Newsgroups: sci.physics.plasma
From: scime@sstcx1.lanl.gov (Earl Scime)
Organization: Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory
Subject: Re: PS&T Dialogue

In article <2vu96q$ksc@mojo.eng.umd.edu>,Tim Eastman wrote:
>
> Because it is so highly interdisciplinary, students trained in
> plasma science have a broad range of technical competence. This includes,
> among others, the fields of optics, materials science, electrical power,
> electronics, magnetohydrodynamics, high voltage, pulsed power, ultra-high
> vacuum, computer applications, spectroscopy, atomic physics, nonlinear
> dynamics, lasers, microwave generation, and particle detection. It is
> the new and interdisciplinary nature of plasma science which has made
> it difficult to integrate it into existing academic and governmental
> structures. Within the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), for
> example, the fourth state of matter does not appear in the telephone
> directory. Further, investments in plasma science and technology are
> less than about 2% of investments made for research involving the other
> three states of matter although it has some presence in about half of
> all NSF divisions.
>
I agree that it is difficult to put plasma in a bureaucratic 'box' like
fields such as high energy physics, but isn't this a strength of the field
and not a weakness? I also agree that a bigger investment in plasma science
is good for basic research across the board and maybe there should be some
attempt to highten the visibilty of plasmas in all these diverse areas.

In the same post, Tim Eastman mentioned a short min-workshop on a Plasma
Science and Technology Initiative held at the June IEEE ICOPS meeting in
Santa Fe. At that meeting I was asked to head a committee on "Linkages and
Networking" which is intended to examine some of the points I raised above.
I am very interested to hear/see other people's views on these issues in
this forum.

Earl Scime

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Los Alamos National Laboratory
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