A YORK healthcare science charity has become the headquarters for more than 150,000 medical physicists and biomedical engineers across the world.

The Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine (IPEM) in Tadcaster Road in the city has become the registered UK office for the International Union for Physical and Engineering Sciences in Medicine (IUPESM) after it was incorporated as a company in the UK.

IUPESM was created in 1980 as a union of two separate international organisations, with the aim of gaining visibility and global recognition of the professions of medical physicists and biomedical engineers.

IPEM Fellow Dr Slavik Tabakov, Emeritus President of IUPESM, and Dr Robert Farley, IPEM’s President, unveiled the company plaque at Fairmount House.

Dr Tabakov said: "This is a milestone for IUPESM. It took over three years of hard work but finally this historic step for IUPESM has been completed."

Meanwhile, Dr Farley added: "I’m delighted IPEM is the new registered office for IUPESM as it builds on our strong relationships stretching back many years."

IPEM has around 5,000 members working in hospitals, academia and industry across the UK, Europe and internationally. As a charity, IPEM’s aim is to advance the application of physics and engineering to medicine to public benefit.