2016 Plasma Processing Science: Plasmas with Complex Interactions: Exploiting the Non-Equilibrium.

Humanity faces significant grand challenges in the areas of energy, human health, and environmental sustainability, and low temperature plasmas are at the heart of many technologies promising to provide solutions for these grand challenges. This award will provide support for students to participate in one of the most important biennial conference series in the field of low temperature plasmas, the 2016 Gordon Research Conference on Plasma Processing Science to be held July 24-29, 2016, at Proctor Academy, Andover, NH. The conference will feature a comprehensive program that will highlight the most cutting edge scientific advances in low temperature plasma science and will explore the applications of low temperature plasma technology relative to many grand societal challenges. Associated with the conference is a weekend-long Gordon Research Seminar, which features attendance limited to graduate students and post-doctoral associates, allowing for scientific interaction in a non-threatening environment.

The award will be used to provide registration fee support for US students and postdocs to attend the conference and the seminar. Seminar participation of 22 students and postdocs, and further conference participation of 5 students and postdocs will be facilitated by this award. The special format of the Gordon Conferences, with programmed discussion sessions and ample time for informal gatherings in the afternoons and evenings, will provide for a great learning environment for the students and postdocs, as well as a fertile atmosphere of brainstorming and creative thinking for all of the attendees.