• Envision a thermonuclear power plant that does not produce radioactive waste.
• Consider a new technology that will manufacture microelectronic chips that will be able to process 12 times more information than those currently available.
• How can we develop diesel engines that are more environmentally friendly?
• Did you ever wonder how the earth's magnetic field is generated?
• These ideas are being explored at the University of Maryland's Institute for Research in Electronics and Applied Physics (IREAP).
• Experimental and theoretical research and computer simulation are pursued in IREAP by 70 research scientists.
• Faculty members affiliated with IREAP are drawn from a variety of disciplines including the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Institute for Physical Science and Technology (IPST), Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Department of Geology, and the Department of Physics.
• The research activity is reinforced and broadened by the presence of some 20 visiting scientists and by collaboration with other teaching faculty who are affiliate members of IREAP.

U.S. News and World Report
America's Best Graduate Schools
-- Physics = #13
---- Chaos (Nonlinear Dynamics) = #1
---- Plasma Physics = #2
-- Engineering = #17
---- Computer Engineering - #17
---- Electrical Engineering - #14
---- Materials Engineering - #32

U.S. News and World Report - Undergraduate Rankings
-- Clark School of Engineering - #23
---- Electrical Engineering - #17
---- Computer Engineering - #16
---- Mechanical Engineering - #20

• Environmental Safety

• Approximately 70 graduate students are presently working on their research dissertation projects with members of the IREAP faculty. In 2009, 14 graduate students have received their Ph.D. and 1 has received a Masters of Science degree. The numbers for previous years are: 2008 -- 5 Ph.D.'s and 2 M.S.; 2007 -- 10 Ph.D.'s and 1 M.S.; 2006 -- 12 Ph.D.'s and 9 M.S.; 2005 -- 15 Ph.D.'s and 4 M.S.; and 2004 -- 14 Ph.D.'s and 6 M.S.
• Fellows in IREAP: American Association for the Advancement of Science - 2; American Ceramics Society - 1; American Physical Society - 22; American Vacuum Society - 2; Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers - 10; Indian Academy of Sciences - 1; Institute of Electrical and Telecommunications Engineers, India - 1; International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry - 1; Optical Society of America - 4; Photonics Society of Chinese-Americans - 1.
• Other Awards: Lifetime National Associate of the National Academies - 1; Senior Member of the IEEE - 1.
• Research programs conducted by the Institute are focused on basic and applied research involving electrically-charged gases (plasmas) and charged particle beams (electron and ion beams), ion beam microfabrication, materials processing, nonlinear dynamics (chaos), laser-matter interaction, nanoscience, and nanotechnology.
• Active research grants and contracts are in excess of $10 million.