ODU Electrical Engineering Professor to Chair IEEE International Conference on Plasma Science
Five hundred of the world's leading researchers in advanced applications of plasma will gather in Norfolk this month for the 37th annual IEEE International Conference on Plasma Science (ICOPS).
The June 20-24 conference, which is administered by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, is being chaired by Old Dominion University's Mounir Laroussi, a professor of electrical engineering in the Frank Batten College of Engineering and Technology and the director of ODU's Laser and Plasma Engineering Institute.
"This conference captures our field in its entirety," Laroussi said. "This is a chance for us to see the cutting edge of all these subareas of plasma research. Without such a gathering, this type of high-level information sharing would be nearly impossible."
As defined on the Coalition for Plasma Science website, plasma, often referred to as the fourth state of matter, "is a distinct state of matter containing a significant number of electrically charged particles, a number sufficient to affect its electrical properties and behavior. In addition to being important in many aspects of our daily lives, plasmas are estimated to constitute more than 99 percent of the visible universe."
The conference will be held at the Norfolk Waterside Marriott Hotel. A reception for participants will take place on ODU's Kaufman Mall the evening of Monday, June 21.
The conference will include plenary, oral and poster sessions. Plenary talks will be presented by international leaders in the plasma physics community in four leading areas of plasma research: high-density plasma physics, atmospheric pressure plasma, progress in future thermonuclear fusion reactors and nanotechnology plasma applications.
The conference talks will be broken into seven subareas of plasma research: basic processes in fully and partially ionized plasmas; microwave generation and plasma interactions; charged particle beams and sources; high-energy-density plasmas applications; industrial, commercial and medical plasma applications; and plasma diagnostics and pulsed power and other plasma applications.
The conference will also feature a special oral session on the emerging field of plasma medicine. That session, chaired by Laroussi, features some of the world's leading researchers in the emerging field.
Laroussi was recently interviewed by the online magazine "Material Views" about his personal impressions on the field of plasma medicine. To read the interview click on:
http://www.materialsviews.com/details/news/691711/A_Personal_View_of_Plasma_Medicine.html
Laroussi said the session will address the promising possibilities for using plasma in medical practice, in areas such as electrosurgery, wound healing, dentistry and sterilization.
"This special session on plasma medicine really is attracting the cream of the crop. These researchers are the very best in their fields," he said.
The plasma medicine presentations are scheduled for Monday, June 21, and Tuesday, June 22. Leading scientists in the field will be invited to present their latest research.
As part of ICOPS 2010, a special day-and-a-half-long minicourse on low-temperature plasma modeling and simulation will be offered, starting after the main conference ends, on the afternoon of Thursday, June 24, and continuing all day Friday, June 25.
The minicourse will feature a group of international experts from academia and industry, who will give comprehensive lectures on modeling techniques for low-temperature plasmas and their applications.
Plasma modeling and simulation are powerful tools to address fundamental questions of plasma physics and chemistry and to interpret experiments. This short course is designed to introduce students to the concepts and methods used in plasma modeling and simulation.
The Conference Record will be available on a USB memory stick. Manuscripts of plenary and invited oral presentations may be submitted for a special issue of IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science, to be published in early 2011. Guest editors for the special issue are Ravindra Joshi, ODU professor of electrical engineering; Xinpei Lu, a professor at China's HuaZhong University; and Yukinori Sakiyama, a professor at the University of California at Berkeley.
For more information about ICOPS 2010, visit the conference website at http://www.eng.odu.edu/icops2010/.