| The
35th IEEE International Confer-ence on Plasma Science (ICOPS 2008),
sponsored by the Plasma Science and Applications Committee (PSAC)
of the IEEE Nuclear and Plasma Sciences Society (NPSS), was held
at the Congress Center in Karlsruhe, Germany, from June 15 through
June 19, 2008. This is the second time that the ICOPS Conference
was held outside North America, following the initial event in Jeju,
Korea, in 2003. We are delighted to report that ICOPS 2008 proved
to be a very successful event. The conference welcomed over 550
attendees from 42 countries around the globe. We are pleased to
report that approximately 25% of the total registrants were students,
evidence that the conference appeals to future plasma scientists.
The ICOPS 2008 technical program was superb with the technical topics
organized into seven broad areas. Each area was headed by a Technical
Area Coordinator (TAC) who also served as a member of the technical
committee. The technical areas were:
• Basic Processes in Fully and Partially Ionized Plasmas
• Microwave Generation and Plasma Interactions
• Charged Particle Beams and Sources
• High Energy Density Plasma Applications
• Industrial, Commercial and Medical Plasma Applications
• Plasma Diagnostics
• Pulsed Power and other Plasma Applications.
Across these technical areas, there was a total of 33 separate technical
topics representative of the wide scope of scientific endeavor embraced
at ICOPS 2008. Each topic was managed by an individual Session Organizer
(SO), who was responsible for organizing the technical sessions.
This includes reviewing submitted abstracts, selecting invited talks,
determining oral and poster papers, ordering the sessions and communicating
with other SOs. The full session list can be viewed at www.icops2008.org.
From 642 paper submissions 619 abstracts were accepted and the technical
program consisted of 7 plenary talks (addressing the seven technical
areas), 59 invited keynote talks, 231 oral contributed presentations
in 5 parallel sessions and 322 posters. 287 abstracts came from
Europe, 157 from North America, 155 from Asia, 11 from Australia,
5 from Africa and 4 from South America. The topics attracting the
highest number of abstracts were: Medical, Biological and Environmental
Applications, Fast Z-Pinches and X-Ray Lasers, Nonequilibrium Plasma
Applications and High Pressure and Thermal Plasma Processing. The
technical success of ICOPS 2008 can be largely attributed to the
TACs and SOs who diligently solicited high-quality contributions
and organized the sessions. See www.icops2008.org for a list of
the TACs and SOs.
The seven plenary talks which were presented by worldwide well-respected
members of the plasma science community enriched the technical program.
A Special Issue of IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science (TPS) will
be published to document ICOPS 2008, in addition to the Conference
Record-Abstract Book. The Special Issue is devoted to Plenary and
Invited Talks from ICOPS 2008. Steve Gitomer of Los Alamos National
Laboratory, the Editor-in-Chief, along with the Guest Editors Gerd
Gantenbein, Stefan Illy and Georg Müller, all from the Institute
of Pulsed Power and Microwave Technology (IHM) at Research Center
Karlsruhe (FZK), Germany, are overseeing this Special Issue.
ICOPS 2008 also featured a 2-day Minicourse on Microwave Processing
of Materials, organized by Lambert Feher of the IHM/FZK. The course
attracted 16 attendees from industry and academia. The technical
program consisted of 10 lectures and a visit to the HEPHAISTOS-Experimental
Center at IHM/FZK.
ICOPS offers a Student Travel Grant program to encourage student
participation in the conference. The Chair of the Student Travel
Grant Committee (a PSAC/ExCom function) was John Luginsland of NumerEx.
Travel grants were awarded to 9 students assisting their attendance
to ICOPS 2008. The on-site IEEE membership booth was run by Oliver
Prinz of IHM/FZK and Dan Jobe (Past Chair of PSAC/ExCom). A total
of 121 new IEEE members (record!) were signed up.
To facilitate networking and social interaction, ICOPS 2008 hosted
a welcome reception on Sunday evening, a reception by the mayor
of Karlsruhe in the City Hall of Karlsruhe on Monday evening, a
wine tasting evening with local food in the Palatinate (Pfalz) on
Tuesday evening and a banquet in the Palace of Schwetzingen on Wednesday
evening. All events were extremely well attended.
At the ICOPS 2008 banquet, John H. Booske of the University of Madison-Wisconsin
and Y.Y. Lau of the University of Michigan received IEEE/NPSS Fellow
Certificates, Paul K. Chu of the City University of Hong Kong got
the 2007 IEEE/NPSS Merit Award and Steven Gold of the U.S. Naval
Research Laboratory (NRL) received the 2008 IEEE/NPSS Richard F.
Shea Distinguished Member Award.
Phillip Sprangle of the NRL was the winner of the annual Plasma
Science and Applications Committee Award which was also presented
by Ron Gilgenbach (Chair of PSAC/ExCom) at the ICOPS 2008 banquet.
Two awards combined with checks were granted for the two best student
papers to Ioana A. Biloiu of West Virginia University, USA, and
Sameer Kalghatgi of Drexel University, USA, for their oral and poster
presentations, respectively. In addition, certificates were given
to the two runners-up Puthenparampil Wilson of Queen’s University
Belfast, UK, and Peter Bruggeman of Ghent University, Belgium. The
Best Student Paper Award Committee was headed by the PSAC Award
Committee Chair Monica Blank of Communications & Power Industries,
USA.
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| ICOPS 2008 Awards Ceremony: J. Booske, Y.
Lau, P. Sprangle, R. Gilgenbach, S. Gold, M. Thumm and P. Chu
(from left to right). |
Tours for companions, a guided historical walk in Karlsruhe, sightseeing
in the City of Speyer and a Heidelberg tour were organized.
ICOPS 2008 benefited greatly from the generous support of a number
of organizations including: Research Center Karlsruhe, University
of Karlsruhe, German IEEE Section NPSS Chapter and the European
Office of Aerospace Research & Development (EOARD). Volunteers
from the Research Center Karlsruhe also provided invaluable hands-on
support before, during and after the conference.
We sincerely thank all those involved, in particular the Conference
Executive Committee: Technical Program Committee Chair Günter
Dammertz, Conference Managers Gabriela Bertsch and Martina Huber,
Treasurer Georg Müller, Abstracts Manager Stefan Illy, Exhibition
Organizer Wolfgang Frey, Poster Session Organizer Bernhard Piosczyk,
LAN and WLAN Organizers Jens Flamm and Daniel Mellein, LCD Equipment
Manager Kevin Paulus, Laboratory Visitor Organizer Guido Link, Minicourse
Co-Chair Lambert Feher and Companion Program Managers Manuela Wettstein
and Jutta Thumm. Their contri-butions were crucial in ensuring the
great success of ICOPS 2008.
For additional information, please visit the website at www.icops2008.org
or contact Manfred Thumm at manfred.thumm@ihm.fzk.de
or Hans-joachim Bluhm at hansjoachim.bluhm@ihm.fzk.de.
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