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Ragnar Granit Institute, P.O.Box 692, FIN-33101 Tampere, Finland
Editor: Jaakko Malmivuo, www.rgi.fi/persons/malmivuo/, ISSN: 1456-4343
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10th Nordic-Baltic Conference on Biomedical Engineering &
1st International Conference on Bioelectromagnetism
The arrangements for the 10th Nordic-Baltic Conference on
Biomedical Engineering are progressing well. The enclosed Final Call
gives more detailed information on the conference arrangements.
As indicated in the Final Call, the Scientific Committee decided
to organize the 1st International Conference on Bioelectromagnetism
jointly with the Nordic-Baltic Conference. The reason for this was
that it was anticipated that a large number of the papers would
anyhow be in the field of bioelectromagnetism. Because the Ragnar
Granit Institute is active in this field and wants to promote it,
this is a good opportunity to start a series of new conferences.
Some 370 reply cards of the First Call were returned showing
considerable interest towards the conference. The cards were returned
from all over the world, the largest group coming, of course, from
Finland (44). The other large groups were: Sweden (31), Lithuania
(31), Germany (30), USA (30). From Japan there seems to be a large
interest as well. This indicates that the conference has raised
worldwide interest and forecasts that there will be a large
participation.
As indicated in the Final Call, the conference has a WWW Home
Page whose address is: http://www.ee.tut.fi/~nbc96. It will be
regularly updated and it will give more detailed information on the
scientific program.
International Society for Bioelectromagnetism
The electric and magnetic fields recorded from the body are
generated by the same source: the electrochemical activation of the
biological tissue. Similarly, it is the electric field induced by the
magnetic impulse in magnetic stimulation which excites the
electrically active tissue.
The electric and magnetic fields are strongly interrelated
through the Maxwell equations. On the other hand, the electric and
magnetic lead fields are mutually independent as stated by the
Helmholtz theorem.
Therefore, to obtain the maximum information regarding the bioelectric
source, it is important to discuss the biomagnetic phenomena in
connection with the corresponding bioelectric phenomena.
Bioelectromagnetism is a discipline that examines the electric,
electromagnetic, and magnetic phenomena which arise in biological
tissues. These phenomena include:
- the behavior of excitable tissue (the sources), the electric
currents and potentials in the volume conductor , the magnetic field
at and beyond the body
- the response of excitable cells to electric and magnetic field
stimulation
- the intrinsic electric and magnetic properties of the tissue.
To promote the discipline of bioelectromagnetism the Ragnar
Granit Institute made an initiative for establishing the
International Society for Bioelectromagnetism. The Society will
facilitate the dissemination of new knowledge, encourage new research
and sponsor International Congresses on Bioelectromagnetism.
Membership of the Society is open to all interested persons
either technically, medically or scientifically qualified in
bioelectromagnetism.
In the Founding Meeting of the Society on August 16th the
following Office-Bearers were elected for the Society: President:
Jaakko Malmivuo, Honorary President: Robert Plonsey, Secretary
General: Hannu Eskola.
The Temporary Council until June 1996 will be: Jaakko Malmivuo,
Robert Plonsey, Hannu Eskola, Yoshinori Uchigawa, Leonid Titomir,
Shoogo Ueno, Maria Peters, Hiroshi Kanai, Marko Markov, Martin
Arthur, Tapani Lahtinen, Juha Nousiainen, Jari Hyttinen, Simon
Walker, Rami Lehtinen, Jari Viik, Veikko Suihko, Noriyuki Takano. The
full Council of 30 members will be elected in June, 1996.
The Executive Committee: President: Jaakko Malmivuo, Members:
Robert Plonsey, Hannu Eskola, Simon Walker, Juha Nousiainen, Shoogo
Ueno. Tapani Lahtinen was elected as alternate member of the Executive
Committee.
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