Conference Motivation and Prodromes
The progress of plasma physics—and particularly of fusion research—has always been closely linked to advances in plasma diagnostics. The continuous development of increasingly sophisticated diagnostic techniques has enabled ever more accurate measurements of plasma properties, providing detailed information on their spatial and temporal evolution and thereby driving major advances in both fundamental understanding and technological applications.
Although Europe has long played a leading role in plasma physics and plasma technology, for many years there was no regular European forum specifically dedicated to plasma diagnostics. The existing conferences on plasma physics naturally included contributions on diagnostics, but they did not provide a venue where specialists could focus exclusively on the development, performance and future challenges of diagnostic techniques.
In the mid-1990s, several leading European scientists active in plasma diagnostics—including Tony Donné, Alan Costley, Peter Stott, Hans Hartfuss, Angelo Tuccillo and others—recognized the need for a European conference comparable to the Topical Conference on High Temperature Plasma Diagnostics (HTPD), which had been successfully held biennially in the United States for many years. However, the European initiative was conceived with a broader scope. Rather than focusing exclusively on fusion diagnostics (for both magnetic and inertial fusion), it was intended to encompass also diagnostic techniques for low-temperature plasmas, plasma processing, industrial applications and laboratory astrophysics.
Several important meetings addressing plasma diagnostics had already taken place in Europe, although on an occasional basis. Among them were the conferences "Advanced Diagnostics for Magnetic and Inertial Fusion", organized within the framework of the Varenna International School of Plasma Physics, "P. Caldirola" in 2001 by Elio Sindoni, Peter Stott, Alan Wootton, Giuseppe Gorini and Dimitri Batani and, as premise to the ECPD, the "Plasma Diagnostics 2010 - International Conference on Plasma Diagnostics", organized by Gerard Bonhomme and Nicolas Lemoine and chaired by Hans-Juergen Hartfuss.
Nevertheless, Europe still lacked a permanent, regularly recurring conference entirely devoted to plasma diagnostics.
Zeroth Edition and Establishment of a Regular Biennial Conference Series
From the outset, the objective was to establish the conference under the auspices of the European Physical Society (EPS) in order to ensure broad visibility and recognition within the European plasma physics community. Achieving this objective required several years of discussions before the EPS Plasma Physics Division agreed to organize a satellite meeting on plasma diagnostics alongside the EPS Conference on Plasma Physics, held in Espoo, Finland, in 2013. This inaugural event, organized by Tony Donne as a two-day conference running in parallel with the main EPS meeting, proved highly successful, both scientifically and in terms of participation.
The success of this first edition convinced the EPS Plasma Physics Division to establish the European Con
ference on Plasma Diagnostics (ECPD) as a regular biennial conference.
The first official ECPD was organized in 2015 at the ENEA Research Centre in Frascati (Italy), with Angelo Tuccillo serving as Chair of the Local Organizing Committee and Tony Donné as Chair of the International Scientific Committee. Subsequent editions were held in Bordeaux (2017), Lisbon (2019), Salamanca (2021, held online because of the COVID-19 pandemic), Rethymno, Crete (2023), and Prague (2025).
One of the distinctive traditions established by ECPD is the continuity of its scientific leadership. Following each edition, the Chair of the Local Organizing Committee becomes Chair of the International Scientific Committee for the subsequent conference, ensuring both continuity and the transfer of experience between successive organizers. Following this tradition, the successive Chairs of the International
Scientific Committee chairs have been Tony Donné, Angelo Tuccillo, Dimitri Batani, Bruno Soares Gonçalves, Luca Volpe, Michael Tatarakis and, most recently, Jordan Cavalier.
Past ECPD editions
