The 57th annual meeting of the APS Division of Plasma Physics (DPP) was held November 16–20, 2015 in Savannah, Georgia. The meeting brings together researchers (undergraduate students through retirees) from all areas of plasma physics. 1887 abstracts were included in the program, approximately 200 more than the previous year. The presentations included five invited review talks, 97 invited talks, three invited postdeadline talks, and four tutorials. There were approximately 1780 contributed presentations, with about 40% oral and 60% poster. Three mini-conferences were held concurrently. The Monday morning invited review talk was “The Physics of the Laboratory Microsphere,” given by Professor Mike Mauel of Columbia University. He described how a plasma generated around a levitated magnetic current ring is similar to planetary magnetospheres. These “levitated dipole” experiments allow studies of magnetospheric physics in the laboratory. It is worth noting that on Monday evening during the Physics of Plasmas' reception, Professor Mauel was announced as the successor to Professor Ron Davidson as the editor of Physics of Plasmas. During the reception, many friends and colleagues congratulated Ron Davidson for twenty-five years of exceptional service to the plasma physics community as Editor-in-Chief. Tuesday's review talk continued the connection between laboratory experiments and the physics of the solar system. Dr. Jim Bailey of Sandia National Laboratories gave at talk entitled “Measuring the opacity of stellar interior matter in terrestrial laboratories.” An outstanding question is how energy flows from the core of the Sun to the surface, providing the earth's radiant heating. The talk described an elegant set of experiments that measured the opacity of iron under solar-relevant conditions using the Z pulsed power machine at Sandia. Professor Frank Jenko of the University of California–Los Angeles gave Wednesday's review talk on “Turbulence in laboratory and natural plasmas: Connecting the dots,” again connecting laboratory experiments with observations. He has outlined exciting new research opportunities that combine extreme-scale simulations with basic plasma and fusion experiments and observations from satellites. Dr. Masaaki Yamada of Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory received the 2015 James Clerk Maxwell Prize and gave Thursday's review talk, “Study of Magnetic Reconnection in Plasma: How it works and energizes plasma particles.” The talk was focused on energy flow during the reconnection process, combining simulations, the results of laboratory experiments, and satellite observations. Professor Warren Mori of the University of California–Los Angeles gave the final review talk on Friday, “Synergy Between Experiments and Simulations in Laser and Beam-Driven Plasma Accelerators and Light Sources.” He reviewed some of the dramatic progress in the laboratory demonstration of plasma-based accelerators and how this effort has been advanced by the synergy between the experiments and full-scale multi-dimensional particle in cell (PIC) simulations. The five review talks were very well received by the attendees at the meeting, as were the four tutorials. Professor Amitava Bhattacharjee (Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory) presented a tutorial entitled, “Recent Developments in Reconnection Theory: The Plasmoid Instability, Self-Generated Turbulence, and Implications for Laboratory and Space Plasmas.” The second tutorial was given by Professor Earl Marmer (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), “Considerations of the High Magnetic Field Tokamak on the approach to Fusion Energy.” Dr. David Montgomery (Los Alamos National Laboratory) gave the third tutorial, “Two Decades of Progress in Understanding and Control of Laser-Plasma Instabilities in Indirect-Drive Inertial Fusion.” The final tutorial was given by Dr. Sergei Krasheninnkov (University of California–San Diego), “Divertor Detachment.” The three mini-conferences were “Plasma Energization–Interactions between Fluid and Kinetic Scales,” “Nonlinear Effects in Geospace Plasmas,” and “Measuring and Modeling Plasma Material Interactions.” All of the talks and sessions listed above were in addition to the many parallel contributed oral and poster sessions that made up the bulk of the presentations.
A variety of additional activities complemented the scientific program. The High Energy Density Science Association (HEDSA) hosted their annual symposium Sunday evening. On monday evening, APS CEO, Dr. Kate Kirby talked about her career path at the Women in Plasma Physics reception. The University Fusion Associates (UFA) held their general meeting later in the same evening. The Town Meeting on the Concerns of Junior Scientists was held on Tuesday, chaired by Dr. Richard Magee (Tri-alpha Energy).
The DPP banquet was held Wednesday evening. The new APS Fellows were recognized and the APS/DPP prizes were awarded. The 2015 John Dawson Award for Excellence in Plasma Physics Research was shared by Roger Falcone (University of California, Berkeley), Hyun-Kyung Chung (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory), Orlando Ciricosta, Bob Nagler, Sam Vinko, and Justin Wark (University of Oxford), Phillip Heimann and Richard Lee (Stanford University). The Marshall N. Rosenbluth Outstanding Doctoral Thesis Award recipient was Cami Collins, University of California, Irvine/General Atomics. The Thomas H. Stix Award for Outstanding Early Career Contributions to Plasma Physics Research was presented to Nuno Loureiro (Instituto de Plasmas e Fusão Nuclear, Portugal). The after dinner speaker was Pulitzer Prize-winning author, journalist and American historian, Richard Rhodes, who spoke about his 1995 book, Dark Sun: The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb.
The Science Education and Public Outreach Subcommittee (Paul Miller, Chair) organized a very successful Teacher's Day and Plasma Expo for Savannah area students and teachers. On Tuesday, Science Teachers' Day morning and afternoon workshops on topical areas of plasma and fusion sciences along with technology applications were held, and the opportunity to discuss plasma physics with poster presenters. The workshop topics and content align with national science standards and the regional academic standards. The Plasma Sciences Expo (Thursday and Friday) offered middle school and high school students, teachers, parents, and the general public an opportunity to talk with scientists while visiting a variety of exhibits and interactive displays, which include making arcs of lightning, manipulating plasma with magnets, observing fluctuating body temperature, playing fusion video games, and exploring optics using a laser. The U.S. Department of Energy (U.S. DoE) national labs, industry, and universities from across the country host exhibit booths.
The 2015 APS/DPP Program Committee chose the review, invited, and tutorial talks, and developed the schedule for the meeting. Its members were David Meyerhofer (Program Chair), Mitchell Walker (Local Arrangements Coordinator); Ex Officio: Riccardo Betti, Earl Scime, Daniel Dubin, Richard Dendy, Yasushi Ono; Basic Plasma Physics: Michael Brown, Paul Bellan, Seth Dorfman, Auna Moser; Beams and Coherent Radiation: Cameron Geddes, Felicie Albert, Manuel Hegelich, Alec Thomas; ICF/HEDP: Stephanie Hansen, Bob Cauble, Hui Chen, Dustin Froula, Max Karasik, Paul Keiter, Leslie Welser; Plasma Technology/Low Temperature Plasmas: Scott Baalrud, Mark Gilmore, David Graves, Yevgeny Raitses, Julian Schulze; MFE Experiments: Dennis Whyte, Matthew ArchMiller, Brett Chapman, David Hill, Masayuki Ono, Lothar Schmitz, Steve Scott, Punit Gohil, Rajesh Maingi; MFE Theory: Andris Dimits, Michael Barnes, Emily Belli, Diego del Castillo-Negrete, Guo-Yong Fu; Science Education and Public Outreach: Paul Miller, Mitchell Walker; Space and Astrophysical Plasma Physics: Will Fox, Walter Gekelman, Craig Kletzing, Hui Li. Many individuals were essential to the success of the meeting, including staff from some of the participating institutions and the APS Meetings Department, Terri Olsen, Christine Lenihan, Don Mewha, Steven Mon, Vinaya Sathyasheelappa, and Donald Wise. Lee Warren and the Freeman Team provided the audio-visual support. A special thank you goes to Saralyn Stewart, DPP Administrator, for her comprehensive assistance. Without her extensive knowledge and work, the meeting could not have been pulled off. We thank the editorial staff of the Physics of Plasmas, including Dr. David Baker, Benita Hammer, and Deborah Doherty, for their efforts in preparing this special issue, containing approximately 50 articles, tutorial, and review papers across the important topical areas of plasma physics. The slides from the invited, tutorial, and review talks are posted on the Physics of Plasmas website [url-link: http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/journal/pop/info/collections] for the sixth year.
