The Coalition for Plasma Science is a group of institutions, organizations, and companies joining forces to increase awareness and understanding of plasma science and its many applications and benefits for society. We hope that by visiting this Web site you learn some new things about plasmas in our world, in our society, and in our economy.

The plasmas of interest here are the electrically charged gases, or "ionized" gases, that are found in nature as well as in numerous devices. In addition to surrounding you in the universe, plasmas play key roles in bringing you sunlight outdoors during the daytime, street light at night, fluorescent light in your offices, computer chips in your computers, treated and coated surfaces of more important objects in your life than you might imagine (including hardened artificial joints you might have in your body and high temperature turbine blade coatings for the jets you fly in), flat panel displays for your TV, gas lasers, the welded joints that keep buildings from falling apart, and radio transmission around the world. Among the important applications expected in the future are the production of electrical energy from nuclear fusion, environmental cleanup, and space ship propulsion for interplanetary flights.

At the present time when someone encounters the term "plasma" he or she often thinks of blood plasma; the ionized-gas type has to be explained. The Coalition for Plasma Science is working to change this situation. We are working to make the ionized-gas plasma the type that is most familiar to people. If you stumbled on this site looking for information about blood plasma, you're in the wrong place, but please stay a while and learn something about the other type of plasma.

Gerald L. Rogoff
Coalition for Plasma Science