Welcome Letter

Dear Researchers:

The Committees of the 7th international meeting of the Young Researchers in Boron Neutron Capture Therapy give you the warmest welcome to participate in this event that will take place in Granada, Spain, from 22nd to 26th of September, where you could share your experience and your scientific work with other researchers from all parts of the world.

I cannot refrain myself from expressing here some personal words to all the BNCT community not only about this initiative but also about my recent experience in the field. When, during a visit to Helsinki in November of 2011, Leena Kankaaranta suggested me to submit a proposal for organizing this young researchers’ meeting, I was fascinated just thinking about it. I am very grateful to her and to the finnish group for their consideration.

When I presented the proposal to the ISNCT, the great response of all the community overwhelmed me with joy. This was another example of the good spirit that I have witnessed in the recent BNCT conferences that I have attended. There is an interdisciplinary atmosphere of collaboration, communication and mutual encouragement that is not common in other fields of science. I am absolutely grateful to all of you.

In spite of my age, which I do not want even think about, I consider myself “young” with respect to BNCT research. I started working in the field in 2007, when I discover this field of science from my simultaneous teaching duties in Nuclear Reactions and Technology for undergraduates and Radiation Dosimetry for a Medical Physics graduate program. I found for the first time this sound research line and was caught by it. Sometimes life asks you to dance and you have to take the opportunity. I began reading books and papers with the same enthusiasm as a graduate student poses on his first research problem. But as a difference, this was not a problem suggested by a supervisor, it was a personal election and I hope to dedicate my research to it forever.

Due to the sound principles in which BNCT is based, I am personally convinced that it is going to contribute substantially to the fight against cancer. I encourage all of you, young researchers from different fields, to sustain your great efforts in this research for the sake of mankind.

Thanks to the enthusiasm and the very important experience of some Spanish colleagues, who form part of the local organizing committee, we are forming a neutron capture therapy “young” research line in Spain. The celebration of this meeting here is going to give us a strong support for our project.

This organizing committee has had to face a main difficulty: trying to organize an appealing meeting, with the amenities and social program that you deserve but with the minimum cost possible for facilitating the attendance of all young researchers interested. But due to the current financial crises in our country, we have not being able to obtain the funds we initially expected as to set the registration fees to a minimum. However, we have made our best to keep them as low as possible. We are extremely grateful for the plenary lecturers for their unselfish and generous participation and to all the sponsors that have collaborated to finance this meeting. Please visit their web pages.

And finally, I wish to thank very much all participants in the meeting. You are who make this an interesting and unique event.

Ignacio Porras President of the Organizing Committee of 7th Young Researchers’ BNCT meeting.