Starting January 1st, Luis OS has joined the editorial board of the Journal of Plasma Physics (Cambridge University Press) as Associate Editor. The Journal of Plasma Physics has published some of the fundamental developments of plasma physics. JPP aspires to be the intellectual home of those who think of plasma physics as a fundamental discipline. The journal will particularly focus on publishing research on laboratory plasmas, space physics and plasma astrophysics that takes advantage of the rapid ongoing progress in instrumentation and computing to advance fundamental understanding of multiscale plasma physics. Read the Editorial: The Way Forward for JPP by Bill Dorland and Alex Schekochihin.

Happy Holidays to all our team members and friends! We look forward to another year of great science, friendship, and fun!

This years’ GoLP Day (December 15) was held near the Castelo de São Jorge, in Museu de Artes Decorativas. The programme included the Marshmallow Challenge, case studies on improving several aspects of GoLP’s life, visits to the Museum and the Workshops, and to the Castelo São Jorge, prizes (including official GoLP merchandise!), and lots of interactions and fun. 

On December 5, Joana successfully defended her PhD thesis in Physics entitled “Radiation processes in laser driven laboratory scenarios” at IST with the highest mark. The thesis committee was composed of Bob Bingham, Patric Muggli, Ricardo Fonseca, João M. Dias, Jorge Vieira and Luis OS. Many congratulations to Joana!

The new cluster Accelerates has been featured in the Intel Case Study “University of Lisbon: High-Performance Plasma Physics”. The new HPC cluster features almost 2000 cpu cores and it will be used to support the research of the team in the framework of the ERC Advanced Grant Accelerates. The HPC Cluster Accelerates has already entered the final stages of testing and it will be in production very soon. The Intel Case Study is available here.

Luis OS, Elisabetta, Joana, Marija, Diana, and Nitin attended the CERN Accelerator School on Plasma Wake Acceleration (23 – 29 Nov). For the first time, CERN hosted a school on Plasma Acceleration. The school has brought together the leaders of the field in Europe and more than 120 junior researchers for a week long of classes and case study sessions, exciting science, and many lively discussions at the CERN restaurant. More details on the school here.

The prizes for the winners of the image and video of 2014, the “natas” of visualization, were awarded today to Fabio Cruz (left) and to Paulo Alves (right), with the corresponding iPad Mini. Paulo and Fabio were joined by Thomas Grismayer (last year’s winner, center) and by the rest of GoLP to taste the “natas” of the “Natas”. As one of the 2014 winners (PA) described ““Nata” is a tasty Portuguese pastry that everybody likes. It’s as enjoyable as having our simulations running nicely on a big supercomputer. It can also mean being at the top, at a high level, important.”

epp team members Ricardo Fonseca, Jorge Vieira, Thomas Grismayer, Kevin Schoeffler, Marija Vranic and Paulo Alves attended the Annual Meeting of the Division of Plasma Physics of the American Physical Society in New Orleans. Besides having fun and lively discussions with GoLP alumni and other friends and collaborators, there was also the opportunity to showcase our work in 6 talks and 4 posters.

Luis OS, Jorge V and Marija V attended the HELL DUR workshop of ELI Beamlines (invited contributions by Jorge and Marija). The workshop on HELL Experimental Platform – Detailed User Requirements Workshop was held close to the ELI Beamlines site (ELI building is in the back of the picture), near Prague in the Czech Republic.
 

Two new Idea Walls have just opened at GoLP. Painted with IdeaPaint these walls are ready to take on the creativity and the ideas at the tip of GoLPers’ dry eraser markers.
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