Attendees of the 38th IEEE ICOPS-SOFE Conference reported that it was one of the best ICOPS conferences ever. The ICOPS conference general chair was Ahmed Hassanein, the Paul L. Wattelet  Professor and Head of the Purdue School of Nuclear Engineering and the director of the Center for Materials Under eXtreme Environment, (CMUXE).  More than 750 people from about 40 countries attended the ICOPS and SOFE conference at the Hyatt Regency McCormick Place in Chicago. 

The conference keynote speaker for the plenary session on Monday featured Dr. Donald Cook, who serves as the Deputy Administrator for Defense Programs at the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). Appointed to the position by President Barack Obama, Dr. Cook was sworn in as NNSA's 5th Deputy Administrator in June 2010. He is responsible for managing the U.S. nuclear security enterprise of laboratories and manufacturing facilities. Dr. Cook spoke on The Importance of High Energy Density Plasma Science to NNSA's Defense Programs Mission.

The Tuesday plenary featured Dr. Bryan Rice, the director of lithography at SEMANTECH. Dr. Rice presented EUV Lithography: A Semiconductor Industry Application of Plasma Physics. Dr. Jiangang Li who is the director of the Institute of Plasma Physics, Hefei, China spoke about the future of fusion.

The Purdue CMUXE team including students, faculty and staff worked together to make this conference a success.

The key personnel for the ICOPS from the CMUXE team were: 

Dr. Ahmed Hassanein, General Chair

Dr. Jeff Brooks, Treasurer

Mrs. Tatyana Sizyuk, Secretary

Dr. S.S. (Hari) Harilal, Local Organizing Committee Chair

Dr. Jean Paul Allain, Mini Course Organizer/Oral Section Coordinator