NPSS Distinguished Lecturers Program

The NPSS Distinguished Lecturers Program (DLP) sponsors the presentation of lectures at NPSS Chapter meetings as well as at IEEE Section and Student Chapter meetings.

In addition, NPSS Distinguished Lecturers are available for presentations to other IEEE entities as well as to non-IEEE organizations, such as universities.

NPSS Distinguished Lecturers are volunteers who are nominated by the NPSS Technical Committees based on distinguished stature and achievement within their technical communities.

A brochure describing the NPSS Distinguished Lecturers program is available at: Distinguished_Lecturer_Bi-fold.pdf

A statement of program guidelines and procedures is available at: NPSS_DLP.doc

To arrange a lecture, please contact the lecturer directly using the links provided below. For additional information, please contact the Distinguished Lecturers Coordinator Steven Gold.

List of NPSS Distinguished Lecture Topics and Lecturers

The Plasma Antenna - Now you see it, now you don't

Our plasma antenna is a fluorescent lamp from the local hardware store. When on, it receives ordinary FM and AM signals. When off, it electrically disappears and becomes invisible to RADAR. Our work on plasma antennas has been supported by two phase 2 SBIR grants from the US Air Force and the US Army. We have made many significant advances in theory and practice, the most important of which is that a plasma antenna under the proper operating conditions has much lower thermal noise than metal antennas in the same operating frequency range. We have constructed an intelligent plasma antenna, which searches in azimuth for a desired signal. When a desired signal is found, the plasma antenna locks onto the desired signal, ignoring signals arriving at other azimuthal angles. When the desired signal disappears, the intelligent plasma antenna recommences scanning (movie).
The Plasma Sterilizer - Killing bacteria with a ceramic floor tile

A moist unglazed ceramic floor tile when used as a high voltage DC electrode in air produces a diffuse glow discharge instead of a spark or arc. This discharge is very effective in killing bacteria, virus, and spores. Under the proper conditions, tests demonstrate 100 % kill in less than 60 seconds. One version is under study in a hospital to determine if it can destroy pathogenic bacteria, which have evolved to be immune to conventional antibiotics and disinfectants. The sterilizer was an invited topic of discussion at a recent 2007 NATO meeting in Cesme, Turkey, for possible use in countering bacteriological warfare. It is extremely inexpensive to fabricate, using only a ceramic floor tile and a neon sign transformer.
Ball Lightning - Balls of fire in the laboratory

Ball lightning has been a puzzle for hundreds of years. It is surprisingly frequently observed, although its short lifetime in general has prevented its being photographed. The author actually has observed natural ball lightning. In this presentation I will demonstrate the creation of orange balls of glowing gas created in the laboratory that last for about a second (movie). The exotic equipment used is an array of 6 neon sign transformers, which generate a two – dimensional electric arc. Other models of ball lightning will be discussed. One possible application of artificial ball lightning is a decoy for missiles in warfare.
Thermonuclear fusion power plants - the ultimate energy source - maybe

Magnetic thermonuclear fusion has been under development as a possible source of power for over 50 years without ever reaching break-even power production. The amount of US funding over this time is about 10 billion dollars. The author spent over 10 years working in this field. This presentation will be a critical and irreverent discussion of what may be the basic problems, successes and failures in the program. This includes a reactor design guaranteed to work (published but unfunded), and a discussion on why we should not ignore the second law of thermodynamics.
Dr. Igor Alexeff
Professor of Electrical Engineering, Emeritus
University of Tennessee, Knoxville
ialexeff@comcast.net

Professor Igor Alexeff has been working in plasma and microwave engineering for over 50 years. He has a patent on the Orbitron Microwave Maser that has operated up to one Terahertz (1/3 mm.). He is an author and co – editor of the book, High Power Microwave Sources, published by Artech House. He has spent considerable time recently on plasma stealth antennas, and is listed on several patents issued to the ASI Technology Corporation.
Professor Alexeff graduated from Harvard in physics in 1952, and received his PhD degree from the University of Wisconsin in nuclear physics in 1959. He also passed the Tennessee State License Exam, and is a registered professional engineer. He has worked at the Westinghouse Research Laboratory on nuclear submarines, at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in controlled thermonuclear fusion, and at the University of Tennessee in industrial plasma engineering. He has worked overseas for extended periods in Switzerland, Japan, India, South Africa, and Brazil. He has done considerable work for the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, and was a co – founder of the IEEE Nuclear and Plasma Sciences Society. He was president of that society in 1999 – 2000. He is a Fellow of the IEEE and of The American Physical Society. He has over 100 refereed publications and over 10 patents.

Radiation Effects in Silicon-Based Heterostructure Device Technologies

Bandgap engineering is a power tool for electronic and photonic device optimization, but until recently it has been the exclusive domain of III-V technologies such as GaAs or InP. The advent of robust epitaxial growth techniques in the silicon material system, however, is generating worldwide interest, because it enables bandgap-engineering on far-more-manufacturable silicon wafers. The most mature of the Si-based heterostructure electronic device platforms is the Silicon-Germanium Heterojunction Bipolar Transistor (SiGe HBT). At the present state-of-the-art, SiGe HBTs with frequency response above 300 GHz have been demonstrated, on CMOS foundry compatible 200 mm wafers, and is being practiced commercially around the world. The combination of ultra-high-speed SiGe HBTs with scaled silicon CMOS, to form SiGe HBT BiCMOS technology, represents a unique opportunity for highly-integrated, low-cost, silicon-based system-on-a-chip or system-in-a-package solutions for emerging high-frequency wireless and wireline applications ranging from RF as high as mm-wave frequencies (e.g., to 100 GHz).

Interestingly, SiGe HBTs have been shown to have a built-in tolerance to total-ionizing dose radiation, and are also well-suited for operation down to very low-temperatures (to 4.2 K), and up to very high temperatures (to 300 C), making them very appealing for a wide-variety of emerging extreme environment electronics applications, which might be needed, for instance, in space exploration.

This presentation will focus primarily on radiation effects in SiGe HBT devices and circuits. After an introduction to bandgap engineering, SiGe strained layer epitaxy and its use in SiGe HBT design and fabrication, a detailed assessment of the impact of radiation on SiGe materials, devices, and circuits is presented, including: radiation tolerance; basic damage mechanisms; the effects of different radiation types; technology scaling issues; single event upset mitigation approaches; cryogenic operation; and the future directions of SiGe technology. Finally, recent developments in other Si-based bandgap-engineered electronic devices, including strained-Si CMOS will be discussed, as well as the possibilities of Si-based photonic devices.
Dr. John D. Cressler
Byers Professor
School of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Georgia Institute of Technology
john.cressler@ece.gatech.edu

Nuclear Radiation Detectors – Past, Present and Future

The need to develop and harness advanced technology to detect nuclear materials is now in vivid focus. Many national-security users of radiation detectors must obtain and deliver fast and accurate information to intercept radioactive/nuclear materials and respond to a variety of threats. Ideally, the detectors would be compact, light weight, low maintenance, low power, able to identify radioactive isotopes, possess high signal-to-noise ratios, and capable of stand-off operation. Practically all of the proposed approaches have been limited by the quality of the materials used to produce the detectors, and resolution of the material problems has not been amenable to a quick and easy fix. For gamma detectors, the most promising approaches have involved the development of room-temperature semiconductor detectors based on cadmium zinc telluride (CZT) and scintillators based on the lanthanum halides. Because of deficiencies in the quality of the material, high energy-resolution CZT gamma spectrometers are still limited to relatively small dimensions, which makes them inefficient at detecting high photon energies and somewhat ineffective for weak radiation signals except in proximity. Scintillators based on lanthanum halides have also been limited to relatively small sizes. Both detectors are very attractive for a broad range of gamma-ray detector applications; however, increases in their efficiencies are needed without sacrificing the ability to operate at room temperature and to spectrally resolve isotopes of interest. To fully exploit these emerging technologies, it will be necessary to develop a detailed understanding of the underlying problems limiting the performance of devices and to apply this knowledge to improve the material quality. Progress is required in the following areas: growth of large uniform single crystals, reductions in carrier trapping, and improved device fabrication procedures. Despite the current material constraints, several types of new room-temperature gamma-ray detectors have been developed, some of which are now addressing important applications. This talk will summarize the material factors limiting the performance of solid-state detectors and scintillators and discuss ways to overcome them through appropriate corrections. Comments on the material limitations for advanced neutron detectors will also be discussed.
Solid-State Cadmium-Zinc-Telluride Gamma Ray Detectors

Cadmium zinc telluride (CZT) is the most promising semiconductor material today for production of X-ray and gamma detectors and imaging arrays operable at room temperature. The performance of CZT devices, the global capacity for growth of detector-grade crystals, and the size of the commercial market have progressed steadily over the past few years. Concurrently, the cost for CZT gamma-ray spectrometers has decreased. Unfortunately, because of deficiencies in the quality of the material, high-resolution CZT spectrometers are still limited to relatively small dimensions (< 1 cm3), which makes them inefficient at detecting high photon energies and somewhat ineffective for weak radiation signals except in near proximity. Despite the current constraints on efficiency of the devices, CZT detectors have been increasingly deployed in medical, space, environment, and national security applications for monitoring and imaging radiation in the energy range of 2-2000 keV. The detectors could be attractive for a much broader range of applications; however, increases in their efficiency are needed without sacrificing the ability to spectrally resolve X-ray and gamma energies. Achieving the goal of low-cost efficient CZT detectors requires progress in the following areas: growth of larger crystals, reductions in carrier trapping, increases in the electrical resistivity, better uniformity of device response, and improved device fabrication procedures. This talk will summarize the material factors limiting the performance of CZT gamma-ray detectors and discuss ways to overcome them through appropriate corrections in the crystal growth and device fabrication processes.
Brookhaven National Laboratory’s R&D on Advanced Sensor Technology for Homeland Security Applications

The need to harness advanced sensor technology to detect chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear, and explosives (CBRNE) agents is now in vivid focus. This presentation discusses Brookhaven National Laboratory’s new sensor approaches designed to obtain and deliver fast and accurate information to intercept CBRNE materials and respond to a variety of homeland security threats. The talk will cover basic research related to the development of advanced detector materials, applied development of prototype instruments, and the deployment of technology in real-life environments.
Dr. Ralph B. James
Associate Laboratory Director
Energy, Environment and National Security
Brookhaven National Laboratory
rjames@bnl.gov

Dr. Ralph B. James was born in Nashville, TN in 1953. He received a B.S. degree in Engineering Physics with highest honors from the University of Tennessee in 1976, a M.S. degree in Physics from Georgia Institute of Technology in 1977, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Applied Physics from California Institute of Technology in 1978 and 1980. From 1981 to 1983 he was a Eugene P. Wigner Fellow at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. He then moved to Sandia where he held an appointment as Distinguished Member of the Technical Staff until 2001. Currently Ralph is the Associate Laboratory Director for the Energy, Environment and National Security (EENS) Directorate with the U.S. Department of Energyπs Brookhaven National Laboratory. The Directorate encompasses Brookhaven's Department of Environmental Sciences, Department of Energy Sciences & Technology, Department of Nonproliferation & National Security, Center for Data-Intensive Computing, and Research and Business Operations. In his current position, James oversees a wide range of basic and applied research with annual funds-in of approximately $100 million. For example, the work includes such programs as aerosol chemistry and how it relates to global warming and air pollution, research in biological and chemical processes to develop better cleanup technologies, safety of nuclear facilities, advanced ultra-clean fuels to increase energy supply and lower costs, development of optical and photonic devices, and new sensors to detect and image more minute quantities of nuclear, chemical, biological and explosive materials. Since September 11th, he has also chaired Brookhavenπs Counter-terrorism Working Group, which is conceptualizing and coordinating Laboratory efforts to develop technologies that can fight terrorism.

Dr. Ralph James has conducted transformational research in the area of nuclear detectors for over 2 decades. His research results have been extensive and fundamental, and the impact of his work has been lasting. Dr. James has authored more than 320 scientific publications, served as editor of 11 books, and holds 9 patents related to semiconductor detectors. Among his many prestigious honors, Dr. James won Discover magazine's "Innovator of the Year" award for his contributions to develop radiation detectors, particularly CZT devices. He is a four-time winner of R&D Magazine's R&D 100 Award, which honors the top 100 inventions of the year. Dr. James received the Room-Temperature Semiconductor Detector Scientist Award in 2004 (among 2 people world-wide to ever receive the award), and the IEEE Outstanding Radiation Instrumentation Achievement award in 2005. He was recognized as Long Islandπs ≥Person of the Year≤ in science for 2002. He won these awards, among many others, for pioneering research to understand and design semiconductor radiation detectors, improve the growth of materials for advanced nuclear detectors, and develop innovative nuclear spectroscopy and imaging instrumentation. Dr. James is a Fellow of the APS, SPIE, IEEE and AAAS in honor of his extraordinary accomplishments in the area of nuclear detectors and materials research.

He is also recognized for a long history of dedicated leadership to accelerate the development of high-performance nuclear detectors. For example, Dr. James has diligently worked to rally the assets and talents of academia, government labs, and U.S. industry toward the common goal of developing advanced sensors. He also played pivotal roles to establish over 24 CRADAs with industry to co-develop and commercialize semiconductor radiation detectors and instruments, and he served as chairman of approximately 15 international scientific conferences devoted to development of nuclear detectors and their applications.

The output of his research and leadership in the field of semiconductor radiation detectors continues to lead to new products and applications in the fields of gamma-ray spectroscopy, astrophysics, and high-resolution imaging for security and medical uses.

Pulsed Power Opens A Gateway to Biomedical Engineering: Tumor Treatment and Drug Delivery, to Nerve Stimulation and Beyond

In the past five years or so, the applications and potential uses of pulsed power in the form of high-intensity (> 100 kV/cm) nanosecond-duration electrical pulses on biological cells and tissue have gained considerable interest and attention. In its most basic form, pulsed power collects and stores energy over a period of ranging from seconds to minutes, and discharges it at very high power on a time-scale of tens of nanoseconds. In the biological context, such ultrashort pulse generation presents a unique non-thermal method of selectively penetrating through the outer cell membrane and directly affecting intracellular structures. It also offers possibilities for stimulating dielectric responses or affecting voltage-gated ion-channels in much the same way that field-effect transistors could be modulated. The non-thermal feature makes it a particularly attractive technology for biomedical applications where selectively targeted bio-responses are desired without any collateral tissue damage for optimal treatment.

Preliminary research has already shown very promising possibilities of directing this technology towards tumor killing, wound healing and sterilization, electrically activated gene-transfer and drug-delivery into cells, and neuromuscular therapeutic stimulation for rehabilitation. An even newer capability opens up when the voltage pulse duration is decreased further into the sub-nanosecond range. In this mode, wideband antennas can be driven to deliver energy and create electric fields within tissues. However, before any of these exciting possibilities become reality, an in-depth understanding of the processes and effects on the cellular and sub-cellular levels has to be achieved.

In this lecture, a review of the knowledge that has been gained during the past decade will be presented. First an overview of the basic concepts and physical principles of operation will be discussed. Research efforts and some of the exciting results on the killing of tumor cells, drug delivery, neuro-muscular stimulation and other electrically stimulated bio-responses will be presented. This will include the basic mechanisms at work, some of the kinetics involved, and the roles played by the electric fields in triggering various processes such as calcium release, initiation of the apoptotic pathway, and tissue ablation. Other aspects at the tissue level such as wound healing will also be highlighted in a simple illustrative manner.
Ravindra P. Joshi, Ph.D., P.E.
University Professor and Eminent Scholar
Dept. of Electrical & Computer Engineering
Engineering & Computational Sciences Building, #1321
Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA 23529-0246
Ph.: 757-683-4827 // FAX 757-683-3220 //Email: rjoshi@odu.edu
rjoshi@odu.edu

Ravi Joshi received the B.Tech. and M.Tech. degrees in electrical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, India, in 1983 and 1985, respectively, and the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from Arizona State University, Tempe, in 1988. He was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Center of Solid State Electronics Research, Arizona State University. In 1989, he joined the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA, as an Assistant Professor where he is currently a Full Professor, and involved in research broadly encompassing modeling and simulations of high electric-field induced phenomena, nonequilibrium transport in plasmas, bioelectrics and bio-medical applications of pulsed power. He has also used Monte Carlo methods for simulations of high-field charge transport for semiconductor electronics. He is the author of more than 135 journal publications, and has been a Visiting Scientist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Philips Laboratory, Motorola, and NASA Goddard. He has also served as a Guest Editor for four Special Issues of the IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science, and is a Fellow of the IEEE.

Radiation Effects in Optoelectronic Devices

This two-hour course begins with a discussion of the physics of optoelectronic devices, including heterostructures that are important in III-V semiconductors. A brief discussion of radiation environments is included, along with methods to evaluate the effects of different proton and electron energies on damage in optoelectronics. The next section discusses displacement damage effects in detectors, light-emitting diodes, and laser diodes, noting the extreme sensitivity of some types of light-emitting diodes that has caused failure of several fielded space systems. The course also discusses optocouplers, including single-event upset from protons and heavy ions that cause those devices to be extremely sensitive to spurious pulses in typical space environments. A brief discussion of radiation effects in optical fibers and optical communication systems is also included.
An Introduction to Space Radiation Effects in Electronics

This two-hour course provides basic information about the effects of space radiation on electronics and microelectronics. It begins with a discussion of radiation environments near the earth, as well as in deep space where solar flares and galactic particles are the dominant source of radiation. Basic interactions of light and heavy particles are treated, and applied to fundamental electronic structures. The following section discusses various effects caused by the interaction of a single energetic particle, including single-event upset, latchup and gate rupture. Several examples are included to show how modern devices are affected by these phenomena, as well as how they are influenced by device scaling. The last section discusses total dose and displacement damage (which are caused by the integrated effect of many different particles). The material includes a discussion of enhanced damage at low dose rate (ELDRs), as well as methods for testing and selecting components that can withstand the harsh space environment.
Dr. Allan Johnston
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Allan.H.Johnston@jpl.nasa.gov

Allan Johnston is a Principal Engineer at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a federally funded research center that is managed by the California Institute of Technology for NASA. He has more than thirty years of experience in radiation effects, and has participated in the design of several spacecraft, including the Cassini mission to Saturn, and several Mars exploration programs at JPL. He has published more than 100 technical papers, and is a Fellow of the IEEE.

Bioelectrics: Pulsed Power for Medical and Environmental Applications

Pulsed power techniques are enabling technologies. Applications that are made possible by pulsed power are often highly advanced developments and concepts. Prominent examples include electromagnetic launchers and fusion reactors. The very same techniques can also be applied to manipulate living cells. While extended exposures to high electric fields generally only results in the heating of cells and, eventually cell death, the interaction with pulsed electric fields of nanosecond duration is more subtle. These pulses are generally much shorter than the charging time of the spherical capacitor that is the cell. Electric fields can therefore effectively interact with intracellular structures before the subcellular space is shielded from an applied electric field through the accumulation of ions at the cell membrane. Accordingly, biological responses to short pulses are more differentiated and diverse compared to longer exposures. Individual outcomes depend on the type and species of cells, tissues, or microorganisms that are exposed and on the characteristics and parameters of the applied electric field. Many different effects have been found in recent years and, as a result, novel biological and medical applications are now enabled by pulsed power: biofouling prevention by stunning of aquatic species, biofuel generation from algae, accelerated wound healing, and the treatment of tumors. As such, the field of bioelectrics offers exciting new and increasingly more opportunities for engineers willing to engage in this highly interdisciplinary and growing field.
The lecture that is offered will discuss both basics and applications of bioelectrics and
- Give an introduction into the possibilities of pulsed power technologies for medicine and biology, and describe the exciting opportunities;
- Describe systems and ways to manipulate living cells with pulsed electric fields, e.g. pulse generators, delivery systems, exposure protocols;
- Present currently developed applications and latest achievements, e.g. biofouling prevention, microbial inactivation, cardiac stimulation, wound healing, cancer treatment, electrode-less therapies.
Dr. Juergen Kolb
University of Rostock, Germany and the Leibniz Institute for Plasma Science and Technology, Greifswald, Germany
juergen.kolb@ieee.org
Dr. Juergen Kolb Website

Juergen F. Kolb received the Dr.rer.nat degree in physics from the University of Erlangen, Germany, in 1999. During the next 2 years he completed a teaching degree for mathematics and physics at secondary schools (Lehramt Gymnasium) before he joined the Physical Electronics Research Institute and later the Center for Bioelectrics at Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA. He became Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering in 2011 before he accepted a joint appointment between the University of Rostock, Germany, and the Leibniz Institute for Plasma Science and Technology Greifswald, Germany, as Professor for Bioelectrics. His current research interests focus on the effects of pulsed electric fields on living cells, non-thermal atmospheric-pressure air plasmas for biomedical and environmental applications, and the pulsed electric breakdown of liquid dielectrics.

The Particle In Cell (PIC) method as a general tool for plasma simulation and beyond

I will present an innovative derivation of the PIC method to highlight its general applicability as a tool for simulation not just in plasma physics but in any field of science. I will cover some general aspects of N-body problems, applied especially to plasma physics. I will cover both the intuitive physical derivation and the rigorous mathematical derivation of the PIC method. Examples will be provided with a simple but useful didactic code in MATLAB or OCTAVE.
The challenge of multiple scales in space weather and fusion plasmas

Space weather and fusion plasmas are systems with a wide range of temporal and spatial scales. After revisiting this fact, I will discuss what is the best model to treat each scale and illustrate the challenge of handling simultaneously all scales and all models needed for them. A new method is then proposed to handle the multiple physics and multiple scales within the implicit moment method. A pivotal application is shown to the simulation of the onset of a substorm in the Earth magnetotail.
Dr. Giovanni Lapenta
Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium
giovanni.lapenta@wis.kuleuven.be
Education
1. Master Degree in Nuclear Engineering at the Politecnico di Torino, February 1990.
2. Ph.D. in Plasma Physics at the Politecnico di Torino, September, 1993.
Work Experience
1. Professor of the Mathematics of Space Weather, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Belgium)
2. Technical Staff Member at LANL, 2000-2007.
3. Tenured Research Professor of Plasma Physics at Politecnico di Torino, 1996-2001.
4. Director's Postdoctoral Fellow at Los Alamos National Laboratory from 1994 to 1996.
5. Visiting Scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory from 1992 to 1994.
6. Visiting Scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1992.
Research Interests

Lapenta's research work focuses on computational physics and on the theory and simulation of problems in plasma physics.

In computational physics, Lapenta's work has considered finite differences, finite elements and particle in cell methods, developing and analyzing new numerical techniques and applying numerical methods to the study of specific problems. Furthermore, Lapenta has worked on Krylov methods to solve linear systems, on non-linear Newton-Krylov methods and on adaptive meshes.

In plasma physics, Lapenta's work has considered problems relevant to fusion devices, industrial plasma processing devices, complex (dusty) plasmas, astrophysics and space physics. Lapenta has published a number of papers on the kinetic study of linear waves and instabilities and on nonlinear processes in space and laboratory plasmas, focusing particularly on the process of magnetic reconnection.

Lapenta's work has also considered problems in nuclear engineering and neutron transport for application to fusion and fission reactors. Lapenta has worked in statistical physics (non extensive or Tsallis distributions), in optical physics (optical waveguides and soliton dynamics) and in material science and engineering (simulation of soft matter and nanomaterials).

Lapenta has been involved in large research efforts in USA and in Europe, as principal investigator and as co-investigator. Examples are the LANL magnetic universe project; the NASA Sun Earth Connection Theory program; the Italian Institute for the Physics of Matter (INFM) project on non-neutral plasmas; the ESA-NASA project on complex (dusty) plasma experiments onboard the International Space Station Alpha; European projects on subcritical nuclear reactors for the transmutation of nuclear wastes. Lapenta has published about 200 works (60 on international refereed journals).

Current projects

1) Theory and simulation of plasma physics problems in space and in astrophysics.
2) Development of methods and algorithms for plasma and astrophysics simulation.

Interaction of Cold Plasmas with Biological Cells: Can Plasmas Play a Role in Modern Medicine?

In the last two decades, non-equilibrium, low temperature, atmospheric pressure plasmas have gained acceptance as an attractive technological solution in industrial applications such as the surface modification of polymers. This is because of the ability of non-equilibrium plasmas to achieve enhanced gas phase chemistry without the need for elevated gas temperatures. In these plasmas the chemistry is driven by the energetic electrons, while the heavy particles remain at low energy. This low temperature feature of non-equilibrium plasmas makes them a very attractive technology in applications requiring medium preservation and where surface chemistry is desired but without damage to the bulk of the material under treatment. Biomedical applications are amongst these.

Preliminary research is showing promising possibilities to use low temperature plasmas in medical applications such as wound healing, tissue engineering, surface modification of biocompatible materials, and the sterilization of reusable heat-sensitive medical instruments. However, before any of these exciting possibilities become reality, an in-depth understanding of the effects of plasma on the cellular and sub-cellular levels has to be achieved.

In this lecture, a review of the knowledge that has been gained during the last few years will be presented. First an overview of research efforts on the inactivation of bacterial cells will be presented. This includes the evaluation of the inactivation kinetics and the roles played by the various plasma agents (such as UV photons and free radicals) in the inactivation process. The second part of this lecture deals with plasma sub-lethal effects on both prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells. Application to wound healing will be particularly highlighted.
Professor Mounir Laroussi
Electrical & Computer Engineering Department
Laser & Plasma Engineering Institute
Old Dominion University
mlarouss@odu.edu

Development Of New Scintillating Crystals For High Energy Physics, Medical Imaging And Other Applications

Scintillating crystals have been for a long time developed as a basic component in particle detectors with a strong spin-off in other fields like medical imaging, homeland security and oil well lodging. A typical example is BGO, which has become the main component of PET scanners since the large effort made by the L3 experiment at CERN to develop low cost production methods for this crystal.

Systematic studies on basic mechanisms in inorganic scintillators was initiated by the Crystal Clear Collaboration at CERN 20 years ago, in the frame of a large R&D program to develop the detector technologies for the new CERN proton-proton collider, the LHC. The very special requirements of the scintillating crystals for the Electromagnetic Calorimeter at the CERN Large Hadron Collider CMS experiment have been the subject of intensive research and development. At the start of these studies it was by no means clear that the very high purity of raw material, nor the special and harsh requirements regarding the radiation hardness of these crystals could be met at all. None of the most experienced manufacturers in the field was at that time anywhere close to being able to deliver the quality of crystals needed. This large multidisciplinary effort has contributed not to a small amount, to the development of new materials and new production methods for a new generation of detectors with increased resolution and sensitivity. Some examples will be given in this talk for different application areas.
Spin-Off From Particle Detectors In The Field Of Medicine And Biology

Since the discovery of X-Rays by Roentgen in 1895 physicists have played a major role in the development of medical imaging instrumentation. More recently the technological developments in several areas of applied physics, the new generation of particle physics detectors and the development of an information based society all combine to enhance the performance of presently available imaging devices.

This talk will explain the critical parameters of modern medical imaging in the context of the spectacular development of in-vivo molecular imaging, which will soon allow to bridge post-genomics research activities with new diagnostics and therapeutic strategies for major diseases. In particular the molecular profiling of tumours and gene expression open the way to tailored therapies and therapeutic monitoring of major diseases like cancer, degenerative and genetic disorders. Moreover, the repeatability of non-invasive approaches allows an evaluation of drug targeting and pharmacokinetics studies on small animals, as well as a precise screening and treatment follow-up of patients. The technical requirements on imaging devices are very challenging but are rather similar in many respects to the ones of modern particle detectors on high luminosity accelerators. Examples will be given of active technology transfer areas from High Energy Physics detectors, which can significantly improve the performance of future medical imaging devices.

Special emphasis will be put on the need for a globalisation of technology research and development as modern instrumentation in a vast range of applications has similar requirements and spin-off should be more and more understood as cross-fertilization between different disciplines.
Metamaterials For Novel X Or Gamma Ray Detector Designs

In the majority of X and gamma ray conversion detector heads there is generally a trade-off between the spatial and the energy resolution, as a good spatial resolution requires a high segmentation whereas a good energy resolution is obtained in a large enough detector volume to contain all the cascade interactions generated by the incoming particle. The quest for better spatial resolution in all three dimensions for the majority of applications (High-energy physics and particle detectors, Spectrometry of low energy gamma- quanta, Medical imaging, Homeland security, Space applications) may lead to a huge increase of the number of readout channels, with all the associated problems of connectivity, detector integration and heat dissipation.

This talk will explore the potential of recent progress in the field of crystallogenesis, quantum dots and photonics crystals to develop a new concept of X- and Gamma-ray detector based on metamaterials to simultaneously record with high precision the maximum of information of the cascade conversion process such as its direction, the spatial distribution of the energy deposition and its composition in terms of electromagnetic, charged and neutral hadron contents (for high energy).
Molecular Imaging Challenges With PET and SPECT Techniques

The future trends in molecular imaging and associated challenges for in-vivo functional imaging will be illustrated on the basis of a few examples, such as atherosclerosis vulnerable plaques imaging or stem cells tracking. A set of parameters will be derived to define the specifications of a new generation of in-vivo imaging devices in terms of sensitivity, spatial resolution and signal to noise ratio. The limitations of strategies used in present PET and SPECT scanners will be discussed and new approaches will be proposed taking advantage of recent progress on materials, photodetectors and readout electronics. A special focus will be put on metamaterials, as a new approach to bring more functionality to detection devices. It will be shown that the route is now open towards a fully digital detector head with very high photon counting capability over a large energy range, excellent timing precision and possibility of imaging the energy deposition process.
Dr. Paul Lecoq
Senior Physicist at CERN, Geneva, Switzerland and
Technical Director of European Center for Research in Medical Imaging in Marseilles
Paul.Lecoq@cern.ch

Paul Lecoq has received his diploma as engineer in physics instrumentation at the Ecole Polytechnique de Grenoble in 1972, under the leadership of Nobel Laureate Louis Néel. After two years of work at the Nuclear Physics laboratory of the University of Montreal, Canada, he got his PhD in Nuclear Physics in 1974. Since then he has been working at CERN in 5 major international experiments on particle physics, two of them led by Nobel Laureates Samuel Ting and Carlo Rubbia. His action on detector instrumentation, and particularly on heavy inorganic scintillator materials has received a strong support from Georges Charpak. Member of a number of advisory committees and of international Societies he is since 2002 the promoter of the European Center for Research in Medical Imaging (Cerimed) presently being installed in Marseilles. He is an elected member of the European Academy of Sciences (2008).

Directed Energy – Advanced Technology for Defense at the Speed of Light

From Archimedes' focused mirrors for burning Roman ships to Captain Kirk's phaser stunning Klingons, the desire to generate, focus, and use photons for national security applications has been a desire of scientists and science fiction writers alike for centuries. With the advent of globalization and the rise of non-traditional military actors the military environment has become very complex. In this world, the ability to rapidly and precisely apply energy to perform useful work offers new vistas in both military and homeland security scenarios. Highlighting recent advances to turn the directed energy dream into reality, this presentation introduces the physics of both laser and high-power microwave coherent electromagnetic sources, and discusses a variety of applications from sensing to missile defense to non-lethal weapons, including the potential challenges in using novel disruptive technology in the real world.
Dr. John W. Luginsland
Principle Physical Scientist, Physics and Electronics Directorate
Air Force Office of Scientific Research
John.Luginsland@afosr.af.mil

(no bio)

Fundamentals of Nuclear Medical Imaging

This is an introductory talk on nuclear medical imaging, notably PET (positron emission tomography) and SPECT (single photon emission computed tomography).

Nuclear medical imaging is a generic term that covers many imaging techniques, with the common theme being that a radioactive drug is injected into the patient, where it accumulates and its subsequent radioactive emissions are imaged. Since the image that is produced is of the distribution of a drug within the body, nuclear medical imaging is capable of targeting where certain metabolic processes occur and measuring the rate at which these processes take place. It is most frequently used in organs and diseases where biological function is of primary importance, such as neurological diseases (such as Alzheimer’s disease), heart disease, and oncology. It is a well-established clinical technique, and approximately 10 million studies are performed annually. This presentation describes two common nuclear medical imaging techniques, namely SPECT and PET. The emphasis is on the requirements of the detection system and the reason for those requirements, but it also discusses reconstruction algorithms, the medical applications, and future research directions.
Time-of-Flight PET

This is a relatively high-level talk on an emerging technological advance for PET.

Simple theory predicts that the signal to noise ratio in PET can be reduced by almost an order of magnitude by using time-of-flight (TOF) information. This reduction can be obtained by improving the coincidence timing resolution, and so would be achievable in clinical, whole body studies using with PET systems that differ little from existing cameras. The potential impact of this development is large, especially for oncology studies in large patients, where it is sorely needed. TOF PET was extensively studied in the 1980’s but died away in the 1990’s, as it was impossible to reliably achieve sufficient timing resolution without sacrificing other important PET performance aspects, such as spatial resolution and efficiency. Recent advances in technology (scintillators, photodetectors, and high speed electronics) have renewed interest in TOF PET, which is experiencing a rebirth. A prototype TOF PET camera has been constructed with LaBr3:Ce scintillator, and it has achieved nearly 300 ps fwhm timing resolution. A commercial PET camera using LYSO has been released that obtains 600 ps fwhm timing resolution. With both of these cameras significant performance improvement is observed experimentally. However, there is still much to be done in instrumentation development, reconstruction algorithm development, and evaluating the true benefits of TOF in modern clinical PET. This talk looks at what has been accomplished and what needs to be done before time-of-flight PET can reach its full potential.
Advances in Scintillators for Medical Imaging Applications

This is an introductory talk focused on current research direction in developing new scintillators.

Scintillators are integral parts of nuclear medical imaging instruments, and the properties of the scintillators are arguably the most important factor for determining the performance of these instruments. This presentation will discuss the needs and requirements that various nuclear medical imaging techniques have for scintillators, how improved scintillators can improve the performance of nuclear medical imaging instruments, and how recent advances in scintillator development have addressed these needs. It will review the scintillator requirements for SPECT and PET imaging, describe how scintillator properties (such as luminosity and decay time) affect imaging performance (such as spatial resolution and efficiency), present a survey of the scintillator materials that have been used and the design compromises that result from using them, and also give an overview of newly discovered scintillator materials and their potential. It discusses several newly developed scintillators, including LaCl3:Ce, LaBr3:Ce, CeBr3, and LuI3:Ce, have attractive properties for nuclear medical imaging.
Scintillator Non-Proportionality: Present Understanding and Future Challenges

This is a more advanced talk on a present research topic / question in scintillators.

One of the fundamental properties of scintillators is the scintillation efficiency, or the conversion factor between the energy deposited and the number of visible photons produced. While often assumed to be a constant, it depends on both the energy and species of the ionizing radiation (gamma, alpha, beta, proton, etc.). These deviations from a constant are known as non-proportionality, and have been studied both experimentally and theoretically for ~50 years. The earliest studies centered on differences on particle type—why alpha and beta particles of the same energy produce a significantly different number of scintillation photons in the same material. It is currently being studied because it limits the energy resolution achievable with scintillators. Many different combinations of Auger electrons and fluorescent x-rays can be created after the primary interaction, and the scintillation efficiency for these low-energy secondaries is different than for the primary particles. A major recent advance is the development of the Compton Coincidence technique for measuring the electron response (the scintillation efficiency as a function of energy for electrons), which greatly improves the accuracy of the measurement at low deposited energy. Several groups are constructing second-generation Compton Coincidence apparatus with significantly higher throughput and measurements from these instruments are just starting to appear. However, there is much left to be done. First, the electron response from significantly more samples must be measured. For most scintillation materials, only a single sample has been characterized, and it is not clear that the measurement accurately represents the material. The link between the electron response and the energy resolution for gamma rays is incompletely understood. In general, the energy resolution as a function of (gamma ray) energy cannot be predicted even if the electron response is known. Finally, there is no predictive theory for non-proportionality. We do not know what physical properties of a material (such as dopant concentration, crystal structure, defect concentration, etc.) contribute to the non-proportionality, nor why the shape of the electron response for the alkali halides is much different than that for oxides or the rare-earth halides. This presentation summarizes this work and future challenges.
Selected Topics in Nuclear Medical Imaging and Radiation Detection

The speaker is experienced in many area of nuclear medical imaging, radiation detection, and radiation detector components (scintillators, photodetectors, and electronics). If you are interested in a presentation in one of these areas (or a combination of them), it is quite likely that a customized talk could be arranged.
Dr. William W. Moses
Senior Physicist, Life Sciences Division
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
WWMoses@lbl.gov

William W. Moses Staff Senior Physicist, Life Sciences Division

Mailstop 55-121 (510) 486-4432
Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory (510) 486-4768 (FAX)
1 Cyclotron Rd. wwmoses@lbl.gov
Berkeley, CA 94720

Research Interests:

Development of instrumentation for Nuclear Medical Imaging, primarily for positron emission tomography (PET). This includes development of: (1) new dense inorganic scintillators for gamma ray detection, (2) novel silicon photodetector array designs for measuring scintillation light, (3) custom integrated circuits containing arrays of low noise charge sensitive amplifiers, (4) new detector designs and scanner geometries incorporating the above elements, and (5) tomographic reconstruction algorithms incorporating the additional information available from these and other novel detector designs.

Education:

Bachelor of Arts: 1978 Physics Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH
Doctor of Science: 1986 Physics University of California, Berkeley, CA

Employment:

1987 to 1989 Postdoctoral Research Assistant, Life Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley
1989 to 1996 Staff Scientist, Life Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley
1996 to present Staff Senior Scientist, Life Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, University of California, Berkeley (equivalent to Professor)

Awards & Honors (selected items):

1978 Graduated Magna Cum Laude with Highest Distinction in Major, Dartmouth College.
1980 Faculty Associate Teaching Award, University of California, Berkeley.
2000 IEEE Third Millennium Medal.
2005 Fellow, IEEE

Service to Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (selected items):

Member of the Staff Committee and Salary Committee for the 800 employee Life Sciences Division from 1997–present.
Member of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Awards Committee (2000–2003).

Service to Professional Societies (selected items):

Member, NIH Study Sections for the National Cancer Institute and for the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering 2002–present.
Elected AdCom (Governing Body) Member, IEEE Nuclear and Plasma Science Society
(1996–2000). AdCom President 2004–2006. This body provides fiscal and scientific oversight for seven international conferences and three peer reviewed publications.
Chairman, Radiation Instrumentation Technical Committee of the IEEE Nuclear and Plasma Science Society (1996–2000). This committee provides long term planning for the IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium, including site and general chairman selection.
Program Chairman, 1993 IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium. Assistant Program Chairman, 1991 IEEE Medical Imaging Conference. Treasurer, SCINT 2007 Conference. Co-Chairman, 2008 Symposium on Radiation Measurements and Applications.
Organizer and Lecturer, "Fundamentals of Medical Imaging" Short Course at the IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium Medical Imaging Conference (given 6 times)

Publications, Patents, Invited Presentations, and Funding:

Three patents, over 160 refereed publications, and over 50 invited presentations.
Principal Investigator on 28 funded grant proposals (over 19 years).

Energy Resolution and Non-Proportionality of Scintillation Detectors

The experimental evidences of the limitation of energy resolution of scintillation detectors are discussed with a special emphasis on the non-proportional response of scintillators to gamma rays and electrons, which is of crucial importance to the intrinsic energy resolution of the crystals. Examples of the study carried out with different crystals and particularly those of tests of undoped NaI and CsI at liquid nitrogen temperature, with the light readout by avalanche photodiodes, are presented. The latter study suggests strongly that the non- proportionality of the halide crystals are not their intrinsic property and could be improved by a selective co-doping. Moreover, the influence of slow components of the light pulses and afterglow on energy resolution and non-proportionality are discussed. All of them present new horizons for the future studies of energy resolution and a development of new scintillators.
Prof. Marek Moszynski
Soltan Institute for Nuclear Studies, Poland
marek@ipj.gov.pl

Marek Moszynski received his M.S. degree from Warsaw Technical University, Poland in nuclear electronics, his PhD in 1969, and his D.Sc. (habilitation) in 1971. In 1972 he became an Associated Professor and in 1981 a Full Professor at the Institute of Nuclear Research at Swierk in Poland. He was the Head of the Nuclear Electronics Department at the Soltan Institute for Nuclear Studies at Swierk from 1983 to 1990, and then again in 1997. From 1998 to 2008 he served as the Deputy Director of the Institute.

In 1969 he spent a year at the Institute of Physics, University of Aarhus, Denmark; in 1975 he joined for one year LETI CENG, Grenoble, France. In 1981-82 he again joined LETI CENG, Grenoble and in 1990-92 he was at Centre de Researche Nucleaires in Strasbourg, France. He was involved in a number of European collaborations in nuclear structure physics, including NORDBALL, DEMON, EUROGRAM, and EUROBALL. Recently, he was involved in a realization of two European projects, supported by the Frame Work 6 of the European Community and the other one supported by the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna. Moreover, he is providing scientific expertise for the nuclear industry in Europe (France, Germany, and Scotland).

His scientific activity is mainly devoted to the nuclear radiation detection techniques and methods. He is an expert in scintillation detection, particularly in fast timing, gamma spectrometry and fast neutron detection. He was a member of the group that first developed time-of-flight PET at LETI Grenoble, France and discovered the fast component of BaF2 scintillator. At Brookhaven National Lab he has developed, with a group of physicists, the method of picosecond lifetime measurements of nuclear states. At present, he is involved in the study of new inorganic scintillators, avalanche photodiodes, and different aspects of scintillation detectors, like energy resolution and non- proportional response of scintillators in application to nuclear medicine and homeland security.

For many years he has been a referee of Nuclear Instruments and Methods and IEEE Transaction on Nuclear Science. He is a member of Advisory Editorial Board of Nuclear Instrument and Methods A and a member of Editor Board of Journal of Instrumentation. He received the Von Hevesy Prize at the 3rd World Congress of Nuclear Medicine and Biology in Paris in 1982. At IEEE he is a member of Trans-National Committee and in 2002-2004 he was the elected member of the Radiation Instrumentation Steering Committee of IEEE/NPSS. In 2000, he has got the IEEE/NPSS Merit Award with citation “For outstanding contribution to the modern scintillation detector and its application in physics experiments, nuclear medicine and other field of use.” In 2005 he was elected IEEE Fellow.

He is the author of about 200 papers in refereed journals, mainly in Nuclear Instruments and Methods and IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science.

Miniaturization of Particle Accelerators Using Plasmas

Particle accelerators are some of the largest and most complex scientific instruments ever built. Future accelerators at the energy frontier will be even larger and more expensive, and therefore developing a new technology that would allow for a significant reduction of the accelerator size could also drastically reduce its cost. Plasma-based accelerators have made tremendous progress in the last few years. The production of narrow energy spread, GeV beam have been produced in laser-driven plasma-based accelerators. At the same time, the energy doubling of 42 GeV incoming electrons has been doubled in an 85 cm-long, electron beam-driven plasma wakefield accelerator. This distance is more that 2000 times shorter than the conventional linear accelerator that produced the incoming electrons. These amazing results obtained in proof-of-principle experiments suggest that plasma-based accelerators could one day become the new technology that would miniaturize accelerators and enable new discoveries in particle physics. At the same time these plasma-based accelerators could be used as compact sources of megavolt electrons and protons or ions with applications to research, to medicine for cancer treatment and radioactive isotope production, and to material science. These sources would replace the present large size facilities and become widely available at hospitals, at industrial research laboratories, and at universities. Recent experimental results will be presented and future applications and potential will be discussed.
Plasma-based Radiation Sources

Plasmas can sustain very large electric fields and their characteristics can often be easily adjusted for a particular application by changing their density. For example, the plasma frequency varies from 100 GHz to 10 THz for densities from 1014 cm¬ 3 to 1018 cm¬ 3. Few high-power, tunable sources exist in this frequency domain. While electrostatic plasma waves do not radiate efficiently in vacuum, electromagnetic modes with comparable frequencies can be excited and used as high-power, high-frequency radiation sources. In addition, these large fields can also be used to make externally injected electrons oscillate in a plasma wiggler, and radiate for example in the visible to the x-ray energy range. Various plasma-based radiation sources will be introduced and discussed.
Ultra-fast Beam Diagnostics

Ultra-short electron bunches are of great interest for new radiation source such as the free electron laser (FEL) and for advanced acceleration concepts such as plasma-based particle accelerators. Bunches with time duration in the femtosecond range can be produced, however, electronics are too slow to measure and characterize them. On the other hand, optical pulses as short as a few femtosecond can now be completely characterized using a large array of optical techniques. Therefore, various techniques have been devised to convert the electrical signal of the ultra-short electron bunches into corresponding electromagnetic (em) signal that can then be characterized using optical techniques. However, typical bunch durations are still in the >30 fs range, which places the em signal in the THz to infrared range where material properties are often not well known and change rapidly with frequency. Various ultra-short bunch diagnostic techniques will be described.
Dr. Patric Muggli
University of Southern California
Research Professor
muggli@usc.edu

Dr. Patric Muggli received his bachelor degree in Physics from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (Ecole Polytechnique FÈdÈrale), Lausanne in 1985 with a specialty in plasma physics. He received his Ph.D. from the Physics Department from the Center of Plasma Physics Research of the same school for his work on high power gyrotrons. He then spent three year as a post-doctoral fellow at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) department of electrical engineering where he worked on a number of different topics, including plasma-based radiation sources such as the frequency upshifting of radiation using relativistic ionization fronts and DC to AC Radiation (DARC) sources, and the photoemission processes form various elements such as copper, magnesium, diamond and fullerene. He then joined the electrical engineering/electrophysics department of the University of Southern California (USC) as Research Associate. He worked on the pioneering laser wakefield acceleration (LWFA) experiments using the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (UK) Vulcan laser, the world most powerful short pulse laser at the time. He was appointed as Research Associate Professor at USC in 2000, and Research Professor in 2006. He became one of the lead experimentalists on the SLAC/UCLA/USC collaboration that performs the plasma wakefield acceleration (PWFA) experiments at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. This experiment has been very successful in producing very interesting physics results, as well as advancing the PWFA from the level of basic physics experiments to that of a promising technology to significantly reduce the size of a future electron/positron linear collider. Some of the most significant results obtained in these experiments include: the discovery of the refraction of electron beams at a plasma/vacuum interface (P. Muggli et al., Nature 411, 43-43 (03 May 2001)), the first demonstration of the acceleration of positrons in plasmas (B.E. Blue et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 90, 214801 (2003)), the first demonstration of an energy gain larger than one GeV in a plasma (M. J. Hogan et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 95, 054802 (2005)), and recently the demonstration of the energy doubling of 42 GeV incoming electrons in only 85 cm of plasma (I. Blumenfeld et al., Nature 445, 741-744 (15 February 2007)). He is also leading PWFA experiments at the Brookhaven National laboratory, where low energy beam are used to demonstrate new concepts in PWFAs. Dr. Muggli is the author or co-author of more that 40 scientific publications in refereed journals, and of numerous conference proceedings papers. These publications are available at http://www-rcf.usc.edu/~muggli/index.html. He has given more that 20 invited presentations at international meetings. He teaches a graduate plasma physics course at USC. His research interests include plasma-based radiation sources, plasma-based plasma accelerators, particle beam physics, and ultra-fast diagnostics of particle beams.

Characteristics of an Economically Attractive Fusion Power Plant

Conceptual design and analysis of fusion power plants haven been carried out since the early days of fusion research to understand the characteristics of potential fusion energy systems. During the past decade, maturity of fusion science and technologies has transformed these conceptual design studies. Through detailed and integrated design and assessment of fusion concepts as power plants, these studies synthesize a wide variety of fusion R&D results, and provide feedback to the fusion community on the scientific problems that carry greatest leverage for fusion energy. As such, they have been increasingly utilized as valuable tools in guiding the research programs and illuminating the fusion development paths.

During the past ten years, the ARIES Team, a national US team involving universities, national laboratories, and industry, has studied a variety of magnetic fusion power plants (tokamaks, stellarators, spherical torus, and RFP) with different degrees of extrapolation in plasma physics and technology from present database.

In this talk, we present the top-level requirements and goals for commercial fusion power plants developed with consultation with US utilities and industry. We will review several ARIES designs and discuss the candidate options for physics operation regime as well engineering design of various components (e.g., choice of structural material, coolant, breeder). For each option, we will discuss (1) the potential to satisfy the requirements and goals, and (2) the feasibility (e.g., critical issues) and credibility (e.g., degree extrapolation required from present data base).

For tokamaks, our results indicate that for the same plasma physics (e.g., first-stability) and technology extrapolation, steady state operation is more attractive than pulsed-tokamak operation. Dramatic improvement over first-stability operation can be obtained through either utilization of high-field magnets (e.g., high-temperature superconductors) or operation in advanced-tokamak modes (e.g., reversed-shear). In particular, if full benefits of reversed-shear operation are realized, as is assumed in ARIES-AT, tokamak power plants will have a cost of electricity competitive with other sources of electricity. Emerging technologies such as advanced Brayton cycle, high-temperature superconductor, and advanced manufacturing techniques can improve the cost and attractiveness of fusion plants.
Professor Farrokh Najmabadi
University of California, San Diego
Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Deputy Director, Center for Energy Research
fnajmabadi@ucsd.edu

Engineering Challenges for ITER

The United States has joined with China, the European Union, India, Japan, the Republic of Korea, and the Russian Federation in an international collaboration to construct and operate ITER, a full-scale, 400 MW experimental fusion device. ITER will be constructed at Cadarache, France, and is expected to be completed by 2016. U.S. Contributions to ITER (U.S. ITER) is a Department of Energy Office of Science project consisting of procurement of hardware (including supporting R&D and design), assignment of personnel (U.S. engineers and scientists) to the ITER site in Cadarache, and cash contributions to the ITER Organization for the U.S. share of common expenses such as personnel, infrastructure, assembly, and installation. The US-supplied hardware includes contributions in the areas of magnets, blankets, diagnostics, tritium processing, ion cyclotron and electron cyclotron heating and current drive systems, pellet fuelling, and more conventional systems such as cooling water and electrical power systems. The large scale of ITER (~24,000 tonnes of equipment in a ~30 m diameter cryostat), the significant extrapolation from previous fusion experiments (current record fusion power ~16 MW), and the need for long pulse, high reliability operation present many engineering challenges. This paper will describe the ITER design status and some of the challenges.
Dr. Brad Nelson
Chief Engineer, ITER Project
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
nelsonbe@ornl.gov

Brad Nelson is the Chief Engineer for the U.S. ITER Project He coordinates engineering support for the U.S. ITER and various Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) Fusion Energy Division (FED) projects. He interfaces with the projectsπ partner laboratories and with the ITER international organization.

Brad has more than 30 years of experience in the design and analysis of experimental fusion energy research facilities and components. Since 1999 he has served as leader of the engineering group for the ORNL Fusion Energy Division. He has contributed to the engineering design of several magnetic fusion research facilities and devices. He played a leading role in the design of the Advanced Toroidal Facility, the largest stellarator in the world at the time of its completion. Brad also had design roles with the Large Coil Test Facility and was responsible for the design of the Plasma Facing Components for the National Spherical Torus Experiment.

He was involved in both the ITER Conceptual Design Activity and the projectπs Engineering Design Activity in the areas of design integration, vacuum vessel design, blanket and shield design, and the vacuum vessel R&D program. Currently he is contributing to the design of the National Compact Stellarator Experiment as the engineering manager for the stellarator core. He also served as engineering manager for the Quasi-Poloidal Stellarator.

Brad is the author of numerous papers in journals and conference proceedings. He has both B.S. and M.S. degrees in mechanical engineering from the University of Missouri.

Solid-Plasma Transition: The New Frontier of Warm Dense Matter

Although most laboratory plasmas are produced from heating of solids, little is known about the properties of the intervening states during evolution of a cold solid into hot plasma. Such states lie in the so-called Warm Dense Matter regime where temperature is comparable to Fermi energy and density is sufficiently high to render the ions strongly coupled. Experimental studies of Warm Dense Matter are challenging due to extreme pressure (~Mbar) of the states while theoretical studies are greatly complicated by the interplay of electron excitation, degeneracy, and strong correlation effects. Nonetheless, since its naming in 1999 Warm Dense Matter has been rapidly gathering interest driven by its fundamental significance of understanding the convergence of condensed matter and plasma physics as well as its broad application in material science (matter under extreme conditions), inertial confinement fusion, and planetary physics. Advances in Warm Dense Matter research are being propelled simultaneously by (i) ready availability of intense energy sources including lasers, free electron lasers, X-rays and energetic particles (electron and ion), and (ii) increasing capability in ab-initio molecular dynamic simulations. In this lecture I will begin with an introductory discussion on Warm Dense Matter. This will be followed by a review of our extensive study of non-equilibrium, high energy density (~1011 J/m3) solid produced by femtosecond laser excitation.
Dr. Andrew Ng
Professor of Physics, Emeritus
University of British Columbia
nga@physics.ubc.ca

Dr. 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.

Handling of Petabyte-Scale datasets in modern Physics Experiments

With the advances in accelerator technologies, which are able to accelerate an ever-growing variety of particle species to higher and higher energies, the size of information produced by physics experiments has been growing dramatically. With the latest generations of detector systems at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) at the Brookhaven National Laboratory and the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN in Geneva, annual dataset sizes are routinely measured in PetaBytes.

The PHENIX experiment at RHIC crossed the PetaByte/year threshold in 2004 and has collected about 7PB of raw data since then. The processed data, traditionally called "Data Summary Tapes" or DSTs, add another 50% to the overall data set size.

With the example of the PHENIX experiment, we will describe how these datasets are acquired. We will outline the different approaches of different groups to cope with such large datasets, and survey the different storage technologies in use, as well as different access strategies, such as the GRID and Analysis Trains. We will describe the problem of disseminating large datasets to geographically dispersed groups of scientists (and in some cases granting public access to the data), and describe different solutions.

Another problem in the digital age, not only for scientists, is data retention, when the life time and support of digital media and formats is measured in years, while the data have to remain accessible and readable for many decades. The standard industrial solution (making enough backups) is generally impractical with PetaByte-sized datasets.
Introduction to Programming with CUDA

In recent years, a new trend in high-performance computing has evolved, which makes use of commodity graphics processors (GPUs) for massively parallel computing tasks. The increase of the processing power of GPUs, driven by high-end computer gaming, can easily be put to use for other CPU-intensive tasks. Off-the-shelf systems providing multiple TeraFlops of processing power are available at commodity price levels today.

This presentation is meant to provide an introduction to the CUDA technology, which is NVIDIA's framework for GPU programming. I will try to briefly put CUDA into perspective with the equivalent toolkit for ATI cards and the still-emerging OpenCL standard, which is designed to provide a generic framework for programming GPUs.

We will start with the prerequisites on the main platforms (Linux, Mac, Windows), and progress to simple examples to show the relative ease of use. We will demonstrate some common pitfalls and show how to avoid them, touch on some special considerations for multi-threaded programs on the CPU, and, given time and interest, progress to some advanced topics. At the end of the presentation, you should be able to write simple CUDA programs and be able to study advanced topics on your own.
Dr. Martin Purschke
Brookhaven National Laboratory
purschke@bnl.gov

Dr. Martin Purschke is a staff physicist at the Brookhaven National Laboratory. He is the Data Acquisition Coordinator of the PHENIX Experiment at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider, and has written substantial portions of the online and offline software in use in the PHENIX experiment. He is also a member in the RatCAP Pet-Imaging project at BNL. Most of his CUDA programming takes place in the framework of the medical image reconstruction for the PET detectors.

Solid-State Pulse Power on the Move!

These are fantastic times for the pulsed power engineers and physicians. Our greatest advantage over our predecessors is the legacy of their work and the technological progress.

In fact, accumulating energy during a relatively long time and than releasing it very quickly thus increasing the instantaneous power, with the aim of enhancing the properties of a product or a technique, has never been so transportable.

The progress on power semiconductors, such as Isolated Gate Bipolar Transistors (IGBTs) and Metal Oxide Field Effect Transistors (MOSFETs), moved first by the needs in the railway traction systems in the nineties and by the renewable energy production systems in the last decade, has produced a new category of devices that can switch MW of power in less than a microsecond and at the same time being reliable, relatively small and cost effective.

If one adds to it the flexibility normally achieved with semiconductor based circuit, hence, assembling compact and portable pulsed power modulators, using solid-state technology, is now possible for a wide range of applications, such as biomedics, environment and industry. Instead of having to go to large laboratories, one can now pack a pulsed-power modulator in a car and go to where is more needed, bringing this technology close to people.

This lecture provides fundamental concepts on the generation of repetitive high-voltage pulses using state-of-the art power semiconductor technology. This includes the most common power semiconductors devices used in solid-state-based high-voltage modulators and the most widespread semiconductor-based HV pulse modulator topologies, such as the classic Marx generator and voltage multiplier circuits. Other aspects related to the type of load requirements several applications present to the high-voltage modulators are described. Finally, future trends on this technology are discussed
Prof. Luis M. S. Redondo
Lisbon Superior Engineering Institute (ISEL) and Nuclear Physics Center from Lisbon University (CFNUL)
lmredondo@deea.isel.ipl.pt

Luis M. S. Redondo (Member of the IEEE since 2006 and the Nuclear and Plasma Science Society) was born in Lisbon, Portugal in 1968. He received the Bachelor degree in Power Systems and Diploma degree in Electrical Engineering from the Lisbon Superior Engineering Institute (ISEL), Portugal, in 1990 and 1992, respectively. The Master degree in Nuclear Physics from the Science Faculty of the Lisbon University (FCUL), Portugal in 1996, and the Doctor degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering (Pulsed Power Electronics) in 2004, from the Technical Superior Institute of the Technical Lisbon University (IST-UTL), Portugal.

He is currently Coordinator Professor at ISEL, teaching Power Electronics and Digital Systems, and Head of the Electric Engineering Department of ISEL. His current research interests include the development of new solid-state pulsed power systems for industrial applications, nuclear instrumentation and ion implantation. Prof. Redondo is a member of the Portuguese Engineering Society (OE) and Nuclear Physics Research Center from Lisbon University (CFNUL), where is the Scientific Coordinator of the Instrumentation and Hyperfine Interactions Group.

Since 2011 is a member of the Pulsed Power Science & Technology Standing Technical Committee of the Nuclear & Plasma Science Society of IEEE. More recently he is the co-founder of the EnergyPulse Systems Company, dedicated to the development of pulsed power modulators to environment, food, biomedical and industrial applications.

Accelerating and Colliding Relativistic Heavy Ions

The Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) has been in operation for several years now exploring the first few micro seconds since the birth of the universe. RHIC is the first accelerator and collider consisting of two independent superconducting rings and has produced high collision rates of a wide range of particle species and at many different beam energies. The talk will present the principles and challenges of accelerating and colliding high energy beams of both heavy ions and also spinning protons.
Dr. Thomas Roser
Brookhaven National Laboratory
roser@bnl.gov

Thomas Roser received his Ph.D. in nuclear physics from the Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), Zurich, Switzerland, in 1984. Before joining Brookhaven National Laboratory in 1991, he was an Assistant Professor at the University of Michigan, working on spin effects in high energy elastic proton-proton scattering and acceleration of polarized proton beams. At Brookhaven, he led the commissioning of the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) and the development of polarized proton acceleration, resulting in the first 100 GeV polarized proton collisions in RHIC. He presently serves as Associate Chair for Accelerators at the Collider-Accelerator Department (C-AD) at BNL, with responsibility for the C-AD accelerator complex, including the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). He is a Fellow of APS.

Soft Sensors and Artificial Intelligence

Industrial plants are being increasingly required to improve their production efficiency while respecting government laws that enforce tight limits on product specifications and on pollutant emissions, thus leading to ever more efficient measurement and control policies. In this context, the importance of monitoring a large set of process variables using adequate measuring devices is clear. However, key obstacles to the implementation of large-scale plant monitoring and control policies are posed by both the high cost of on-line measurement devices and the difficulty for operators to keep hundreds of measurements under control.

This need is also strongly felt in the experimental physics community. The huge number of measurements that has to be monitored during an experiment can lead to an ineffective management of the experimental campaigns. Moreover, in this field the interest on monitoring is manifold. In fact, different kinds of signals must be observed and processed for several purposes: safety, experiment conduction, experiment results, etc.

Mathematical models of processes, designed on the basis of experimental data via system identification procedures, can greatly help to reduce the need for measuring devices, monitor sets of significant measurements, and develop tight control policies. Mathematical models, designed with the objectives mentioned above, are known either as virtual sensors, soft sensors, or inferential models.

In this framework, the use of soft computing techniques can help in dealing with the intrinsic uncertainty of real world problem, exploiting efficiently both experimental data and human expertise.

In the proposed lecture, design procedures for virtual sensors based on data-driven approaches are described, and relevant case studies referring to experimental physics are illustrated. The purpose of the lecture is to provide undergraduate and graduate students, researchers, process technologists, and many others with an overview of the main techniques to design software tools for monitoring, modelling, sensor validation and fault detection.
Professor Alessandro Rizzo, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Automation
Politecnico di Bari
Dipartimento di Elettrotecnica ed Elettronica
Via E. Orabona 4
70125 Bari – Italy
rizzo@deemail.poliba.it
Education

• 1995 ‑ Erasmus Fellowship, IRISA, Institut de Recherche en Informatique et SystËmes AlÈatoires
• 1996 ‑ Laurea cum Laude in Computer Engineering, University of Catania, Italy
• 2000 ‑ Ph.D. Degree in Electronics and Automation Engineering, University of Catania, Italy

Professional History

• 1998 ‑ appointed by EURATOM at JET Joint Undertaking for the development of artificial intelligence techniques for fault detection and sensor validation.
• 1999-2001 ‑ consultant to ST Microelectronics, Catania, Italy
• 1999-2002 – Professor of Robotics, University of Messina, Italy
• 2002-present ‑ Assistant Professor of Automation, Politecnico di Bari, Italy

University Service

• 2006 – Member of the Professor Council in the Information Engineering Ph.D. Program of Politecnico di Bari

Research Interests

• Modelling and control of complex systems
• Dynamical networks
• Monitoring, fault detection and sensor validation for industry and experimental physics laboratories
• Nonlinear dynamics and cellular nonlinear networks

Awards and Patents

• 2001 – Best Paper Award at Fourth International ICSC Symposium on Soft Computing and Intelligent Systems for Industry, Paisley, Scotland, U.K., June 26 - 29, 2001
• 2002 – Award Winning Application at 15th Triennal IFAC World Congress, Barcelona, Spain
• 2002 – US Patent #6,738,313 ≥System for detecting distances using chaotic signals≤
• 2002 – US Patent # 6,842,745 ≥Programmable chaos generator and process for use thereof≤

Professional Society Service

• IEEE, Nuclear and Plasma Science Society. Chapter Chair, Italy Section
• IEEE, Circuits and System Society. Member of Cellular Neural Networks and Array Computing and Neural Systems and Applications Technical Committees

Review/Advisory Panel

• Review committee member for IEEE and IFAC conferences
• Reviewer for many scientific journals (IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems, Part 1; IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man and Cybernetics; Soft Computing, A Fusion of Foundations, Methodologies, and Applications, Springer-Verlag; Control Engineering Practice, Elsevier press)

Research Partners

• Department of Electrics, Electronics and System Engineering of Catania University, Italy
• Mathematics Department of Messina University, Italy
• JET Joint Undertaking, Abingdon, UK
• ENEA-FTU, Frascati, Italy
• National Optics Institute (INO), Firenze, Italy
• International Vulcanology Institute (INGV) of the National Research Council (CNR), Catania, Italy
• National Nuclear Physics Institute (INFN), National South Italy Lab, CNR-Catania, Italy;
• ST Microelectronics (semiconductors), Catania, Italy
• Fiat Research Centre (automotive), Valenzano (BA), Italy

Selected Publications concerning the lecture
1. L. Fortuna, S. Graziani, A. Rizzo, M.G. Xibilia, ≥Soft Sensors for Monitoring and Control of Industrial Processes≤, Advances in Industrial Control Series, Springer, 2006.
2. L. Fortuna, V. Marchese, A. Rizzo, M.G. Xibilia, ≥A Neural Networks Based System for Post Pulse Fault Detection and Data Validation in Tokamak Machines≤, ISCAS 99 conference, Orlando, FL, vol. 5, pp. 563 – 566, june 1999.
3. Fortuna, A. Gallo, A. Rizzo, MG Xibilia, ≥An Innovative Intelligent System for Fault Detection in Tokamak Machines≤, ICALEPCS99, International Conference on Accelerators and Large Experimental Physics Control Systems, Trieste, Italy, Oct. 99
4. G. Buceti, A. Gallo, A. Rizzo, M.G. Xibilia, ≥A Fuzzy sensor validation system for plasma density measures in tokamak machines based on neural models≤, SOCO/ISFI 2001, Fourth International ICSC Symposium on Soft Computing and Intelligent Systems for Industry, Paisley, Scotland, U.K., June 26 - 29, 2001.
5. G. Buceti, L. Fortuna, A. Rizzo, M.G. Xibilia, ≥An Automatic Validation System for Interferometry Density Measurements in the ENEA-FTU Tokamak Based on Soft-Computing≤, 8th International Conference on Accelerator and Large Experimental Physics Control Systems, ICALEPCS01, San Jose, California, 2001, pp. 343-345.
6. A. Rizzo, M.G. Xibilia, ≥An Innovative Intelligent System for Sensor Validation in Tokamak Machines≤, IEEE Trans. On Control Systems Technology, Vol. 10, No. 3, May 2002.
7. G. Buceti, L. Fortuna, A. Rizzo, M.G. Xibilia, ≥Automatic Validation of the 5-Channel DCN Interferometer in ENEA-FTU based on Soft Computing Techniques≤, Fusion Engineering and Design, Elsevier Science, Vol. 60, No. 3, pp.381-387, 2002.
8. L. Fortuna, A. Rizzo, M. Sinatra, M.G. Xibilia, ≥Soft Analysers for a Sulfur Recover Unit≤, Proc. of 15th Triennal IFAC World Congress, Barcelona, Spain, 2002.
9. G. Buceti, C. Centioli, F. Iannone, M. Panella, A. Rizzo, V. Vitale, ≥A Rating System for Post Pulse Data Validation≤, SOFT2002, 22nd Symposium on Fusion Technology, Helsinki, Finland, September 2002.
10. B. Esposito, Y. Kaschuck, A. Rizzo, L. Bertalot, A. Pensa, ≥Digital Pulse Shape Discrimination in Organic Scintillators for Fusion Applications≤, Nuclear Instrumentation and Measurement, Part A, Volume: 518, Issue: 1-2, February 1, 2004, pp. 626-62.
11. P. Arena, A. Basile, L. Fortuna, G. Mazzitelli, A. Rizzo, M. Zammataro, ≥CNN-Based Real-Time Video Detection of Plasma Instability in Nuclear Fusion Applications≤, IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems, ISCAS2004, Vancouver, Canada, 2004.
12. B. Esposito, L. Fortuna, A. Rizzo, ≥A Neural System for Radiation Discrimination in Nuclear Fusion Applications≤, IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems, ISCAS2004, Vancouver, Canada, 2004.

Radiation Effects and Soft Errors in Advanced Technologies

Scaling of semiconductor technologies has created concern that future generations of integrated circuits will exhibit unacceptable levels of reliability due to radiation-induced soft errors. Each error is a transient effect produced by the interaction of a single ionizing particle with a sensitive device. These particles may be produced by the reactions of cosmic rays in the atmosphere or they may originate from trace amounts of radioactive materials in packages or the surrounding environment. While these issues are particularly serious for space systems, they are becoming an increasing concern for terrestrial applications that demand high reliability. In addition to soft errors, electronics also may suffer parametric degradation or catastrophic failure caused by exposure to radiation. This talk will include an overview of critical radiation-related issues that affect advanced semiconductor technologies. A new simulation-based methodology for analyzing radiation effects, based on simulating large numbers of individual events will be described.
Ron Schrimpf, Ph.D.
Orrin Henry Ingram Professor of Engineering
Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Engineering Department
Vanderbilt University
ron.schrimpf@vanderbilt.edu

Education

• 1986 ‑ Ph.D. (Electrical Engineering), University of Minnesota
• 1984 ‑ Master of Science in Electrical Engineering, University of Minnesota
• 1981 ‑ Bachelor of Electrical Engineering with Distinction, University of Minnesota

Professional History

• 1986-1996 ‑ Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, and Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Arizona
• 1996-present ‑ Professor of Electrical Engineering, Vanderbilt University
• 2003-present – Director, Institute for Space and Defense Electronics, Vanderbilt University
• 2008-present ‑ Orrin Henry Ingram Professor of Engineering, Vanderbilt University

Research Interests

Ron Schrimpf’s research activities focus on the effects of radiation on semiconductor devices and integrated circuits. The Radiation Effects Research Group at Vanderbilt is the largest of its type at any US University. Current projects include atomic-scale modeling of radiation-induced defects, application and development of simulation tools for radiation effects, total-dose and single-event effects in advanced technologies, and development of radiation-effects and hardness-assurance test methodologies. Ron is the Principal Investigator of programs funded by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, the U.S. Navy, and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research. Ron is the Director of Vanderbilt’s Institute for Space and Defense Electronics (ISDE), which applies the radiation-effects research conducted at Vanderbilt to the practical problems of companies and governmental organizations. There are nine faculty members associated with ISDE, thirteen full-time engineers, and approximately thirty graduate students. Ron has authored or co-authored more than 380 journal papers and edited the book Radiation Effects and Soft Errors in Integrated Circuits and Electronic Devices (with Dan Fleetwood).

Selected Honors and Awards

Chancellor’s Cup, Vanderbilt, 2010; Harvey Branscomb Distinguished Professor Award, Vanderbilt, 2008-09; Outstanding Teaching Award, Vanderbilt School of Engineering, 2008; Chancellor’s Award for Research, Vanderbilt, 2003; IEEE Fellow (elected 2000); 1996 IEEE Nuclear and Plasma Sciences Society Early Achievement Award; Outstanding Paper Awards, 1991, 1996, 1998, and 2007 IEEE Nuclear and Space Radiation Effects Conferences (NSREC); Meritorious Paper Awards, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, and 2002 IEEE NSREC; Outstanding Oral Presentation, 1995 IEEE NSREC; Outstanding Poster Presentation, 1995 IEEE NSREC; Outstanding Paper Award, Power Semiconductors, 1989 IEEE Industrial Applications Conference; Outstanding Paper Award, RADECS, 2007 and 2009.

Selected Professional Activities

IEEE Radiation Effects Steering Group (RESG), Past Chairman (2006-2009), Chairman (2003-2006), and Vice Chairman (2000-2003); RADECS Steering Group (2006-present); IEEE Nuclear and Space Radiation Effects Conference (NSREC), General Chairman (1999) and Technical Program Chairman (1996); Guest Editor, NSREC Special Issue of IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science (1993-95).

"Pulsed Power - What Is It and Why Should You Care?"

In its most basic form Pulsed Power collects and stores energy over a period of ranging from seconds to minutes, modifies the voltage and current characteristics, and discharges the energy at very high power on a time-scale of tens of nanoseconds to a few microseconds. Many areas of electrical engineering work with the same generic type of power amplification but Pulsed Power is usually characterized by the very high powers (gigawatts to hundreds of terawatts) and energies that are processed. The high power and energy densities available with the application of Pulsed Power can drive a wide variety of loads that could not be accessed by more conventional techniques. Some examples of Pulsed Power applications are high temperature high density plasmas, lightening simulators, very high intensity X-ray sources, very high velocity projectiles, gigawatt microwave pulses, and high power laser drivers. From the late 1950’s until the early 1990’s Pulsed Power was almost exclusively used for defense applications, either as a diagnostic tool or to drive simulations of extreme pressures, temperatures, or shock conditions. Gradually the techniques, components and engineering practices of Pulsed Power have developed into tools that can be used for a variety of other applications. Sterilization, pollution control, metal forming, very compact but intense light and X-ray sources are some examples. As these techniques, engineering practices and components have matured they can be extended into other areas and allow engineers to push their products beyond what was previously though to be the practical limits.
Dr. Charles H. Stallings
Stallings & Associates
cstallings11@comcast.net

The Evolution of Hybrid Imaging

From autoradiography to planar X-rays, Computed Tomography (CT) and Magnetic Resonance (MR), morphology and structure has been the mainstay of biological and medical imaging for over a century. While structural changes may suggest the presence of disease, functional changes are more sensitive indicators of early-stage pathology, and with cancer, early detection is the key to a favorable prognosis. Since molecular imaging offers the potential to quantitatively image functional changes in vivo, it is assuming an increasingly important role in the identification, staging and re-staging of human disease. Specifically, Positron Emission Tomography (PET) and Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT) are sensitive techniques to map human physiology non-invasively through the use of high-resolution imaging devices and appropriate radioactively-labeled biomarkers. However, such metabolic maps do not offer the structural detail associated with anatomical imaging techniques such as CT and MR and therefore dual modality devices such as PET/CT, SPECT/CT or PET/MR that combine both structural and functional information offer a more complete and accurate assessment of the status of disease. PET/CT instrumentation, for example, was first introduced into the clinic in 2001 and since then, progress has been rapid. Technological advances in each modality, CT and PET, have been consistently incorporated into the combined device ensuring state-of-the-art performance for PET/CT. Recent advances in CT include an increase in the number of detector rows or slices (from 1 to 64), a reduction in rotation times (to less than 0.5 s), and the emergence of the first CT scanner incorporating dual X-ray sources. Paralleling these advances, PET instrumentation has witnessed the introduction of new faster scintillators, higher resolution detectors, increased sensitivity through extended axial coverage, and the resurgence of time-of-flight information to improve image signal-to-noise. A major advance in image reconstruction techniques has been the introduction of statistically-based algorithms into clinical routine, with progressive refinement of the system model to more accurately represent the imaging process. Most of the independent advances in CT and PET instrumentation have been rapidly incorporated into state-of-the-art PET/CT designs and over the past six years, the development, introduction and rapid adoption of PET/CT technology has significantly impacted the medical imaging field. For oncology in particular, PET/CT has become the preferred imaging modality with over 1600 scanners now installed in clinical practice worldwide, progressively replacing PET-only tomographs.

The development of high performance CT scanners (64-slice and 0.3 s rotation times) has been driven primarily by cardiac applications. Lower performance CT (16-slice, 0.5 s rotation times) combined with state-of-the-art PET components will in general be adequate for oncology applications such as diagnosis and staging of malignant disease and monitoring therapeutic response. With the improvements in spatial resolution and sensitivity of PET instrumentation, the potential exists for earlier diagnosis and assessment of response to treatment when it can still make a difference for the patient. While FDG-PET/CT has provided incremental improvements compared to FDG-PET in both sensitivity and specificity for many clinical studies, some applications such as mediastinal and cervical lymph node detection still lack good specificity. There are, therefore, opportunities to further improve the sensitivity and specificity of PET, although such improvement is more likely to be achieved through the use of new, novel biomarkers than advances in PET/CT instrumentation. For cardiac imaging, the identification of plaque formation and other associated inflammatory processes is an important, although challenging, goal. The application of PET/CT to cardiology is still in its infancy as issues related to respiration and cardiac motion are addressed, and especially those arising from the use of CT-based attenuation correction in this setting. Mismatch between the CT and PET images can create artifacts that may have diagnostic consequences and therefore appropriate respiration and cardiac gating strategies are currently being explored. The goal remains a single exam that can provide cardiac anatomy, angiography, perfusion and functional status of the myocardium. Incremental improvements and refinements in CT and PET instrumentation are to be anticipated in the future, including further increase in axial coverage, whereas major breakthroughs and insights are more likely to come from the introduction of novel PET biomarkers into clinical practice. Such biomarkers map physiological processes such as inflammation, cell proliferation, hypoxia, apoptosis and gene expression. As the specificity of these biomarkers increases, the requirement for the anatomical framework provided by CT will be essential. Thus, although currently the primary role of PET/CT is imaging FDG for oncology studies, the availability of other biomarkers will likely expand the use of PET/CT despite challenges from other developing hybrid modalities such as PET/MR.

This lecture will describe the evolution of multimodality instrumentation for the imaging of human disease, with particular emphasis on cancer. Some recent developments and future directions of multi-modality imaging technology will be highlighted.
Lost in Translation - From Basic Science to Clinical Reality

The transfer of technology from a basic science field such as particle physics to more applied areas like medical imaging, although offering promise is not always as straightforward as it may appear. While accelerator and particle physicists are presented with problems of extreme technical complexity requiring ingenious solutions, their techniques and instrumentation may not easily translate to other fields. The particular constraints imposed by one field may complicate or even invalidate the translation of a solution that appears promising from the perspective of the other field. Medical imaging instrumentation must be cost effective, offering adequate clinical performance for reasonable levels of cost and reliability; particle physics instrumentation is designed for extremely high levels of performance and reliability, with cost concerns often being secondary. In some limited areas, such as in the development of scintillators and detector electronics, translation of the technology has achieved a measured level of success. However, in attempting to facilitate this translation it is essential that one field understands the limitations, constraints and objectives of the other field. Without this bilateral understanding, promising advances in particle physics will have little or no impact on medical imaging; the advances will literally be lost in translation. This talk will discuss examples of techniques that originated from accelerator and particle physics and that should, or could have had a more significant impact on medical imaging, and critically examine the procedures by which the transfer of such technology might be accomplished.
Dr. David W. Townsend
Head of PET Development
National University of Singapore
david_townsend@sbic.a-star.edu.sg

David W. Townsend obtained his Ph.D. in Particle Physics from the University of London and was a staff member for eight years at the European Centre for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva, Switzerland. In 1980, Dr Townsend joined the faculty of Geneva University Hospital as a physicist in the Department of Nuclear Medicine. Working with Dr Alan Jeavons from CERN, he explored the use of the High Density Avalanche Chamber (HIDAC) for clinical PET imaging. He has worked on PET instrumentation development since the early eighties, and has been a senior consultant for CTI PET Systems (now Siemens Molecular Imaging) in Knoxville, Tennessee since 1992. In collaboration with Dr Terry Jones at the Cyclotron Unit of Hammersmith Hospital, London he participated in the development of 3D reconstruction and methodology for PET, and later designed and built the first rotating partial ring PET scanner using BGO block detectors.

In 1993, Dr Townsend moved to the University of Pittsburgh as an Associate Professor of Radiology and Senior PET Physicist. He was Co-Director of the Pittsburgh PET Facility from 1996-2002, and became Professor of Radiology in 2000. In 1995, Dr Townsend was Principal Investigator on the first proposal to design and build a combined PET/CT scanner. The PET/CT scanner, attributed to Dr Townsend and Dr Nutt, then President of CPS Innovations, was named by TIME Magazine as the medical invention of the year 2000. In recognition of his work on PET/CT, Dr Townsend received the 2004 Distinguished Clinical Scientist Award from the Academy of Molecular Imaging, and the 2008 Nuclear Medicine Pioneer Award from the Austrian Society of Nuclear Medicine. In 2006, he was elected a Fellow of the IEEE. Since February 2003, Dr Townsend has been at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville as Professor of Medicine and Radiology, and Director of the Molecular Imaging and Translational Research Program.

Plasma and Megagauss Fields

Megagauss magnetic fields interact with plasma both in the generation of high energy-density states of matter and in the use of magnetized plasma in multi-megampere pulsed power devices. The presentation provides a brief theoretical framework, in the limits of high magnetic Reynolds number and high magnetic pressure compared to plasma pressure, for subsequent discussions of several applications. These applications include imploding plasma liners, the Plasma Flow Switch and Radiator, and controlled thermonuclear fusion. We consider issues of energy transport, surface interactions, stability, and technology choices.
Dr. Peter J. Turchi
Los Alamos National Laboratory
turchi@lanl.gov

Education

1967 Bachelor of science in engineering, aerospace and mechanical sciences, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey.
1969 Master of arts, aerospace and mechanical sciences, Princeton University.
1970 Doctor of philosophy, aerospace and mechanical sciences, Princeton University.

Work Experience

1963–1970, research associate, Princeton Plasma Propulsion Laboratory, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey.
1970–1972, laboratory plasma physicist, Air Force Weapons Laboratory, Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico.
1972–1980, group leader, Imploding Liner Group, Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, D.C.
1976–1980, chief, Plasma Technology Branch, Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, D.C.
1980–1989, senior scientist, R&D Associates, Inc., Arlington, Virginia.
1981–1989, director, RDA Washington Research Laboratory, Alexandria, Virginia.
1988, adjunct professor of aerospace engineering; 1999–2002; The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio.
1989–1999, professor of aerospace engineering, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio.
1996–1997, visiting chief scientist for Advanced Weapons and Survivability, Air Force Phillips Laboratory, Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico.
1999–2001, team and project leader for hydrodynamics and pulsed power science; 2005-present, team leader; Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico.
2002–2005, senior scientist for high power microwaves and pulsed power, Air Force Research Laboratory, Directed Energy Directorate, Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico.

Areas of Expertise

Pulsed power, electric rocket propulsion, high-energy density physics, high magnetic fields, gas dynamics, plasma dynamics, aerospace engineering, directed energy, thermonuclear fusion.

Professional Affiliations and Awards

Fellow, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics; Fellow, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers; President, Electric Rocket Propulsion Society; Chair, numerous national and international technical conferences; IEEE Erwin Marx Award for Outstanding Contributions to Pulsed Power Science and Technology; Air Force and Navy Invention Awards.

Ball Lightning--New Physics, New Energy Source, or Just Good Entertainment?

Ball lightning is a natural phenomenon characterized by a glowing ball of light that lasts for 1 to more than 1000 s. Although laboratory experiments have produced glowing balls of light that fade in <1 s after external power is removed, energetic ball lightning is not understood. A seminal event that illuminates the fundamental nature of ball lightning is needed to advance our understanding. The extreme ball lightning event of August 6, 1868, in County Donegal, Ireland, was extensively reported to the Royal Society by M. Fitzgerald and may be such a seminal event. It lasted for 20 minutes and excavated a total of ~100,000 kg of water saturated peat. We found and characterized the site; the geomorphology and carbon dating support the account by M. Fitzgerald. The excavation is inconsistent with chemical, nuclear, or electrostatic forces but is consistent with magnetic induction by a ~1-MHz electromagnetic field. The results suggest that energetic ball lightning is detectable at great distances by its unusual electromagnetic emissions. About fifty 1 to >1000-s bursts of electromagnetic energy between 3 MHz and 350 MHz were recorded with the FORTE satellite in October of 1997 and are not consistent with known sources. In 2008, we found similar signals on the ground in the low RF background of Antarctica. We are currently building a four-station, software-radio-based, GPS-synchronized sensor system to identify the origin of the FORTE emissions near earth and move the research beyond glowing balls of light.
Dr. J. Pace VanDevender
Vice President Emeritus
Sandia National Laboratories
APS Fellow
AAAS Fellow
IEEE Senior Member
jpvande@sandia.gov

Dr. J. Pace VanDevender earned a Ph.D. in Physics from the Imperial College of Science and Technology, University of London, England, in 1974, where he was a Marshall Scholar; an M.A. in Physics from Dartmouth College in 1971; and a B.A. in Physics from Vanderbilt University in 1969.

He joined Sandia National Laboratories in 1974 as a Member of the Technical Staff. In 1978, he was appointed Division Supervisor of the Pulsed Power Research Division; in 1982, he became Manager of the Fusion Research Department; and in 1984, he became Director of Pulsed Power Sciences, accountable for work in fusion, directed-energy weapons, nuclear-weapon-effects simulation, and commercial applications of pulsed power. He was awarded the Department of Energyπs Lawrence Award for Physics in 1991.

After a brief transition as Director of Corporate Communications in 1993, he became Director, National Industrial Alliances Center. He pioneered the Prosperity Games, which are derived from executive-level war games and extended through research on how people make decisions at each level of a complex organization, to explore the potential of industry-government partnerships in the context of the global economy. In 1995, he incorporated Prosperity Institute to offer Prosperity Games and served as President, while on a Tech Transfer Leave of Absence from Sandia.

In 1998, he returned to Sandia as the Director of Strategic Sciences to work on science policy and strategy and became Chief Information Officer (CIO). In 2002, he became Executive Staff Director, responsible for Issues Management, Strategic Planning, Congressional Relations, Quality, Performance Assurance, the Ombuds, Corporate Investigations, and support of the President and Executive Vice President.

In 2003, he became Sandia's Chief Technical Officer; Vice President of the Science, Technology, and Engineering Strategic Management Unit; Vice President of the Science, Technology and Partnerships Division; and Chief Scientist of the Nuclear Weapons Program. He retired from Sandia in 2005 to devote more time to physics research and continues to serve Sandia and the nation as Vice President Emeritus.

Dr. VanDevender is a Fellow in the American Physical Society; a Fellow in the American Association for the Advancement of Science; a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Omicron Delta Kappa, and Sigma Xi; and a Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers. He serves on the Board of the various scientific and economic development organizations.

Conventional and Unconventional Applications of Field-Programmable Gate Arrays

Conventionally, Field-Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA) devices are used either as glue logic, in which the FPGA device interfaces between a number of conventional integrated circuits, or as a data interface. However, the full potential of the FPGA extends well beyond these conventional applications. In this presentation, several topics, loosely categorized into “unconventional” applications, are discussed. The examples are extracted from real high energy physics applications, including a time-to-digital converter (TDC) implemented purely with FPGA, an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) using FPGA TDC and passive components, waveform digitization, data compression, filtering and reconfigurable computing in FPGA. Some examples are discussed in a book authored by the lecturer: “Applications of Field-Programmable Gate Arrays in Scientific Research” (Taylor & Francis, 2010), while others were newly developed after publication of the book. The presentation is intended for a general physicist/engineer audience.
Dr. Jinyuan Wu
Engineer II, III, Particle Physics Division
Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory
P. O. Box 500, MS-222
Batavia, IL 60510
Phone: (630) 840-8911
jywu168@fnal.gov

Education
* Ph.D. in Experimental High Energy Physics, Department of Physics, The Pennsylvania State University, U.S.A., 1992
* M.S. in Micro-Electro-Ultrasonic Devices, Institute of Acoustics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China, 1986
* B.S. in Space Physics, Department of Geophysics, Peking University, Beijing, China, 1982

Recent Short Courses Presented
* "FPGA Applications for High Energy Physics." Institute of High Energy Physics, Beijing, China, Mar. 2010
* "FPGA Structure, Programming Principals and Applications." 2009 IEEE-NPSS Real Time Conference, May 2009
* "Digital Design with FPGAs: Examples and Resource Saving Tips." 2007 IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium, Oct. 2007

Book
"Applications of Field-Programmable Gate Arrays in Scientific Research." Hartmut F.-W. Sadrozinski & Jinyuan Wu, Taylor & Francis (2010)

NPSS Distinguished Lecturers Program

List of NPSS Distinguished Lecture Topics and Lecturers

Education

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Research Interests

Current projects

Research Interests:

Education:

Employment:

Awards & Honors (selected items):

Service to Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (selected items):

Service to Professional Societies (selected items):

Publications, Patents, Invited Presentations, and Funding:

Education

Professional History

University Service

Research Interests

Awards and Patents

Professional Society Service

Review/Advisory Panel

Research Partners

Selected Publications concerning the lecture

Education

Professional History

Research Interests

Selected Honors and Awards

Selected Professional Activities

Education

Work Experience

Areas of Expertise

Professional Affiliations and Awards

Education

Recent Short Courses Presented

Book