29th International on School on Low Temperature Plasma Physics: Basics and Applications in 2026

Program of the International School on Low Temperature Plasma Physics and its Master Class 2026

In 2026, the 29th International School on 'Low Temperature Plasma Physics: Basics and Applications' (03/10/2026 - 08/10/2026) and its Master Class 'Electrical breakdown and plasma initiation' (09/10/2026 - 10/10/2026) takes place at the Physikzentrum Bad Honnef (Germany).

Program of the School

We are looking forward to it because, once again, we are putting together a very promising program, with the support of many colleagues who are willing to give a talk at the School.

04/10/2026
08:45 Welcome and introduction
Marc Böke & Marina Prenzel / Tomáš Hoder & Zdeněk Bonaventura (Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany & Masaryk University Brno, Czech Republic )
09:00 Plasma Fundamentals I
Achim von Keudell (Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany)
10:30 Coffee break
10:45 Plasma Fundamentals II
Achim von Keudell (Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany)
13:45 Plasma modelling I: General Overview
Annemie Bogaerts (University of Antwerp, Belgium)
15:15 Coffee break
15:30 Plasma sources I: Micro-wave plasmas
Richard van den Sanden (DIFFER, The Netherlands)
17:00 Forum with teachers
18:30 Dinner
20:00 Evening lecture: History of plasma physics
Holger Kersten (Christian-Albrechts-Universität Kiel, Germany)


05/10/2026
09:00 Plasma modelling II: Electron kinetics in atomic and molecular plasmas
Luís L. Alves (Lisbon Technical University, Portugal)
10:30 Coffee break
10:45 Plasma modelling III: Fluid modelling of discharge plasmas
Luís L. Alves & Antonio Tejero del Caz (University of Lisbon, Portugal & University of Cordoba, Spain)
12:30 Lunch break
13:45 Plasma diagnostics I: Basics of plasma spectroscopy
Sylvain Iséni (GREMI Orléans, France)
15:15 Coffee break
15:30 Plasma sources II: High pressure thermal plasmas and sources
Tony Murphy (CSIRO, Australia)
17:00 Forum with teachers
18:30 School Dinner


06/10/2026
09:00 Plasma diagnostics II: Measuring electron density and ion flux
Jean-Paul Booth (Ecole Polytechnique, France)
10:30 Coffee break
10:45 Plasma diagnostics III: Advanced optical diagnostics
Richard Engeln (ASML, The Netherlands)
12:30 Lunch break
14:00 Experimental Workshop II:‘Spectroscopic instruments and their application’
Sylvain Iséni (GREMI Orléans, France)
14:00 Workshop Simulation
Luís L. Alves (Lisbon Technical University, Portugal)
14:00 Experimental Workshop I: ‘Basics of laser absorption spectroscopy’
Olivier Guaitella (École Polytechnique, France)
18:30 Dinner
20:00 Evening lecture: FAIR Data Principles for Data Management and Open Science Practices
Markus Becker & Marina Prenzel (INP Greifswald, RUB)


07/10/2026
00:00 Plasma technologies I: Material processing
Stephanos Konstantinidis (University of Mons, Belgium)
09:00 Plasma sources III: High density magnetized plasma sources
Diederik Depla (Ghent University, Belgium)
10:30 Coffee break
10:45 Plasma sources IV: Dielectric Barrier Discharges
Olivier Guaitella (École Polytechnique, France)
12:30 Lunch break
15:15 Coffee break
15:30 Plasma technologies II: Plasma chemistry for bio-applications and in contact with liquids
Zdenko Machala (University of Bratislava, Slovakia)
17:00 Forum with teachers
18:30 Dinner
20:00 Poster session
Tomáš Hoder, Zdeněk Bonaventura & Pavel Dvořák (Masaryk University Brno, Czech Republic)


08/10/2026
09:00 Plasma diagnostics IV: Plasma-Surface Interactions
Jan Benedikt (Kiel University, Germany)
10:30 Coffee break
10:45 Machine Learning for Low-Temperature Plasma Science
Jan Trieschmann (CAU Kiel, Germany)
12:30 Lunch break


Program of the Master Class on Electrical breakdown and plasma initiation

Regular lectures have duration of ~1.15h + 15min for final extended discussion

09/10/2026
08:45 Welcome and introductive words
Tomáš Hoder (Masaryk University, Czech Republic)
09:00 Streamer breakdown and branching
Sander Nijdam (TU/e, The Netherlands)
10:30 Coffee break
10:45 Atmospheric electricity, transient luminous events and relativistic runaway discharges
Victor Pasko (PennState, USA)
12:30 Lunch break
13:30 Breakdown in Liquid media
Zdeněk Bonaventura (Masaryk University, Czech Republic)
15:00 Master class poster session
Tomáš Hoder, Zdeněk Bonaventura & Pavel Dvořák (Masaryk University Brno, Czech Republic)
16:30 Initiation and development of plasmas for electric propulsion
Francesco Taccogna (ISTP Bari, Italy)
18:30 Dinner


10/10/2026
09:00 Non-thermal to thermal plasma transition: arc discharges
Margarita Baeva (INP Greifswald, Germany)
10:30 Coffee break
11:00 Laser induced breakdown
Libor Juha (PALS/HiLASE, Czech Republic)
12:30 Lunch break