The "Modern Challenges in Nonlinear Plasma Physics" Conference 2009 will provide a forum for discussing progress in plasma physics research, with specific emphasis on geospace, solar, and laboratory plasma physics. While focused research topics will be covered (such as Coronal Mass Ejections, structures developed in edge turbulence, and so forth), emphasis will be placed on interdisciplinary questions (such as reconnection growth rate as a function of dimensionless parameters, the qualitative effects of a guide field on reconnection, properties of shocks or solitons, etc.). In this 2009 conference, these interdisciplinary topics will be the focus of a large number of attending theorists and experimentalists.
This conference will expose younger scientists, students, and postdocs to exciting current topics in nonlinear plasma physics. Introductory talks in particular subdisciplines will be followed by a large number of invited review talks on specialized topics. Junior scientists will present their own work (mostly in poster form) in two separate sessions. After the conference adjourns, a brief summary will be submitted for publication in an academic newsletter and a record of the presentations will be made available online as part of the conference's website. In addition, a Conference Proceedings volume will be published.
