletin and support its continuation.
6. The Terms of Reference of Commission A were reviewed. It was recommended that item 1.g of the Annex be revised to read:
"Measurements and standards from dc to optical frequencies."
7. The duration of future URSI General Assemblies was discussed next. Several alternatives were proposed, but those present agreed that the current meeting format and length should be continued.
8. Prof. S. Leschiutta (Italy) presented an Opinion to be passed on to the Council. It was approved with some minor changes by those present. The essence of the opinion was that Metrological Organisations should be aligned with the decisions of the CIPM and its Consultative Committees.
9. The meeting closed with a lengthy discussion on topics that the Chair, Vice-Chair, and nominated Vice-Chair should bring up at the Round Table Discussions to be held on Saturday 31st August. These included: (a) to distribute items of interest to URSI members covered at other scientific conferences; (b) to encourage URSI membership in developing countries; (c) to disseminate metrology work to other Commissions; (d) to stimulate discussions on certain topics among the various National Commission A groups; (e) to stimulate meetings among National Commission A groups; and (f) to stimulate interaction with other Scientific Unions.
Third Open Commission Meeting (3 September 1996)
1. Selection of Vice-Chair for 1996-99
Of the 20 votes cast, 13 were in favour of Dr. Bava (Italy) and 7 in favour of Dr. Mathur (India). Thus Commission A will recommend to the URSI Council that Dr. Bava be the next Vice-Chair for Commission A.
2. Resolution or Opinions
No further Resolutions or Opinions were forthcoming from the Official members, hence the Opinion proposed by Prof. Leschiutta (Italy) will be the only one to forward to Council.
3. Coordinator for 1999 URSI Assembly
Commission A representatives agreed to recommend that Prof. David Olver (UK) be asked to act as Coordinator for the 1999 General Assembly in Toronto.
4. Working Groups
Prof. Tapan Sarkar (USA) was invited to comment on the progress of the Working Group on "Time Domain Waveform Measurements". He said that the WG. started by Dr. Nahman nine years ago, had now outlived its purpose and much of the field was being covered in other Commissions' activities. It was proposed and agreed that this particular initiative should be allowed to lapse. With a new Mission Statement and new leadership this technical topic could be revived.
Intercommission Working Group AFG1 "Scientific Uses of GPS Signals" based on a Resolution passed in Kyoto from Commission A, F, and G, needed to be re-validated. Dr. Mathur (India) commented on the growing importance of GPS and proposed that this WG should continue. The Chairman was agreeable to this but commented that we would need to recommend someone to take the lead for the Commission and that this person should be identified this week. Dr. Kanda (USA) commented that the person proposed would need to be pro-active in support of this work. The proposal was endorsed by the members subject to these provisions.
A further Working Group was proposed with the title "Wireless Commission Regulations" in which URSI Commission Representatives would be joined by members from industry and regulation agencies. The details of membership and agenda of this WG were not entirely clear and more may emerge as a result of discussion in Council (on 3 September 1996.) It was agreed that Commission A would want to participate in this initiative and that the national representatives would be contacted by e-mail when more information was available.
5. Introduction of Incoming Chairman
Dr. Stumper (Germany) introduced Dr. Kanda (USA) as the proposed incoming Chairman for Commission A and thanked him for the considerable support he gave the present Chairman.
Dr. Kanda expressed sincere thanks to Dr. Stumper for his work with, and guidance of Commission A throughout the last three years. This had not been an easy period with the loss of continuity of the Chairmanship after the events at the Kyoto Assembly, Dr. Stumper had to "re-build" Commission A and put it on to a sound footing. This he had done most successfully, and the Commission could look forward to a progressive future. Dr. Kanda asked that this be recorded in the minutes. Dr. Kanda then discussed the development of the Commission in the next period. The proposed structure of the Commission would be:
Dr. Kanda outlined his plans for the 1999 General Assembly in Toronto.
He plans to suggest a Tutorial Lecture on the theme "EM Metrological Issues in Wireless Communications", and the
principal Sessions for Commission A would be based on the following:
A number of joint sessions were proposed as follows:
The Commission Representative were invited to note these proposals, and to suggest other ones if appropriate.
6. URSI Sponsorship Requests
Dr. Mathur asked about sponsorship for other conferences under the URSI "umbrella". Dr. Kanda commented that the Commission A Chairman has some (limited) funds for sponsorship, which can be used at his discretion; he will consider any case on its merits.
As there was no further business the meeting adjourned at 5.50 p.m.