5th INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON THE FRONTIERS OF PLASMA PHYSICS AND TECHNOLOGY

18-22 April 2011, Singapore, Republic of Singapore


Technical Summary

Closing ceremony remark by : Dieter H.H. Hoffmann, FPPT Scientific Programme Committee (Chair)

On behalf of the international programme committee of this conference I want to extend my sincere and cordial welcome to you all at the closing ceremony. This is the fifth time that we have met to discuss plasma physics issues outside the usual meeting places for scientists working in the wide field of plasma physics. If you look at the home page of this conference you will see that the conference is meant to be organized in developing countries.

I had the chance to arrive here one day early. So I already have the first impression of Singapore. I come from Germany a developed country. Singapore is probably more developed than many countries in the world. The reason to meet here is therefore to give an initiative for more development in the field of Plasma Physics. Most people think of Fusion Energy, when it comes to Plasma Physics. Indeed the prospect to harvest energy from nuclear fusion processes is one of the driving forces of plasma physics and this requires big experiments and a developed scientific community in this field. The examples of the big Tokamak machines and large laser facilities are obvious. These topics have of course played an important role during this conference. However, plasma based technologies today have wide spread application. I remember a talk where the treatment of silk with plasma techniques was reported. During this conference we have heard about plasma ablation and thin film techniques and other application of plasma physics and many exciting research topics too.

In general it was a pleasure for the committee to serve the conference, selecting from excellent papers to be presented during the conference. This conference has again achieved the aim to discuss complex- fundamental plasma physics issues and their applications in different countries, where plasma physics as a research field is not yet fully developed to full potential.

The list of conference attendees contains many very well-known names in the field of plasma physics some of them have come for the second, third or even fifth time. This success is certainly due to the very effective efforts of our conference chairman Professor Tara Desai. Due to our excellent experience with her and the preceding conferences, we all like to come when she invites us together. I am sure this time also we have succeeded to have a very fruitful conference and exciting discussion of our topics in a very relaxed atmosphere.

Although it is a medium scale conference there is an appreciation for good young researchers from developing countries. This is to encourage and promote research aptitude among young researchers. We have 2 best poster awards, one for local candidate, and another from overseas country. Based on the experts’ recommendation, two posters have been awarded with a cash prize and a citation.

My thanks go also to the local committee with Professor R.S. Rawat being the chair. We are greatly indebted to the International Atomic Energy Agency to be a major sponsor and supporter for this conference. Here I have to thank Dr. Richard Kamendje for his support inside the IAEA to make this conference possible.

Local and other host institutes support was essential for this conference and we thank all these institutes for their support.

After this successful conference, I hope, we all meet again in two years in another beautiful place to attend the 6th International Conference on the Frontiers of Plasma Physics and Technology.

Dieter Hoffmann

Technical Summary