2022 Plasma Roadmap Edited by ME Professor Peter Bruggeman

The 2022 Plasma Roadmap, edited by ME Professor Peter Bruggeman and Dr. Anne Bourdon (CNRS, Ecole Polytechnique, France), was recently published in Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics. It identifies outstanding challenges of the research field and shares the visions of 41 leading plasma experts representing 21 countries and five continents.

The Plasma Roadmap initiative is a tradition that started in 2012 and has been updated every five years. The first roadmap was highlighted as one of the 50 most influential papers at the 2016 celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Institute of Physics (IOP) Journal of Physics series and has inspired many research fields and journals to pursue similar initiatives. 

"The roadmap's impact on our research is enormous," said Bruggeman. "Serving as editor and working with a large group of leading scientists from all over the world was very rewarding. Our research field and application areas range from medicine and agriculture to materials, environment, energy, and space exploration, which is so broad that a wide range of scientists is needed to provide this kind of overview. As for the 2017 roadmap, we hope this roadmap is equally successful in providing guidance for colleagues, funding agencies, and government institutions, and helps the plasma community to focus their efforts on the most important knowledge gaps that will allow us to provide an answer to the most pressing societal challenges."