Plenary Speakers
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Prof. J. Gary Eden J. Gary Eden received the Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Illinois, Urbana, in 1976 and was appointed a National Research Council Postdoctoral Research Associate at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (Washington, DC). As a research physicist in the Laser Physics Branch (Optical Sciences Division) of NRL from 1976 to 1979, he made several contributions to the area of visible and ultraviolet lasers and laser spectroscopy, including the co-discovery of the KrCl rare gas-halide excimer laser, and received a Research Publication Award (1979) for his work at NRL in which he co-discovered the proton beam pumped laser (Ar-N2, XeF). Since joining the faculty of the University of Illinois in 1979, he has been engaged in research in atomic, molecular and ultrafast laser spectroscopy, the discovery and development of visible and ultraviolet lasers, and the science and technology of microcavity plasma devices. He has served as Assistant Dean in the College of Engineering, Associate Dean of the Graduate College, and Associate Vice-Chancellor for Research. Currently, he is the Gilmore Family Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Director of the Laboratory for Optical Physics and Engineering, as well as Research Professor in the Coordinated Science Laboratory, and the Micro and Nanotechnology Laboratory. Dr. Eden has authored more than 260 refereed publications and 38 awarded patents, is a member of four honorary organizations, and is a Fellow of the IEEE, the Optical Society of America, the American Physical Society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), and the SPIE. He has served as Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Journal of Quantum Electronics and is currently Editor-in-Chief of Progress in Quantum Electronics. In 1998, he served as President of the IEEE Lasers and Electro-Optics Society (LEOS), following earlier service as a member of the LEOS Board of Governors, and as the Vice-President for Technical Affairs. Dr. Eden received the LEOS Distinguished Service Award, was awarded the IEEE Third Millennium medal in 2000 and was named a LEOS Distinguished Lecturer for 2003-2005. From 1996 through 1999, he was the James F. Towey University Scholar at the University of Illinois. In 2005, he received the IEEE/LEOS Aron Kressel Award. He was awarded the C.E.K. Mees Medal of the Optical Society of America in 2007, and was the recipient of the Fulbright-Israel Distinguished Chair in the Natural Sciences and Engineering for 2007-2008. He is a co-founder of Eden Park Illumination (2007) and EP Purification (2010), and was recently named the recipient of the Harold E. Edgerton Award of SPIE for 2010. |
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Prof. Martin Gundersen Professor of Electrical Engineering, Physics and Astronomy, and Chemical Engineering and Materials Science at the University of Southern California. Chair of the Department of Electrical Engineering–Electrophysics from 1998 to 2003. Visiting Professor at UCLA (1986-87), Visiting Scientist at MIT (1986-1987 and 1989) and at C.E.R.N. (1987), Visiting Associate at Caltech (1993-94), and Visiting Professor of Physics at the Naval Postgraduate School. Published ≈350 scientific papers, graduated 23 PhD students. Life Fellow of the IEEE, Fellow of the Optical Society of America, Sol Schneider award of the 2010 IEEE Power Modulator and High Voltage Conference, 2000 Germeshausen Award of the IEEE Power Modulator Symposium , USC Viterbi School of Engineering Senior Research Award in 2008, School of Engineering Service award in 1992. Organized and directed technical meetings including the 1980 OSA Topical Meeting on Infrared Lasers, the 1989 NATO Advance Research Workshop on Physics and Applications of Hollow Electrode Glow Switches, Technical Program Chairman for the IEEE Power Modulator Symposium in 1990 and 1998, and Chair of the Executive Committee for the 2002 and 2004 Power Modulator Conference and High Voltage Workshop, and the 2004-2006 American Film Institute “Catalyst” Workshops for teaching scriptwriting to scientists and engineers. Technical advisor on the film “Real Genius”. Current research interests include engine combustion efficiency based on transient plasma, pulsed power science and technology, medical and agricultural applications of pulsed power. |
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Prof. Gennady Mesyats Gennady A. Mesyats was born in Kemerovo, Siberia, in 1936. In 1958, he graduated with honors from Tomsk Polytechnic Institute (TPI). He received a candidate’s degree in engineering (1961) and doctor’s degree in engineering (1966) and became Professor (1972), Corresponding Member of the USSR AS (1979), and Full Member of the USSR AS (1984). From 1961 to 1966 he worked as a senior researcher and from 1966 to 1969 as the head of a group engaged in electronics and automatics at the Institute of Nuclear Physics of TPI. During the period from 1969 to 1977 he was Deputy Director for Research of the Institute of Atmospheric Optics of the USSR Academy of Sciences Siberian Division (USSR AS SD). In 1977, he founded the Institute of High Current Electronics of the USSR AS SD and became Director of the Institute. In 1986, G. A. Mesyats, together with a team of the leading researchers of the Institute, went to Sverdlovsk (now Ekaterinburg) where he became Director of the Institute of Electrophysics of the Ural Science Center that was set up on his initiative. In 1987 G. A. Mesyats initiated the founding of the Ural Division of the USSR AS that brought in association almost all institutions of the Academy of Sciences in the Ural region of Russia. G. A. Mesyats was President of the Division up to 1998. From 1987 to 1991 he served as Vice President of the USSR AS and since 1991 he has been Vice President of Russian Academy of Sciences. Since 2002, G. A. Mesyats has also been Research Supervisor of the Institute of High Current Electronics of the RUS SD and Institute of Electrophysics of the RAS UD. Since 2004, he has been Director of the P. N. Lebedev Physical Institute of the RAS. In addition to his research and managerial activities at the Russian Academy of Sciences, G. A. Mesyats is actively engaged in public work of national value. Since 1992, he has been President of The Demidov Foundation for Research and of The Demidov Prize that were established on his initiative and with his direct participation. From 1998 to 2005, G. A. Mesyats headed the State Supreme Certification Commission and from 1993 to 2008 the Scientific Council of the State Duma of the Russian Federation. G. A. Mesyats has supervised the studies of about 100 candidates of science and more than 20 doctors of science; 21 of his followers were awarded with the State Prize of the Russian Federation. Among his disciples there are three Full Members and five Corresponding Members of the Russian Academy of Sciences. He lectured as Professor at the Institute of Automated Control Systems and Radioelectronics (Tomsk, 1970–1978), Tomsk State University (founder and head of the plasma physics faculty, 1978–1984), Ural Polytechnic Institute (founder and head of the faculty of electrophysics, Ekaterinburg, 1986–1990). Since 1987, Professor Mesyats has been the head of the faculty of electrophysics (founded by him) at Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. G. A. Mesyats has authored and co-authored over 600 scientific papers and 20 monograps, making pioneering contributions in the field of high-power pulsed electronics. G. A. Mesyats is a laureate of the State Prizes of the USSR (1978) and Russian Federation (1998), a winner of the USSR Government Prize (1990) and Russian Federation Government Prize (2003), of The Demidov Prize (2002), of The Global Energy international prize (2003), of the international W. Dyke Award (1990) and E. Marx Award (1991). He was awarded with The A. G. Stoletov Prize (1996), The N. N. Moiseev Gold Medal (2002), The S. V. Vonsovsky Gold Medal (2004), and The M. A. Lavrent’ev Gold Medal (2005). G. A. Mesyats was also awarded with The Order of Lenin (1986), The Order of a Red Banner of Labor (1971), The Order of Honor (1981), Orders of Service to the Motherland of Fourth Class (1996), Third Class (1999), and Second Class (2006), and also with a number of medals of the USSR and Russian Federation. He is a freeman of Tomsk region and of the city Ekaterinburg. He was also honored with The National Order of the Legion of Honor (France). G. A. Mesyats is a member of many international scientific societies and journal editorial boards, and Honorary Professor of a number of world’s and Russian universities. |
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Prof. Andrew Ng Andrew Ng received his B.Sc. degree from the University of Hong Kong and his M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees from The University of Western Ontario. Prior to joining the Department of Physics at the University of British Columbia in 1980, he was a National Research Council of Canada Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Electrical Engineering at the University of Alberta. In 2003, he joined the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory as Scientific Director of the Jupiter Laser Facility. With the successful establishment of JLF, he returned to UBC in 2008 to continue research as an Emeritus Professor. As a young student, he was attracted to the field of plasma physics by the excitement of fusion research as a means to produce a virtually inexhaustible source of energy. As a researcher, he has been fascinated by the multidisciplinary nature of plasma science. He is particularly interested in the link between condensed matter physics and plasma physics. He strives to understand the transition from a condensed matter to a plasma state in the regime for which he has coined the description “Warm Dense Matter”. This regime is also key to research in high pressure science, planetary science and inertial confinement fusion. In 2000 Prof. Ng initiated the International Workshop on Warm Dense Matter to bring together scientists from a wide range of disciplines. The meeting has since been held in Canada (2000, 2005), Germany (2002), France (2007), Japan (2009), U.S.A. (2011). Prof. Ng is a recipient of the C.A. McDowell Medal and the Izaak Walton Killam Research Prize at UBC, the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Science & Technology Award, the Merit award and the PSAC award of IEEE Nuclear and Plasma Sciences Society. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society Fellow and an IEEE Fellow. |
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Prof. Kostya (Ken) Ostrikov Kostya (Ken) Ostrikov [M.Sc. (Distinction) 1989; PhD, 1992; D.Sc. (Habil.) 1996] is a CEO Science Leader, Australian Future Fellow, and a Founding Leader of the Plasma Nanoscience Center Australia at CSIRO Materials Science and Engineering, Sydney, Australia as well as an Honorary Professor and Research Program Leader of the Center for Waves and Complex Systems of the University of Sydney. He leads a large international collaborative network, convenes annual conference series in plasma nanoscience, and is a lead editor of special issues in the field. His achievements include 3 most prestigious general-field (physics) medals of National Academies of Science of Australia and Ukraine and the Australian Institute of Physics, very recent CSIRO’s Chief’s Award for Science, 7 prestigious international fellowships and 8 full professor-level appointments in 6 countries, 3 research monographs, more than 310 refereed journal papers, more than 80 plenary, keynote, and invited talks at international conferences, as well as more than 100 collaborators in last 6 years. His main research program on nanoscale control of energy and matter for a sustainable future contributes to the solution of the grand and as-yet-unresolved challenge of directing energy and matter at the nanoscale, a challenge that is critical for renewable energy and energy-efficient technologies for a sustainable future. The program aims to discover the most effective controls for deterministic nanoscale assembly based on precise control of matter and energy at nanoscales under far-from-equilibrium conditions. This control includes generation and manipulation of the plasma-generated building blocks and their arrangement into arrays of nanostructures with the required properties using effects not available in other nanofabrication techniques. These effects are related to ionisation, charges, electric and magnetic fields, polarisation, alteration of surface energy in specified regions, etc. In this way, the resulting arrays of nanoscale objects (quantum dots, nanotubes, nanowires, graphene, nanowalls, and other nanoparticles of desired shapes and structures, both free-standing and surface-bound) can be produced and processed more quickly and more uniformly in size and distribution, even without using pattern delineation techniques that presently dominate in nanofabrication technologies but are rapidly nearing their physical limits. Ostrikov’s research program is three-dimensional: it relates the targeted applications, the advanced nanomaterials (carbon, silicon, metal, oxides/nitrides and hybrid nanomaterials) for these applications, and the most suitable (e.g., hot/cold, low/high-pressure, thermal/non-equilibrium, etc.) plasmas and processes to produce these materials and device elements. This research involves theoretical modelling, numerical simulations, and experiments on nanomaterials synthesis, characterisation and applications. The outcomes promise faster, unprecedentedly-clean, human-health-friendly, and energy-efficient nanoscale synthesis and processing technologies as well as advanced (e.g., smart and responsive) functional materials for next-generation devices and systems for renewable energy (e.g., solar cells, batteries, supercapacitors), environmental (e.g., gas sensing), medicine and health care (drug delivery, cancer therapies, biosensing), and human nutrition (pathogen inactivation in food, water purification) applications. |
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Prof. Alan Phelps Alan D. R. Phelps was born in the U.K. in 1944. He received the B.A. degree (with honours) in physics and the M.A. degree from Cambridge University, Cambridge, U.K., in 1966 and 1970, respectively, and the D.Phil. degree for plasma research from Oxford University, Oxford, U.K., in 1970. Dr. Phelps has been with the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, U.K., since 1978, where he initially founded a research group, became a Full Professor in 1993, and is currently with the Scottish Universities Physics Alliance, Department of Physics, where he was the Head of the Department from 1998 to 2001. His research interests include high-power free-electron radiation sources and plasmas. Alan Phelps is a Fellow of the Institute of Physics, of the American Physical Society and of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. |
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Dr. Andrew Randewich Dr Andrew Randewich is Head of Plasma Physics and Head of Profession for Physics at the UK Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE). After completing a PhD in plasma physics, he joined the company in 1997 in the High Altitude Nuclear Effects Team where he developed a novel capability to model Artificial (Nuclear Induced) Van Allen Belts. He also worked to improve AWE’s understanding of and capability in Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) phenomenology, and won the Discovery Award for Early Career Scientific Innovation. Andrew later worked on thermonuclear burn modelling in support of Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF), and as a Team Leader for transport algorithms in the Computational Physics Group. Since then, Andrew spent two years managing the Physics Certification programme, and in 2009 moved to lead the High Performance Computing Group where he has been involved in the procurement and installation of some of the largest computers in the UK. Andrew was appointed Head of Plasma Physics including accountability for the Orion Laser Asset in November 2011. As Head of Profession for Physics Andrew has responsibility for the Continuous Professional Development of all Physicists at AWE, and the company’s interactions with the Institute of Physics. He is a Chartered Physicist and a Fellow of the Institute of Physics. |