NIOSH scientist advisor Lewis Wade will receive the 2006 PCMIA-Donald S. Kingery Memorial Award, while WVU associate professor Keith Heasley will be given the PCMIA-Stephen McCann Educational Excellence Award and Morgan Sears, a senior in WVU’s mining engineering department, will accept the PCMIA-Donald S. Kingery Student Award.
The event will be held at the Hilton Garden in Southpointe, just south of Pittsburgh and is expected to be well attended, event coordinator Mary DelRosso told International Longwall News.
“We’re at 200 registrants right now,” she said, adding that while the registration deadline has passed, those wishing to register on the day can do so for a nominal fee in addition to the regular attendance rate.
Included in the registration cost for the annual meeting is admission for both days, lunch and beverages throughout the two-day event, a program booklet and attendance list for future reference.
“For those who need PDH [Professional Development Hours] credit confirmation, letters will be sent after the meeting to confirm attendance: 10 hours for attending two days, and five hours for attending one day,” DelRosso noted.
Event chair Jurgen Brune said that while one slight change has been made to the program – keynote speaker Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter is unable to attend – the itinerary is technically strong and will offer something of interest for everyone with a focus on disaster prevention (Thursday) and disaster response (Friday).
“It is unfortunate that Senator Specter will be unable to present the welcome address, but we look forward to our keynote addresses by four highly influential speakers that represent the industry, research, government and professional organisations,” Brune said.
“This underlines the importance of the SME/PCMIA as the foremost annual mining technical conference for the Pittsburgh region.”
A complete schedule of presentations can be found at http://www.smepittsburgh.org/images/2006%20Joint%20Meeting%20Flyer%20Final2.pdf
For more information, contact Mary DelRosso at (412) 835-7387 or Mary412D@aol.com
