This award provides support to the 11th International workshop on the Interrelationship between Plasma Experiments in the Laboratory and in Space (IPELS), to be held at Whistler, British Columbia, Canada on July 10 to 15, 2011. The IPELS Workshop is a leading international meeting that began in 1991, and in the past 20 years the research topics covered at the meeting have expanded to include almost all plasma phenomena common in space and laboratory. At the heart of the workshop is the close interaction and cross-fertilization between international working groups from laboratory, space and astrophysics that occurs at the meetings. The Workshop has been held alternately in Europe and the US every two years for most of its history. However, the last three workshops were held either in Europe (Tromso, Norway in 2005 and Djuronaset, Sweden in 2009) or in Australia (Palm Cove in 2007). The 2011 meeting will mark the first return of the meeting to North America since 2003, eight years ago. The award will provide support for defraying travel and conference expenses for (1) U.S. students and young researchers with priorities for women and minorities and (2) attendees from developing countries.
The following is a list of topics to be covered: Collisionless shock and particle acceleration; Magnetic dynamo and angular momentum transport; Reconnection and explosive phenomena; Plasma waves and wave-particle interactions; Instabilities and turbulence; Physics of dusty plasmas and sheaths; Jets and winds.
The workshop organizers are Hantao Ji of PPPL, Tai Phan of UC Berkeley, and Ellen Zweibel of U. Wisconsin Madison.
Project Title: the 11th International Workshop on the Interrelationship between Plasma Experiments in the Laboratory and in Space (IPELS) PI: Hantao Ji Award Number: 1137679 The 2011 IPELS meeting was successfully held from July 10 to July 15, 2011 in Whistler, British Columbia, Canada. This is a leading conference series, national and international, focused on interdisciplinary nature of plasma physics between space, laboratory, and astrophysics. As a 20-year old tradition, we aim to bring together active members of the laboratory, space and astrophysics plasma physics communities from around the world, and to foster intellectual interaction and scientific collaboration addressing the processes responsible for various common plasma phenomena. This latest conference, organized by PPPL, marks the return of the meeting to North America since eight years ago in 2003. Nearly 100 participants, including about one fifth to one quarter of students and postdocs from 10 countries around the world, presented 8 tutorial talks, 36 invited talks, 20 contributed talks and about 30 posters. In addition to the traditional topics on shear flow and turbulence, Alfven resonance and wave-particle interactions, dusty plasma and sheath physics, and magnetic reconnection, new topics on collisionless shocks and particle acceleration, magnetic dynamo and astrophysical jets have been added. New developments in each of these areas were reported and discussed. Ms. Auna Moser from Caltech was selected the best student presentation. Her presentation was titled "Experimental observation of instability cascade from MHD to ion skin depth scale resulting in magnetic reconnection". Travel support, funded by NSF and DOE, were provided to graduate students and postdocs, with priorities for women and minorities, and also from developing counties. An application form was used for students or postdocs to fill out their proposed presentations, the reasons to request travel support including the amount, and other information needed for the selection. Total 15 applicants requested supports, and 9 applicants were selected based on the information provided and available funds The 12th IPELS meeting will be held in Japan by Prof. Yasushi Ono from University of Tokyo. More detailed information can be found at http://ipels2011.pppl.gov
