Why do some universities place plasma physics under electrical engineering instead of applied physics?

Question

Are there any differences in curriculum?

Answer 1

Usually these plasma programs are not physics, but rather engineering based. If you look at a plasma program in a engineering department the emphasis will be on design machines to create, heat, or confine a plasma, or the use of plasma in the industry. Where as a physics program will place emphasis on physics of the plasma like wave properties, or how plasmas can be used to describe the formation of starts.

Answer 2

Consider the equipment. As a graduate student, you will be rewiring high energy coil sets, configuring targets and setting up fields to detect anomalies... for the plasma to be studied, you will need to see the electronics.
The Electronic/Electrical Engineering Department is the only group capable of operating the school's physical plant to study plasma.
If you have your PhD, you usually don't care which department granted it... eventually your office will most probably be moved to the Physics department.

Answer 3

We had a plasma lab in our EE department. It seemed that the lab was doing research that was engineering oriented - ie targeted at applications like power and Semi processing. Versus a physics lab that would be more theoretically oriented.

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