2. Boxman and Maron presented the background of the meeting: several of the university lecturers have seen the number of graduate plasma students dwindle, and want to take corrective measures. In parallel to this meeting, another meeting led by Eli Jerby is planning an Israel-wide short course designed to atrract B.Sc. students to plasma. The IPSTA committee wants to know if the need for more plasma students is also felt by the university's 'customers' for plasma-trained manpower, i.e. industry and the national laboratories.
3. Goldsmith indicated that one of the difficulties is the lack of departments dedicated to plasma in the universities, and thus plasma is often treated as a step-child.
4. Vered indicated that at Intel-Jerusalem, she has not found candidates with a plasma background. She tries to hire good people, and then train them herself in plasma. Having plasma-trained candidates would be a better alternative. She estimates that at the Intel-Kiryat Gat plant there will be a need for 50-100 engineers working in plasma related activities -- deposition and etching.
5. Aharoni indicated that the qualitative situation was similar at Tower. Furthermore he indicated that the academic consultants he uses in etching with semi-conductor backgrounds, often had very shallow background in plasma. He favored closer cooperation between academic and industrial organizations, proposed encouraging joint projects, and indicated that equipment at Tower could be utilized for joint research projects.
6. Bashara discussed the role of the Ministry of Science, as well as his role at BSF and GIF. He thought that plasma, as an interdisciplinary field, should be attractive. He intitiated a call for pre-proposals in the field of plasma technology, and 10 pre-proposals were received. Evaluation of these pre-proposals has been delayed due to difficulties in finding a reviewer who was not a submitter. Bashara suggested: (a) involving industry in course planning, (b) preparing a position paper and plan to advance plasma in Israel to the 'TELEM' forum which includes the head of VATAT, the president of the Academy of Sciences, a representative of the treasury, etc. The possible contribution of plasma to nano-technology should be stressed.
7. The meeting was adjurned at 14:30, in order to continue the conference lecture session.
Below are my personal conclusions from the above meeting:
1. There is a clear need for plasma trained personnel in the national laboratories and industry.
2. Eli Jerby should coop representatives from industry onto the course planning committee.
3. A page of our web site should be devoted to plasma job opportunities in Israeli industry. This page can be job announcements, and/or links to relevant industrial sites. (Yuri Ralchenko).
4. IPSTA should form a TELEM subcommittee to formulate a position paper and plan (discuss at next IPSTA committee meeting -- separate subcommittee? or together with funding agency contact subcommittee?)
5. As part of the above, I suggest conducting a comprehensive survey to determine the state of plasma students/manpower requirements in Israel. The survey should include (a) industry and national labs (assemble a complete list of industries and national labs dealing with plasma, with a breakdown in each organization as to field, number of people working in the field, and projected future needs), and (b) universities (list of graduate student supervisors, fields, current number of students, number of students 3 years ago). (discuss at next IPSTA committee meeting).
Sincerely yours,
R.L. Boxman
Chairman, IPSTA