51^st IEEE International Conference on Plasma Science and 4^th Asia-Pacific Conference on Plasma and Terahertz Science

The 51^st International Conference on Plasma Science (ICOPS 2024) combined with the 4^th Asia-Pacific Conference on Plasma and Terahertz Science (APCOPTS 2024) took place in beautiful and historic Beijing, China on June 16^th – 20^th, 2024 at the Beijing International Convention Center.  The conference was followed by a minicourse on Plasma Science and Technology on June 20^th – 21^st, 2024 at Tsinghua University in Beijing.

The General Chair of the combined conference was Distinguished Professor Tao Shao of the Institute of Electrical Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences (IEE, CAS) and the Technical Program Chairs were Dr. Kentaro Hara from Stanford University and Professor Chao Chang from Xi’an Jiaotong University. Also, the Conference Treasurers were Professor Chunqi Jiang of Old Dominion University and Professor Cheng Zhang of IEE, CAS. The full list of members of the conference organizing committee are shown below.

There were more than 1200 abstracts submitted to the combined conference, including 954 from China, about 50 from Russia, 31 from Japan, 21 from Korea, 18 from Germany, 17 from the USA, 15 from India, 11 from Kazakhstan, 10 from Singapore, and single-digit submissions from 28 other countries.

Also, there were more than 1000 conference registrants, including 830 from China, 31 from Japan, 30 from Russia, 14 from Germany, 14 from the Republic of Korea, 12 from the USA, 11 from Singapore, and single-digit participation from 25 other countries.

There were a total of 31 applicants for the student travel grant this year. Of these, 11 were from China. Total 10 students received the student travel grant with the amount of $800 each to cover conference registration and travel expenses. In addition, we were able to support 11 NPSS professional members with young professional grants, up to $5000 each, to attend the conference.

The conference registration opened on Sunday morning June 16, followed by the welcome reception on Sunday evening.

The conference technical program began on Monday morning, with the lead plenary presented by Prof. John Jelonnek of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. The title of his plenary was “Megawatt-Class Gyrotron Developments for Today’s Plasma Fusion Experiments and Future DEMO at Europe”. The other plenary presentations were:

• Prof. Jie Zhang, Chinese Academy of Sciences & Shanghai Jiao Tong University: “Recent Progress of Double Cone Ignition Scheme of Inertial Confinement Fusion”
• Prof. Ricky Lay Kee Ang, Singapore University of Technology and Design: “Review of Electron Emission from Metals to 2D Materials”
• Prof. Julian Schulze, Ruhr-University Bochum: “Knowledge-based Plasma Process Development in Technological Low Temperature Plasmas”
• Prof. Takayuki Watanabe, Kyushu University: “Multiphase AC Arc System for Nanomaterials Processing”
• Prof. Svetlana Starikovskaia, Laboratory for Plasma Physics, LPP (CNRS, Ecole Polytechnique): “Pulsed Nanosecond Plasma on the Service of Advanced Laser Diagnostics”
• Prof. Peter Bruggeman, University of Minnesota: “Low Temperature Plasma Science to Advance Human Health and Enable a Sustainable Future”
• Prof. Chao Chang, Xi’an Jiaotong University & Peking University: “THz Sensoring and Influence on Bio-matter”
• Prof. Weihua Jiang, Nagaoka University of Technology: “Pulsed Power Source Technology for Plasma Applications”

There were thirteen parallel oral sessions in the mornings and afternoons on Monday-Thursday, with poster sessions following the afternoon oral sessions on Monday-Wednesday.  I would like to thank the Technical Area Coordinators (TACs), Session Organizers, and Session Chairs for their hard work!

On Monday there was a special plenary session on the Nuclear and Plasma Sciences Society’s Chapters in China hosted by Dr. Steven Gold, Co-Chair, NPSS Chapters and Local Activities Committee, and Past Secretary, NPSS Plasma Science and Applications Committee (PSAC). Prof. John Verboncoeur of Michigan State University, a past President of NPSS, presented an opening address on behalf of the Society, and Dr. Gold presented a history of NPSS chapters in China.  Dr. Gold and Prof. Verboncoeur then awarded plaques to the founders of the NPSS Chapters in Xi’an, Nanjing, Beijing, and Chengdu. Accepting the plaques were Prof. Chao Chang of Xi’an Jiaotong University, the founding chair of the NPSS Xi’an Section Chapter, Prof. Zhi Fang and Feng Liu of Nanjing Tech University, the founding chair and co-founder of the NPSS Nanjing Section Chapter, Prof. Yuhui Li of the Institute of High Energy Physics, CAS, on behalf of Academician Yifang Wang, the founding chair of the NPSS Beijing Section Chapter, and Prof. Zhaoyun Duan of the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, the founding chair of the NPSS Chengdu Section Chapter. This event enhanced the understanding of ICOPS & APCOPTS 2024 participants about NPSS chapters and promoted awareness of IEEE NPSS and its Chinese chapters.  The special event was commemorated with a group photo.

On Monday evening there was the Women in Engineering Event organized by Prof. Seong Ling YAP of the University of Malaya and Prof. Cui Meng of Zhejiang University. Two distinguished keynote speakers were Mrs. Lei Han, Editorial Director of both the Proceedings of the CSEE and CSEE Journal of Power and Energy Systems, the Secretary General of WIP of IEEE PES China, and Prof. Qi Chen of Beijing Jiaotong University, the Director of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers. Two invited guests, Prof. Qiuyue Nie of Harbin Institute of Technology and Prof. Ruixue Wang from Beijing University of Chemical Technology, and over 50 female scientists, engineers or postgraduate students from a host of different countries gathered for the WIE Event.

The chairs presented souvenirs of the ICOPS & APCOPTS 2024 WIE to the invited speakers and to all the attendees. A fun and heartwarming interactive evening ended with a wonderful group photo-taking session. A newly built network of professionals and peers registered in the mobile app, preparing the participants with more confidence in their future undertaking.

On Tuesday evening there was the Young Professionals Event organized by Dr. Yifei Zhu of Xi’an Jiaotong University and Dr. Zilan Xiong of Huazhong University of Science and Technology. Specially invited guests included Prof. Svetlana Starikovskaia of the Ecole Polytechnique, Prof. Julian Schulze of the Ruhr University in Bochum, Prof. Anbang Sun of Xi’an Jiaotong University, Prof. Tatloon Chng of the National University of Singapore, Dr. Xianjie Wang of the Research Center of Midea Group, and more than 60 young scholars attended the YP Event. A comprehensive Q&A and discussion focused on life choices, career planning, the differences between China and the West, and the differences between students and workers had been brought to the participating young researchers. Tea, desserts, and unique exquisite gifts for all guests and attendees were prepared prior to the event. Everyone had a fulfilling and enjoyable journey of knowledge.

On Monday the Student Paper Award Competition (SPAC) took place. It was organized by Prof. Lin Wu of Singapore University of Technology and Design and Prof. Zhi Fang of Nanjing Tech University. More than 60 research papers were submitted for the Student Paper Award. After a thorough preliminary review by experts in related fields, 12 outstanding papers from different countries and regions were selected for the final competition. A group of 11 renowned scholars served as on-site review experts, including the technical program chair Prof. Chao Chang, IEEE Life fellow and APS fellow Dr. Steven Gold, Prof. Julian Schulze of Ruhr-University Bochum and Prof. Xinpei Lu of Huazhong University of Science and Technology. The “Student Paper Award” was won by Jiandong Chen (Tsinghua University), Yuxuan Xu (Institute of Electrical Engineering, CAS), Biemeng Jin (Sun Yat-sen University) and Tiehuai Zhang (Institute of Physics, CAS). In addition, Kateryna Barynova (University of Iceland), Peiqi Chen (Harbin Institute of Technology), Sugeng Setiadi Edwin (National University of Singapore), and Zhan Shu (École Polytechnique in Paris) were awarded the “Student Paper Awards Honorable Mention”. Congratulations to all the students!

The Awards Banquet was held Wednesday evening and hosted by Prof. Cheng Zhang of the Institute of Electrical Engineering, CAS, and Treasurer of ICOPS & APCOPTS 2024 at the Beijing International Convention Center. There were over 600 attendees at the Banquet. Prof. Chunqi Jiang (Old Dominion University), Vice-Chair of PSAC, made the opening address and then commenced the award ceremony. Dr. Steven Gold received a plaque in honor of his long service to PSAC, including the past 23 years as PSAC Secretary, and Dr. Gold made an acceptance speech. Then Prof. Tao Shao accepted the ICOPS2024 General Chair Commemorative Plaque from Prof. Chunqi Jiang. Dr. Yangyang Fu of Tsinghua University received the IEEE-NPSS Early Achievement Award. Following this, Dr. Lin Wu (Student Awards Co-Chair) reviewed the selection process for the Student Paper Awards, and then Prof. Chao Chang (Co-Technical Chair) and Prof. Zhi Fang (Student Awards Co-Chair) presented certificates to the student award recipients. Congratulations to all of the award recipients!

Finally, Prof. Georg Müller, General Chair of PPPS2025, presented an overview of the upcoming PPPS 2025 conference in Berlin.

The Minicourse on Plasma Science and Technology: Basic Fundamentals and Modern Applications, which took place Thursday and Friday on June 20^th-21^st at Tsinghua University, was organized by Prof. Yangyang Fu of Tsinghua University and Prof. Peng Zhang of Michigan State University. The presenters were Prof. Xinpei Lu (Huazhong University of Science and Technology), Prof. Yakov Krasik (Technion-Israel Institute of Technology), Prof. Chunqi Jiang (Old Dominion University), Prof. Anthony B. Murphy (CSIRO Sydney, Australia), Prof. Mark D. Johnston (Sandia National Laboratories), Prof. Xiaogang Wang (Harbin Institute of Technology), and Prof. Jon Tomas Gudmundsson (University of Iceland). The Minicourse was attended by more than 80 young scholars. This Minicourse provided young scholars with forward-looking and cutting-edge special courses in the field of low temperature plasma physics, and also provided a platform for young scholars to communicate closely with outstanding international experts.

There will be a Special Issue of the IEEE Trans. Plasma Sci. dedicated to Plenary and Invited Talks from the conference, as well as Minicourse presentations. The Guest Editors are Prof. Cheng Zhang (IEE, CAS), Prof. Peng Zhang (Michigan State University), and Dr. Yangmei Li (Innovation Laboratory of Terahertz Biophysics). There will also be a Special Issue for ICOPS & APCOPTS 2024 in the journal Plasma Science and Technology (PST) that is open to all participants.

The Conference Organizers would like to thank all of the sponsors and exhibitors for supporting ICOPS & APCOPTS 2024. You can find them listed on the ICOPS 2024 website https://www.icops2024.com/. 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 & APCOPTS 2024. The organizers would also like to thank all the student volunteers who assisted with the conference!

The organizers of ICOPS & APCOPTS 2024 also wish to thank the ICOPS community for their participation in this conference and look forward to seeing their friends and colleagues at future ICOPS Conferences!

Finally, a short video from ICOPS & APCOPTS 2024 can be found on the ICOPS 2024 website and the photos can be found at https://we.tl/7XZFhGqcGS.

Tao Shao can be reached at the Institute of Electrical Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences (IEE, CAS), P.O. Box 2703, Beijing, China, 100190; Phone +86-10-82547114; E-mail: [email protected]