Anthony L. Peratt received his PhD in Electrical Engineering from the University of Southern California, Los Angeles (1971) and his MSEE in 1967 from USC as well. Dr. Peratt is a thirty-year technical and administrative staff member of the University of California, was a part of the technical staff of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (1972-1979), a guest physicist at the Max Planck Institut für Plasmaphysik, Garching, Germany (1975-1977), as well as guest scientist at the Alfvén Laboratory, Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden (1985). Since 1981, Dr. Peratt has worked at the Los Alamos National Laboratory and was the Scientific Advisor to the United States Department of Energy (1995-1999) where he served a term as Acting Director, National Security, Nuclear Nonproliferation Directorate. Peratt's research interests have included numerical and experimental contributions to high-energy density plasmas and intense particle beams, explosively-driven pulsed power generators, lasers, intense-power-microwave sources, particles, high energy density phenomena, Z-pinches, and inertially driven fusion target designs.-1989 and the Guest Editor Transactions on Plasma Science, special issues on Space Plasmas 1986, 89, 90, 92, 2000, 2003, among many rolls he has had. He is a senior member the American Physical Society, American Astronomical Society, Eta Kappa Nu and has earned the United States Department of Energy Distinguished Performance Award in both 1987 and 1999. Dr. Peratt is the author/editor of the following Springer books:
Physics of the Plasma Universe
(1992);
Plasma Astrophysics and Cosmology
(1995); and
Advanced Topics in Space and Astrophysical Plasmas
(1997). Anthony Peratt is a Life Fellow of the IEEE, Senior Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science, and Research Scholar, Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.

Compares 20 year-old assumptions from the first edition, which were based on laboratory data, with recent satellite observations to verify and validate plasma astrophysics theory

Presents the known properties of matter in the plasma state, going from the fundamentals to astrophysical applications

Includes examples of scientific problems, as well as numerous illustrations and appendices