Guest Editorial The Past, Present, and Future of Electromagnetic Launch Technology and the IEEE International EML Symposia

This Special Issue of the Transactions in Plasma Science consists of selected papers from the Sixteenth International Symposium on Electromagnetic Launch (EML) Technology, held at the China National Convention Center in Beijing, China, May 15-19, 2012. This biennial symposium is the primary forum for presentation and discussion of research on critical technologies for the acceleration of macroscopic objects using EM or electrothermal-chemical launchers. This symposium was cohosted by the Institute for Strategic and Innovative Technologies (ISIT) and the China Electrotechnical Society (CES) under the sponsorship of IEEE´s Nuclear and Plasma Sciences Society, was attended by 151 researchers and engineers from 13 countries. The cochairs of the symposium were Dr. Harry Fair (ISIT) and Dr. Jun Li (Beijing Institute of Special Electromechanical Technology). In addition to naming the recipients of the Peter Mark Medal and the First Harry Fair Award, the author reviews the development of EML science and technology during the 1970s and 1980s focusing on the EML Technology Symposium, the first of which was held in San Diego, CA, in 1980. The proceedings were peer reviewed and published as a Special Issue of the IEEE Transactions on Magnetics. The EML Symposia have been held biennially ever since, and all of the EML Symposia have been published as special issues either of the Transactions on Magnetics or more recently in the Transactions of Plasma Sciences. These 16 IEEE issues form the fundamental science and technology base for EML technology.