Plasma 2010 - Low Temperature Plasma Science Workshop
Science Challenges for the Next Decade
25 -27 March 2008
University of California at Los Angeles

  

HOUSING | LA TRANSPORTATION INFO |

  

Introduction | The Workshop Leadership | The Workshop Report | Structure of the Workshop | Workshop Agenda

  
 

Introduction:

The National Research Council (NRC) recently released the final report of the Plasma 2010 Committee titled Plasma Science: Advancing Knowledge in the National Interest.  The report recommends that the Office of Science of the Department of Energy assume responsibility for the health and vitality in the United States of the subfield of low temperature plasma science (LTPS) by coordinating an explicitly funded, interagency effort.  To begin to implement this recommendation, the Plasma 2010-Low Temperature Plasma Science Workshop has been commissioned by Dr. Ray Fonck, Director of Fusion Energy Sciences, to identify and prioritize the scientific challenges for LTPS for the next decade.  The purpose of the Workshop is to:

  • Summarize the status of research in LTPS.
  • Identify and communicate the outstanding major scientific questions in LTPS.
  • Articulate the importance of these questions, both in terms of fundamental science and potential applications.
  • Describe what basic research activities are needed to address these questions.
  • Develop a scientific and prioritized roadmap for an initiative in LTPS.

The deliverable from the Workshop is a report to the broader scientific community that the Office of Fusion Energy Sciences can use to develop a modest new program in LTPS that will be proposed to be part of the American Competitiveness Initiative.

The Workshop Leadership

Co-Chairs:
Prof. Mark. J. Kushner (Iowa State University, mjk@iastate.edu)
Prof. David B. Graves (University of California at Berkeley, graves@berkeley.edu)

Department of Energy Liaisons:
Dr. Michael Crisp (Michael.Crisp@science.doe.gov)
Dr. David Goodwin (Dave.Goodwin@science.doe.gov)

Plasma 2010 Report Liaison:
Prof. Steven Cowley (University of California at Los Angeles, cowley@physics.ucla.edu)

The Workshop Report

The Workshop report will identify research opportunities and clearly frame the underlying scientific issues and technical challenges of LTPS.  The report should follow, as appropriate, the format of previous DOE Office of Basic Energy Sciences reports.  (See, for example, http://www.sc.doe.gov/bes/reports/list.html.  The report titled “Future Science Needs and Opportunities for Electron Scattering: Next-Generation Instrumentation and Beyond” is a particularly good example.  

The Workshop report should specifically articulate the fundamental science challenges and opportunities in LTPS over the next decade.  Although LTPS is strongly connected to applications, the emphasis of the report should nevertheless be clearly on the science challenges and not applications.  It is, however, proper and desirable that the science challenges articulated in the report be motivated by applications that will ultimately produce societal benefit.  However the emphases will be on scientific discovery as opposed to optimizing an application.

Structure of the Workshop

A substantial amount of the background material for the Workshop has been addressed in the Plasma 2010 report and so that report will serve as a point of departure for this Workshop.  To leverage that prior activity, the science areas to be discussed at the Workshop and to be highlighted in the report will follow the topical areas identified as trends and scientific future opportunities in the Plasma 2010 report.  (A copy of the Plasma 2010 report will be provided to you.)  As such, the Workshop will have 6-7 workgroups, each with 4-5 members whose charter is to write a section of the Workshop report.  Each workgroup will identify one or two grand challenges in its topical area.  The Workshop will then develop an overall prioritized list of opportunities for the scientific roadmap.

Following the recommendations of the Plasma 2010 report, the workgroups are tentatively:
Group TOPIC TENTATIVE (CO-) GROUP LEADERS
1
 Interaction of plasmas with complex surfaces including organic materials and living tissue G. Oehrlein, M. Geockner
2
 Chaotic, non-linear  and stochastic processes in plasmas, including multiphase plasmas and plasmas in liquids K. Stalder (plus - to be determined)
3
 Stability and generation of large, uniform, plasmas including high pressure I. Adamovich
4
 High density microplasmas: Interaction with surfaces D. Economou
5
 Interaction of plasmas with, and production of, nanostructures U. Kortshagen
6
 Flexible, noninvasive plasma diagnostics and sensors

G. Hebner, V. Donnelly
7

Fundamental data
A. Garscadden

Group leaders are tasked with coming to the Workshop with a draft of their section of the report that will have been previously shared with their group members.  The Group leader will deliver an overview talk of the topical area on the first day of the Workshop.

Tentative Agenda of the Workshop

The Workshop will be structured to have an introductory day of overview talks and assessments of the status of the field.  Following, the majority of time will be devoted to discussion and writing.  By the end of the Workshop, first drafts of the chapters of the report will have been completed.

DAY 1 Duration Activity Speaker/Leader
 
8:15 a.m. 15 min Welcome M.J. Kushner/D.B. Graves
8:30 a.m. 30 min Overview of the Plasma 2010 Report S. Cowley
9:00 a.m. 30 min DOE Perspective R. Fonck
9:30 a.m. 30 min LTPS Overview and Charge to Workshop M. Kushner

10:00 am

30 min

Break

 

10:30 am

30 min

Group 1 Overview

Group Leader(s)

11:00 am

30 min

Group 2 Overview

Group Leader(s)

11:30 pm

30 min

Group 3 Overview

Group Leader(s)

Noon

1 hr

Lunch

 

1:00 pm

30 min

Group 4 Overview

Group Leader(s)

1:30 pm

30 min

Group 5 Overview

Group Leader(s)

2:00 pm

30 min

Group 6 Overview

Group Leader(s)

2:30 pm

30 min

Group 7 Overview

Group Leader(s)

3:00 pm

30 min

Break

 

3:30 pm

1 hour

Discussion (Common themes, agreement on directions)

M. J. Kushner,
D. B. Graves

4:30 pm

1 1/2hr

Meetings of Groups

 
DAY 2 Duration Activity Speaker/Leader
 

8:00 am

30 min

Discussion and goals for day 2

M. J. Kushner,
D. B. Graves

8:30 am

3-1/2 hr.

Meetings of Groups (discussion and writing)

  

Noon

1 hr

Lunch

  

1:00 pm

1 hr.

“Mingling” of group members with other groups

  

2:00 pm

1 hr

Meeting of Groups (discussion and writing)

  

3:00 pm

30 min

Break

  

3:30 pm

7x15 min

Progress report of groups, Sharing of drafts

Group Leaders

5:15 pm

45 min

Discussion (common themes, suggestions for revisions, feedback)

M. J. Kushner,
D. B. Graves
DAY3 Duration Activity Speaker/Leader
 

8:00 am

2 hr.

Meetings of Groups (discussion, writing, and mingling)

  

10:00 am

2 hr.

Discussion, sharing of reports, next steps

Group Leaders
M. J. Kushner,
D. B. Graves

Noon

 

End of Workshop

  

12:00 pm

2 hr.

Lunch and Meeting of Group Leaders