ICOPS conference in Seattle
The 49th International Conference on Plasma Science (ICOPS) was held in Seattle from May 22 through May 26. It was one of the first conferences since the beginning of the COVID pandemic situation that was organized as a hybrid conference and partly held on site. It was nice to be back at a live conference getting in touch face to face with other researchers. More than 350 on site attendees visited the conference and more than 150 researchers joined the conference virtually. The conference venue was the Sheraton Grand Seattle located in Seattle Downtown. The scientific program reached out to wide varieties in the field of plasma physics covering topics such as basic phenomena in high temperature fusion plasmas or low temperature plasma jets up to the applications of different sources as for example in medicine, agriculture or for environmental purposes.
Beside the scientific program there were lots of things to discover around the area such as strolling at the famous Pike Place Market or going up the Space Needle to get a great view over the city and the 4392m high volcano Mount Rainier, if it does not hide itself in dense clouds. During the conference a spontaneous group event took place, exploring the night life of Seattle together with around 30 other researchers and the conference was eventually closed with a nice banquet.
Patrick Preissing, project B2
