As Chairman of the Board of Directors of the American Society for Nondestructive Testing and Director of the Johns Hopkins University Center for Nondestructive Evaluation, I am most pleased to participate in the 15th World Congress on Nondestructive Testing in Rome, Italy.
Nondestructive testing is undoubtedly one of the world's most important professions.
Everything ages with time and becomes less capable of performing its initially intended function. Since I have worked for over 40 years in the Engineering School at Johns Hopkins University, one of the world's most prominent medical institutions, I personally realize that our profession is as important, or perhaps even more important, than the medical one. A medical doctor normally saves one human life at a time. Through our NDT efforts we save many, many lives daily. It is extremely important to have international conferences between individuals from different countries, with different ethnic backgrounds, economic levels, and lifestyles because a technical subject like nondestructive testing brings us together and shows that we all have common interests.