36th European Physical Society Conference on Plasma Physics

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1 Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion EDITORIAL 36th European Physical Society Conference on Plasma Physics To cite this article: Sylvie Jacquemot 2009 Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion View the article online for updates and enhancements. This content was downloaded from IP address on 11/10/2018 at 19:03

2 IOP PUBLISHING Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion 51 (2009) (5pp) PLASMA PHYSICS AND CONTROLLED FUSION doi: / /51/12/ EDITORIAL 36th European Physical Society Conference on Plasma Physics Introduction This special issue of Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion (PPCF) presents invited papers from the 36th annual conference of the European Physical Society (EPS) Plasma Physics Division (PPD) held at the National Palace of Culture in Sofia, Bulgaria, 29 June 3 July The conference was hosted by the Union of the Physicists in Bulgaria and locally organized by the Faculty of Physics at Sofia University St Kliment Ohridski under the chairmanship of Professor Matey Mateev, with the help of Associate Professor Evgenia Benova as the Scientific Secretary. It attracted up to 590 delegates from more than 36 countries and also hosted the 2nd International Workshop on Plasmas for Environmental Issues. The conference aimed to present the latest developments in plasma science and to encourage the cross-disciplinary exchange of information in a friendly and informal environment. All fields of plasma physics were represented, from magnetic and inertial confinement fusion to low temperature plasmas, basic plasma physics and astrophysics. The Programme Committee (PC), which I had the honour to chair, was composed of representatives from each of these fields and so was able to construct a scientific programme which reflected the whole of modern plasma physics, with its diversity but also its harmonies. The Programme Committee was assisted in this task by the suggestions received from individual scientists and institutional laboratories through the EPS-PPD Forum. As is customary, three evening events took place during the conference. This year, the traditional evening ITER session was broadened to include other future devices, either under construction, like JT60-SA, or proposed, such as EU satellites like FAST. Alberto Loarte and Shinichi Ishida reported on the status of ITER and JT60-SA, respectively, while Fulvio Zonca presented a summary of the FAST proposal. The presentation, and the following debate chaired by Carlos Hidalgo and Piero Martin, highlighted the opportunities that a strong international fusion programme, based on ITER and on a broad and diverse accompanying science and technology programme, would provide. At the Women in Physics session, Professor Ana Proykova from Sofia University described the current situation for women scientists in Bulgaria and discussed the European Platform for Women Scientists of which she is a board member. A lively debate followed. The high attendance at the Education in Plasmas session demonstrated the level of interest in education and training among members of the European plasma community. The session gathered scientists from various fields of plasma physics and the debate, enriched by a large variety of opinions from both experienced colleagues and younger scientists, provided a number of interesting inputs. Future conferences should possibly allow for more extended sessions dedicated to education. 1

3 Figure 1. Jürgen Meyer-ter-Vehn. Jürgen Meyer-ter-Vehn: recipient of the 2009 European Physical Society Plasma Physics Division Hannes Alfvén Prize The prestigious 2009 Hannes Alfvén Prize was awarded during the opening ceremony to Jürgen Meyer-ter-Vehn (MPQ) for his seminal theoretical work in the fields of inertial confinement fusion (ICF), relativistic laser plasma interaction and laser wakefield electron acceleration. Joining the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics in the early 1980s, he has made outstanding contributions to the fundamental physics of ICF and high energy density matter. Stimulated by laser plasma experiments conducted in Garching and at the Institute of Laser Engineering in Osaka, Japan, by his colleagues (primarily R Sigel), J Meyer-ter-Vehn has more precisely investigated radiation hydrodynamics and converging shock physics to establish scaling laws and conceptually design a heavy-ion-driven ICF reactor. The approach known as indirect drive, into which he has offered valuable insights, is nowadays at the root of the upcoming ignition demonstration on MJ-class laser facilities, namely NIF in the United States and LMJ in France. Thanks to the invention of the chirped pulse amplification technique in the mid 1980s, new fields in relativistic laser plasma physics have been opened up, with a large number of fascinating options. With his perpetually inquiring mind, J Meyer-ter-Vehn then embarked on theoretical and numerical studies at (ultra-) high laser intensity. He and his colleague A Pukhov have, for instance, proposed a new method to accelerate electrons, the so-called laser wakefield acceleration in the blow-off regime, only recently experimentally demonstrated. He is currently continuing this work by studying new acceleration schemes and their applications in quantum electrodynamics and nuclear physics, pursuing his long-term ambition to bring together two disparate physics communities. 2

4 Figure 2. Emmanuel Marode. Emmanuel Marode: recipient of the 2009 Plasma Physics Innovation Prize The 2009 Plasma Physics Innovation Prize was awarded to Emmanuel Marode (LPGP) during the opening ceremony acknowledging breakthrough developments and applications of basic plasma physics tools to address environmental concerns. E Marode has been making pioneering and innovative contributions to low temperature plasmas and their industrial and societal applications throughout his forty year tenure at the Ecole Supérieure d Electricité in France, leading to innovative patent registrations. One high-impact area of his research that deserves to be singled out due to its environmental implications is that of pollutant and combustion control using the chemical activation of cold electrical discharges. It demonstrated that energy can be channelled in different ways in order to meet given objectives according to how it is distributed in the various discharge sequences. It moreover showed that both the experiments and the modelling confirm the idea that electrical discharge causes a highly localised injection of reactive substances which spread to, and ultimately react with, the entire gaseous medium. Rather than being transformed into pure heat loss, this energy can then be utilised, for example, to selectively destroy undesirable molecules, or to provide a non-thermal trigger for motor combustion. From the early days of his career to the present, E Marode has been a relentless advocate of computer simulations to aid the understanding of the very complex phenomena which characterise low temperature plasmas. EPS Plasma Physics PhD Research Awards The 2009 recipients of the EPS Plasma Physics PhD Research Awards, recognizing the exceptional quality of their theses, were presented to the audience by C Hidalgo, the chair 3

5 of the Plasma Physics Division, in the presence of their distinguished elders. C Thaury (CEA/IRAMIS) studied high-order harmonic generation of intense laser light by reflection at a plasma mirror; I Chapman (UKAEA) performed sophisticated theoretical modelling and state-of-the-art simulations for describing sawtooth behaviour; T Lunt (IPP) developed an impressive diagnostic and applied it to a fundamental aspect of the plasma sheath, the Bohm criterion. Itoh Project Prize in Plasma Turbulence and the PPCF Poster Prize To encourage young researchers, both the Itoh Project Prize in Plasma Turbulence (sponsored for the fifth time by Sanae-I Itoh, from Kyushu University) and the Poster Prize (supported by IOP Publishing) were awarded during the closing ceremony. The 2009 Itoh prize was awarded to T Happel (CIEMAT) for his work on Perpendicular plasma velocity and radial electric field profiles measured by Doppler reflectometry in the stellarator TJ-II while Caroline Wilkinson, the Publisher of PPCF, honoured M-D Hua (UKAEA: Comparison of rotation damping by MHD with NTV theory in MAST ), J Martins (IST Lisbon: Numerical modeling of radiation in Weibel turbulence ) and M Gatu Johnson (Uppsala University: Cross-validation of JET fast deuterium results from TOFOR and NPA ) for their excellent poster presentations. It was a great pleasure to be the chair of the 2009 conference of the EPS PPD and, to conclude this editorial, I would like to acknowledge the support of IOP Publishing and thank all the people I have worked with and who have contributed to making this event a great success. Sylvie Jacquemot on behalf of the 2009 EPS Plasma Physics Conference Programme Committee 2009 EPS Plasma Physics Conference Programme Committee Magnetic Confinement Fusion P Martin (sub-chair) MBécoulet L Carraro S Coda K Gibson K McClements F Ryter T Antonsen (representing APS) C Hidalgo (EPS PPD chair, ex-officio) Beam Plasma and Inertial Confinement Fusion M Koenig (sub-chair) A Macchi S Mangles J Sanz G Gregori S Jacquemot (PC chair) Basic and Astrophysical Plasmas T Mendonça (sub-chair) V Nakariakov 4

6 P Sasorov L Vlahos Low Temperature Plasmas V Schulz-von der Gathen (sub-chair) P Chabert S Ratynskaia D Uhrlandt S Hamaguchi (representing JPS) Itoh Prize Jury S-I Itoh (chair) G Bonhomme S Chapman K Itoh U Stroth IOP Publishing Poster Prize Jury C Wilkinson (chair) S Jacquemot C Hidalgo J Lister P Martin T Mendonça PhD Research Award Jury D Batani (coordinator) J W Connor J-C Gauthier H J Hartfuss 5