The second European Conference on Plasma Diagnostics (ECPD) has taken place in Bordeaux from 18 to 21 April. ECPD is a biennial event which aims at bringing together physicists or other scientists working on diagnostics for magnetic confinement fusion, beam plasmas and inertial fusion, low-temperature and industrial plasmas, and basic and astrophysical plasmas. The ECPD has been promoted by the European Physical Society (EPS) and endorsed by several other scientific associations and institutional partners like the Societé Francais d’Optique, the European program COST “Developing the Physics and the Scientific Community for Inertial Fusion”, the University of Bordeaux, the Region Nouvelle Aquitaine and the pole RHL. More than 170 scientists from all over Europe and overseas took part in this event discussing recent progress in plasma diagnostics and cross-fertilisation between the different sub-topics of plasma physics. Particular emphasis has bene given to the presence of LMJ in the Bordeaux area and the project PETAL+ for developing plasma diagnostics for this laser installation.

The ECPD takes place in alternate years with respect to the HTPD (High Temperature Plasma Diagnostics) conference in the USA and aims at becoming the "European counterpart” of such conference. Contribution to the conference will be published in JINST (the Journal of Instrumentations).