ICPIG 2017 - Estoril, July 9-14

The XXXIII edition of ICPIG – International Conference on Phenomena in Ionized Gases – was held in Estoril, Portugal, from 9 to 14 July. The Local Organizing Committee was composed by members of IPFN, Instituto Superior Técnico, affiliated to the Universities of Lisbon, Porto and Minho.

ICPIG was founded in 1953, only three decades after Langmuir’s identification of plasma, and today it is one of the oldest and most important international conferences on plasma physics.

In its early editions, ICPIG was mostly dedicated to fundamental science (focusing on topics such as elementary processes and fundamental data, plasma diagnostics, wave and instabilities and space physics), but the recent burst of interest in plasma-based applications has pushed the community to follow new research paths, contributing also to enlarge the scope of ICPIG, for example with the addition of topics on plasma processing of surfaces and particles, and medical, biological, environmental and aeronautical applications.

Although this diversification led inherently to the foundation of more specialized plasma conferences and workshops, ICPIG kept the role of interconnecting the broad community of low-temperature plasma physics, holding a key position as a “forum for the discussion of nearly all fields of plasma science”. 

The XXXIII ICPIG has featured a new conference format. Leveraging on the large diversity that characterizes ongoing research in plasma physics, and aiming also at broadening opportunities for the diffusion of scientific results by both young and senior researchers, the International Scientific Committee of ICPIG has decided to reduce the number of general invited talks to introduce, for the first time, oral contributions.

The 2017 scientific program was composed by:

  • 6 invited general lectures
  • 29 invited topical lectures
  • 36 oral contributions, organized in two parallel sessions
  • 4 poster sessions
  • one special session on “Challenges in the modelling of low-temperature plasmas”, honouring our late and distinguished colleague Carlos Matos Ferreira

In total, 416 submissions were presented by 387 participants from 36 countries.

ICPIG awards the von Engel and Franklin Prize, established in 1998. It is sponsored by the Hans von Engel and Gordon Francis Fund and is administered by the Board of Physical Sciences, University of Oxford. The prize is named in honor of two distinguished colleagues who had a major role in ICPIG and its community since the first meeting in 1953.

The 2017 von Engel & Franklin Prize was awarded to Prof. Uwe Czarnetzki (Ruhr Universität-Bochum) for his long-standing and important contributions to the field. The XXXIII ICPIG has also awarded:

  • Best Oral Contribution (sponsored by IPFN): Thomas Orrière, Institute PPRIME, France
  • Best Poster Presentation (sponsored by the Portuguese Physical Society): Marina Lisnyak, GREMI, France.

In summary, the XXXIII edition of ICPIG was very successful, since it brought together a large number of researchers that could discuss plasma physics for five days, in a relaxed atmosphere, enjoying a high-quality scientific program.