50th Anniversary IEEE International Conference on Plasma Science

The 50^th Anniversary ICOPS, the first fully in-person-only ICOPS since 2019 (PPPS-2019, combined Pulsed Power and ICOPS Conferences), took place in beautiful Santa Fe, NM May 21^st – 25^th, 2023 at the Eldorado Hotel with additional sessions at the Hilton (across the street), and a Women in Engineering (WIE) reception and presentation on the Terraza at the La Fonda Hotel.  (Here is a NM PBS documentary that aired May 2023 celebrating the 100th anniversary of the La Fonda Hotel.

The General Chair of ICOPS 2023 was Distinguished Professor Edl Schamiloglu and the Technical Program Chair was Research Professor Sal Portillo, both from the University of New Mexico (UNM).  Dr. Sarita Prasad (IMS-Pro LLC) was the Finance Chair and Mr. Charles Reuben of the University of New Mexico was the Conference Secretary. The organizing committee comprised 13 members. 

There were over 500 abstracts submitted, about 350 from the USA, about 50 from China, 25 from the UK, 22 from India, 20 from Korea, 15 from Germany, and single-digit submissions from 22 other countries.

There were over 550 registrants at ICOPS 2023, of whom 446 were from the USA, 20 from the UK, 17 from the Republic of Korea, 13 from Germany and single-digit participation from 23 other countries. 

There were a total of 38 applicants for the student travel grant this year. Of those, 24 were from the USA. We offered 16 awards, although in the end only 14 were able to accept and attend the conference. Of those who made it, 10 were from the USA. The award covered two nights in a hotel and conference registration.

The conference registration opened on Sunday afternoon May 21^st, followed by the 50^th Anniversary reception in the evening.  We thank Avalanche Energy and the Directed Energy Center at UNM (DEC@UNM) for sponsoring this reception!

The conference technical program opened on Monday morning with the lead plenary presented by Dr. Dan Sinars of Sandia National Laboratories.  The title of his plenary was “Z-pinches from 0.1 to 60 MA: Can We Keep up the (Magnetic) Pressure?” The other plenary presentations were: 

• Dr. Debbie Callahan of Focused Energy: “From Ignition on NIF to Fusion Energy on the Grid using Proton Fast-Ignition”
• Prof. EunMi Choi, Ulsan Institute of Science and Technology in South Korea: “High Power Terahertz Sources: New Applications and Challenges”
• Prof. Jeremy Chittenden of Imperial College in the UK: “Magnetized High Energy Density Science”
• Prof. Yakov Krasik (PSAC Award Address) of Technion, Haifa, Israel: “What Kept me in Pulsed Power and Plasma Sciences for So Long”

There were six parallel oral sessions in the mornings and the afternoon Monday-Thursday with poster sessions after lunch Monday-Wednesday.

I would like to thank Sal Portillo, the Technical Area Coordinators (TACs), Session Organizers, and Session Chairs for their hard work!

On Monday at 11:30 AM there was the Student Paper Award Competition (SPAC) luncheon organized by Prof. Simon Bland (Imperial College, UK) and sponsored by First Light Fusion in the UK. For the first time in the history of ICOPS, SPAC was viewed by more than 100 conference attendees and Dr. Bland certainly wishes to continue this tradition. There were eight finalists who gave presentations and the judges selected the winners.  Judging at this competition were Dr. Monica Blank (CPI), Prof. Yakov Krasik (Technion, Israel), Prof. Rajdeep Singh Rawat (Nanyang Technological University, Singapore), Dr. Mila Fitzgerald (First Light Fusion, UK), and Dr. Katerina Falk (Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf, Germany).  The runners up were: Chen Cui (University of Southern California, USA), Rishabh Datta (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA), Thomas Foster (Princeton University), Shadhin Hussain (University of Texas at Dallas), Ziyao Jie (Tsinghua University, China – unable to attend), and P. S. Naga Sai Srikar (IIT Tirupati, India – unable to attend).  The 2023 ICOPS NPSS Outstanding Student Paper Award Recipients were: Judith van Huijstee (Eindhoven University of Technology, Netherlands) and Jergus Strucka (Imperial College London, UK).  Congratulations to all the students!

On Monday evening there was the Women in Engineering Speaker Reception organized by Dr. Monica Blank (CPI) and held on the Terraza at the La Fonda Hotel.  The speaker was Dr. Amber Anderson of the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) who was also the Program Manager for the AFRL Tactical High Power Operational Responder (THOR) demonstration.

On Tuesday evening there was the Young Professionals Reception and Panel organized by Prof. Viktoriia Babicheva (UNM).  The panelists were Dr. Muhammed Zuboraj (Los Alamos National Laboratory-LANL), Dr. Matt Domonkos (Verus Research), Prof. Jacob Stephens (Texas Tech University), Prof. Katharina Stapelmann (NC State University), Dr. Chelsea Liekhus-Schmaltz (Zap Energy), and Dr. Nichelle Bennett (Sandia National Laboratories).

On Wednesday morning there was the 50^th Anniversary Panel organized by Dr. Mike Mazarakis (Sandia National Laboratories).  The panel was moderated by Dr. Steven Gold (retired from NRL) and the panelists were Dr. Mary Ann Sweeney (Sandia National Laboratories), Dr. Jim Benford (Microwave Sciences), Prof. Manfred Thumm (retired form Karlsruhe Institute of Technology), and Dr. Steve Gitomer (Editor, IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science).  Each panelist gave a brief presentation on their involvement with ICOPS over the years.  This was followed by questions from the audience.

The Awards Banquet was held Wednesday evening at the Eldorado Hotel.  Prior to the reception, past ICOPS Chairs present gathered for a group photo on stage (see photo below).  (I would like to thank Joe Schumer of NRL for his efforts in contacting all living past ICOPS Chairs!) Chairs of 17 ICOPS conferences were present at ICOPS 2023, although not all of these were available for the photo.  There were over 200 attendees at the Awards Banquet.  The PSAC Awards Chair (Prof. Ricky Ang, Singapore University of Technology and Design) then handed out the awards. Recognized at the Awards Banquet were the Outstanding Student Paper Award runners up and recipients (described earlier).  Also recognized were Dist. Prof. Edl Schamiloglu (UNM) for being ICOPS 2023 Chair, Prof. Kentaro Hara (Stanford University) for receiving the 2023 IEEE NPSS Early Achievement Award, Mr. Dion J. Li (University of Michigan) for receiving the 2023 Igor Alexeff Outstanding Student in Plasma Science Award, Prof. Yakov Krasik (Technion, Haifa, Israel) for receiving the 2023 Plasma Science and Applications (PSAC) Award, and Mr. Daniel Maler (Technion, Haifa, Israel) for receiving the NPSS Robert J Barker Graduate Student Award for Excellence in Pulsed Power Applications.  Congratulations to the award recipients!

The Minicourse, Industrial Applications of Plasmas, which took place Saturday and Sunday before the conference, was organized by Dr. Evgenya Simakov (LANL). The presenters were Prof. Katharina Stapelmann (NC State University), Prof. Sergey Baryshev (Michigan State University), Mr. George Osenga (Thierry Plasma Corporation), Dr. Artem Smirnov (TAE Technologies), Dr. Nathan Cook (Radiasoft), Dr. Max Light (LANL), and Prof. John Foster (University of Michigan).  About 30 students were registered for the Minicourse.

There will be a Special Issue of the IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science dedicated to Plenary and Invited Talks, as well as Minicourse presentations.  The Guest Editors are Prof. Jacob Stephens (Texas Tech University) and Prof. Peng Zhang (Michigan State University).

The organizers would like to thank all the sponsors and exhibitors for supporting ICOPS 2023.  You can find them on the ICOPS 2023 website. The organizers would like to extend their hearty gratitude and appreciation to the Event Program Manager Lisa Boyd from IEEE MCE for overseeing the success of ICOPS 2023. The organizers would also like to thank the UNM student volunteers who assisted with the conference! 

The organizers of ICOPS 2023, the 50^th Anniversary ICOPS, wish to thank the ICOPS community for their participation in this celebration and look forward to seeing their friends and colleagues at future ICOPS Conferences!  

Finally, a slideshow with photos from ICOPS 2023 can be found on the ICOPS 2023 website.

Edl Schamiloglu can be reached at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, MSC01 1100, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, 87131-0001; Phone +1.505.277.6095; E-mail: [email protected]