International conference on plasma science begins in Lucknow

Scientists from across the globe attended the first day of an international conference on plasma in Lucknow on Wednesday.

The two-day international conference on 'Plasma Science, Technology and application (ICPSTA-2016)' is being organised by the Amity School of Applied Sciences, Amity University in collaboration with CEERI-Pilani.

Prominent attendees include well known German plasma physicist Professor DHH Hoffmann, TU Darmstadt, Germany and keynote speaker Padmashri Prof. P. I. John, Meghnad Saha Chair in Plasma Science and Technology, Institute for Plasma Research, India along with Professor J. Jacoby, Goethe University, Frankfurt, Professor Nishimura, Osaka University, Japan, Professor AW Cross, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK, Dr. Ram Prakash, CSIR-CEERI, Pilani, India. Dr. S. Mukherjee, Institute of Plasma Research, India inaugurated the conference by lighting the lamp.

Delivering the keynote address of the session, Professor PI John spoke on various aspects of plasma, including the timeline of recent developments in the field.

He said that in the field of nuclear fusion there was need for a lot of research and in the near future we will see worldwide collaboration in this field.

Chief guest Professor Hoffmann discussed how the conference was already a success for him, because of the inquisitive students whose questions showed their piqued interest in plasma.

He also discussed briefly how the plasma technology can be useful in finding the answer to many technological problems of the day like plasma-based catalysts, for smoke-reduction etc.

He said that a large number of people think that Nuclear Fusion is the main part of plasma science but plasma science also plays an important role in other fields like medical and environment.