The National Research Council (NRC) has formed the Panel on Opportunities in Plasma Science and Technology (OPST) to conduct an assessment of the field of plasma science. The Panel has been charged to assess the health of basic plasma science as a research enterprise, identify opportunities in plasma science, and make recommendations to federal agencies and to the plasma science community.

As we have begun to evaluate the potential for the future, we realized that it is necessary to have a reference frame in which to work—a not-uncommon feature in physics. The specific reference frame we lack is the funding for the areas associated with basic plasma physics in recent years. Therefore, we ask your help in assembling an accurate profile of federal funding for plasma science research. It would be helpful to get this over a period of several years, in particular, over the period fiscal years 1989–1992. Please specify if the dollars are current or constant dollars. If the information is available, a theory versus experiment breakdown would be useful, as would any other breakout.

Attachment 1 is a list of the areas into which our panel has separated basic plasma science. This may be useful in deciding what to include in any data you can give us. Attachment 2 is a list of federal plasma science program managers to whom this request was sent. If there are others that you know of within your agency that are not included on the list, we would appreciate your forwarding a copy of this request to them.

We appreciate that this is a difficult time to make such a request, since budgets for the next year are being revised and your time is stretched thin. However, any information you can provide will be most useful to the Panel if received by March 1, 1993. Please send it to the following address:

Dr. Ronald Taylor

Panel on Opportunities in Plasma Science and Technology

Board on Physics and Astronomy

2101 Constitution Ave

Washington, DC 20418

or fax the information to Dr. Ronald Taylor, 202-334-2791.

We are writing to you as Co-Chairs of the Panel on Opportunities in Plasma Science and Technology (OPST) to ask your help in assembling financial information for a report that the panel has prepared. This letter is actually a followup to a letter that we sent to you on February 17, 1993. Some background information and our specific request are outlined below.

The OPST, under the auspices of the Board on Physics and Astronomy (BPA) of the National Research Council (NRC) has been conducting an assessment of the field of plasma science. The report is nearly complete and is currently under review at the NRC. The original charge to the panel was to assess the health of basic plasma science as a research enterprise, identify research opportunities in plasma science, and make recommendations to federal agencies and to the plasma science community. In addressing this charge, the panel assembled information on federal funding for basic plasma science. Your response to our February 17, 1993 letter was used for that purpose.

Several attachments are included for your reference. Attachment 1 is a copy of the February 17, 1993 letter that was sent to you requesting funding information on basic plasma science. Attachment 2 is a copy of your response. Finally, Attachment 3 is a copy of the section of our draft report that summarizes the information we were supplied last year. Our request is the following:

1. We would like to update the information that you provided last year. Please review your response to us and return funding figures for FY93 and FY94 (if possible).

2. Our original request asked for funding information associated with basic plasma science. We would like to compare these figures with the total funding for plasma science-based research. It would be most helpful if you could provide us with those figures for FY89–FY94.

3. Finally, please review Attachment 3 and give us any comments. We would like this section of the report not only to reflect the panel's information on the funding situation in basic plasma science, but also the funding situation of the field. Therefore, we are interested in your perspective.

We appreciate that this is a difficult time to make such a request and thank you for your time and effort. Any information you can provide will be most useful to the panel if received by September 1, 1994. Please send it to the following address:

Panel on Opportunities in Plasma Science and Technology

Board on Physics and Astronomy

2101 Constitution Ave

Washington, DC 20418

or fax the information to Natasha Casey, 202-334-2791. Ms. Casey, from the BPA office, will call you in several days to confirm that you received this request and offer any assistance that you might need in responding to this request.