International Sherwood Fusion Theory Conference 4/26-28 Missoula

2004-04-26 08:00:00
Doubletree Hotel. Missoula

The goal of controlled thermonuclear fusion research is to develop a safe, essentially inexhaustible source of energy for the future.

About 150 leading researchers trying to unlock the secrets of fusion will be in Missoula April 26-28 during the 2004 International Sherwood Fusion Theory Conference, which will be held at the Doubletree Hotel.

Organized this year by the Department of Physics and Astronomy at The University of Montana, the conference is named for the early days of fusion studies when the U.S. government used “Sherwood” as the code name for its classified fusion research.

The Sun’s energy is generated through fusion, and a major goal of fusion research is to find ways to harness that energy here on Earth. To achieve that goal, many theoretical and experimental problems still must be solved.

Invited speakers at the conference include Professor Inez Fung, director of the Center for Atmospheric Sciences at the University of California, Berkeley; Professor Fausto Cattaneo, University of Chicago; and Alberto Loarte, Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics in Germany.

Conference participants will discuss results and future initiatives in the fields of high-temperature plasma physics, magnetic confinement of plasmas and fusion-energy production.

A plasma is a gas of ionized particles that can reach temperatures in excess of 100 million degrees centigrade. Hydrogen nuclei collide in these plasmas and combine to produce helium and give off energy in the process.
Conference participants can expect lectures by scientists from the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Free University of Brussels in Belgium and Institute for Plasma Research in India.

In recent years the Sherwood conference has been held in Rochester, N.Y.; Atlanta; Corpus Christi, Texas; and Philadelphia. This is the first time this prestigious event has been held in Missoula.

A full conference schedule is online at http://www.sherwoodtheory.org/sherwood04.

For more information, contact Andrew Ware, conference organizer, at (406) 243-6221 or James Jacobs, director of the UM physics and astronomy department, at (406) 243-4986.