Seventeenth international symposium on microdosimetry

This 17. Symposium was a celebration of the 50. Anniversary of the Symposium, the first one being held in Ispra (Lake Maggiore, Italy) on 13-15 November 1967, and, continuing the eminent tradition, provided a forum for scientists of different disciplines to exchange and discuss recent data and findings on relevant basic physical and biological mechanisms of radiation action and their consequences for risk assessment and radiation therapy, including neutron, proton and carbon ion therapy, by promoting and encouraging interdisciplinary interactions between advances in physical and chemical techniques and knowledge, combined with the latest rapid advances in molecular and cellular biology and genetics. Recent technical developments in radiation detection and novel irradiation techniques as well as the current status of topical non-linear phenomena were extensively discussed together with progress made in neuro-radiobiology, modeling radiation action, particle track structure, the multi-step process of radiation induced cancer and application to epidemiological data, in particular for better quantification of low dose and low dose rate risks. The scientific sessions of the Symposium program, in line with the well-established format of the recent past Symposia editions, included invited keynote lectures, selected oral and poster presentations and, as daily opening lectures, an early-morning refresher course, by a keynote speaker, who covered an introduction to one of the symposium's main topic areas, providing both a critical overview of the recent specific achievements and the conceptual evolution over time. These proceedings contain 57 refereed papers from the body of the contributions presented at the Symposium and related submitted manuscripts. A number of contributions, discussing preliminary results or work-in-progress studies at the time of the Symposium, will appear subsequently. The Symposium was attended by 103 participants from different countries worldwide, including many young researchers, all actively contributing to the scientific sessions