Plasma Physics Seminar ( Phys 769)

Lia Merminga and Dave Hammer


Town Hall Meeting on NRC Plasma Study


A short presentation explaining the decadal study of plasma science conducted by the National Research Council of the National Academies will be made. The speakers will then take questions and collect feedback from people who want to provide immediate input to the study. The particular area represented by the speakers is High Energy Density plasma physics. However, input relevant to other areas will be accepted as well. More information can be obtained below.

The Plasma 2010 committee-the decadal study of plasma science conducted by the National Research Council of the National Academies-is soliciting your input. The committee membership and task are described at the NRC web site

The next decade will be, as you are no doubt aware, a challenging and exciting one for plasma science. The study is examining the scientific achievements and opportunities in the field as a whole. The scientific scope of the study stretches from economically important industrial plasmas to the highly relativistic plasmas in astrophysics. The 1995 NRC Plasma Science Report had similar (but not identical) goals to the present study. We would, of course, welcome your opinion on any aspect of plasma science and its practice. However, we particularly would like input on the following very basic questions:

  1. What were the most notable scientific highlights and advances in plasma science over the past decade?
  2. What plasma science problems do you consider most likely to yield exciting and important results in the next decade? Why?
  3. Do you think the current strategy to support the investigation of these problems is correct? Are there alternative methodologies that should be considered? If so, what are they?
  4. What opportunities exist for applications of plasma science to other fields? What are some of the emerging connections between plasma science and other fields?
  5. Are we educating the next generation of plasma scientists well? How could it be improved?
  6. What advice would you give to the panel?
Please send us your thoughts! Please remember that since your comments will be transmitted to a group advising the U.S. government, they may be made publicly available.

You may transmit your comments in one of three ways: