By 雪莉DiBari
20世纪80年代初，穆尼尔·拉鲁西(Mounir Laroussi)还是田纳西大学(University of Tennessee)的一名博士生，一次关于等离子体的讲座改变了他的职业轨迹.
“这让我大吃一惊. It was so interesting,” Laroussi said. “I was like, ‘Wow, I think I found what I want to do.’”
那个讲座，由 Igor Alexeff, professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering, was the catalyst to Laroussi’s lifelong career focused on plasma, 特别是, 它在生物医学上的应用.
今年5月，在ODU工作了26年后，他将从巴顿工程技术学院(巴顿工程学院 and 技术)退休.
Laroussi’s academic and professional journey began over 4,500 miles away.
Laroussi grew up in Sfax, Tunisia, a historic city dating back to 849 A.D.
迦太基人, 罗马, 阿拉伯和法国的殖民统治及其距离西西里岛不到200海里的地理位置，使突尼斯成为伊斯兰和地中海文化的独特混合体. “太棒了，”他说. “那真的是一个很棒的地方.”
Summers were spent at the beach, and playing soccer.
Laroussi also spent many hours with his father, 哈比卜Laroussi, 戏剧艺术家, hanging out in cafes with other artists, 诗人, 作家和画家. “My dream was to become a movie director,他说.
His father, however, had a different suggestion.
“听, I know you're dreaming about show business, but let me tell you from my own experience, 这是非常, 很难做到,他父亲说。.
“You excel in math and physics,他说. “You may become a great scientist, you may not, but you’ll still have a job. You can work as a math teacher or as a physics teacher. Your kind of job is almost guaranteed because you'll be in education.”
拉鲁西在波尔多国立高等电子与无线电学院学习了两年, 法国. It was an intensive program – similar to an American master’s degree, 专注于工程和物理.
“首先，学生在申请工程学院之前必须接受两年的密集数学和物理预科教育,他解释道.
“当我们开始的时候, there were maybe 200 freshman students or so, 我们中只有30人幸存下来,他解释道. “If you succeed, then you can apply for a selective spot in engineering.”
After graduation, he decided he wanted something beyond the average working experience. 所以Laroussi, who only knew a few words of English, 报名参加了为期六周的ESL托福课程，希望能申请美国的博士课程.
他被田纳西大学诺克斯维尔分校录取，在那里学习模拟电子学.
Until he came across Alexeff’s lecture on plasma.
After the lecture, Laroussi asked to work in Alexeff's plasma lab. Despite lacking funding for research assistants, Laroussi volunteered to work for free due to his interest in the subject. Eventually, Alexeff secured funding and Laroussi joined the lab.
It was there that Laroussi honed in on his life-long love study of plasma, often referred to as the fourth state of matter.
Laroussi explained that plasma makes up more than 99% of the visible universe. “All the stars and all the intergalactic matter are in a plasma state.”
“整个宇宙——你可以把它想象成一个巨大的等离子体海洋，所有的行星都在这个海洋里游泳,他补充道.
在获得博士学位之后, Laroussi在德克萨斯大学继续他的研究了几年，然后加入了ODU新成立的研究所 应用研究中心 在纽波特纽斯, Virginia in 1998 and four years later, ODU’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.
在ARC, with funding from the Air Force Office of Scientific 研究, Laroussi continued his work on using cold plasma for bio-decontamination, research he started in the mid-1990s while at the University of Tennessee.
Laroussi开始质疑冷等离子体是否可以用于生物医学应用. The subject had never been approached. “I wanted to know what the effects of plasma would be on biological cells,他说. “It was completely out of curiosity.”
After exposing bacterial cells to plasma, he discovered that it efficiently killed bacteria but without damaging mammalian cells.
Laroussi’s research was published in 1996 in a journal called The IEEE 等离子体科学汇刊.
那篇论文现在被广泛认为是冷等离子体生物医学应用的种子, and 1996 is also considered the birth year of the new field of plasma medicine,他解释道.
“I had no idea that it would open up an entirely new field,他说. “事实上, 当时, 我的许多同事(等离子体物理学家)问我为什么要用等离子体来做“生物学”研究. 直到2003年，他们才意识到这也许是他们应该涉足的领域.”
All of the research led to Laroussi’s most popular invention: the 等离子体铅笔, 一种手持设备，使用冷等离子体安全地杀死细菌，而不会损伤组织.
Laroussi faced several hurdles in the development of the device. The main challenge was how to cool plasma, 一种极热的物质, to room temperature without harming human tissue.
He figured out how to keep the pencil cool by using a unique electric field, 哪个能快速开关. 这一过程在不加热周围气体的情况下为等离子体中的轻电子提供能量.
他说:“我工作了很多年，终于找到了正确的想法和方法。.
For Laroussi, the device also needed to be mobile. “If you want to apply the plasma to the patient, you cannot take a patient and put them in a plasma chamber,他解释道. “我想要一种医生可以用来治疗伤口或病变或牙科应用的手持设备. So, it needed to be some sort of hand-held pen or pencil-like device.”
Laroussi’s plasma pencil was featured in National Geographic, the 历史 Channel and the Smithsonian Channel. 媒体大肆宣传该设备的杀菌潜力，以及在牙科和皮肤科的其他可能用途. 2006年，拉鲁西和等离子铅笔还登上了ODU的研究杂志《bet8九州登录入口》(Quest).
由于他在低温等离子体物理学方面的成就以及在生物医学应用方面的开创性成就，Laroussi被授予2012年优异奖, the highest technical award given by the IEEE Nuclear and Plasma Sciences Society. 他还因在低温等离子体射流物理学及其医学应用方面的开创性贡献而被提升为美国物理学会会员.
到21世纪初，冷等离子体才刚刚开始在生物医学领域发挥作用. At the 2003 国际 Symposium on Plasma Chemistry in Sicily, Laroussi应邀向近2000名与会者发表了关于他的研究应用的演讲.
In 2005, 应用物理快报, a peer-reviewed scientific journal published by the American Institute of Physics, featured Laroussi’s research on their cover.
他继续教学，并在研究期刊和会议论文集上发表了近200篇文章. In addition, he co-authored two books, including the 有史以来的第一本书 关于血浆医学的话题.
在退休后, Laroussi将继续出版专业作品，并继续创作诗歌和短篇小说——主要是关于他在突尼斯的童年. His wife also has a few home projects for him to work on.
Despite the success in his career, Laroussi is most proud of his family. “我认为我和我妻子最大的成就之一就是让我们的孩子成长为好公民,他说. “And we were able to get them through college without student loans.”
在专业方面，他为自己在生物医学应用中使用冷等离子体的作用感到自豪. “在过去的十年里，我在ODU的大部分努力都是为了癌症的应用，”他说.
等离子体铅笔已经发展了很长时间，其他科学家也设计了自己的铅笔——现在它们被称为低温等离子体射流. Today, there are institutes and centers dedicated to cold plasma research worldwide.
“大多数科学家, 我们只是在尽我们所能做最好的科学研究，推动科学知识的发展,他说. “It’s more than enough if you do a good job, 教育很多学生，让他们成为优秀的科学家，发表好的科学成果，让人们从中受益.”
Laroussi has great hopes for the future of cold plasma. 他列举了当代在癌症试验、伤口愈合、皮肤病学和兽医护理方面的应用. 他还认为冷血浆可以作为化疗和手术的辅助疗法.
“冷等离子体，你可以把它看作是医生军械库中的另一件武器，”他说. “There are so many therapies and so many challenges. And it's always good to have one more weapon that the doctor can use to help.”
Dr. Laroussi想要感谢几个对他的生活和学术生涯做出巨大贡献的人. 第一个, 他的父母(Habib和Manana Laroussi)和妻子(Nicole Mache Laroussi)无条件地支持他. 第二，他的导师. 这些是教授. Igor Alexeff (University of Tennessee, Knoxville) who got him into plasma physics and guided him early on; Dr. 罗伯特J. Barker (AFOSR) who believed in his ideas and funded much of his work; and Dr. 乌尔里希·科格尔沙茨(瑞士ABB公司)是一位杰出的等离子体科学家，他启发和鼓励了他. 最后, 他要感谢他所有的学生和合作者，他们在他的研究中发挥了至关重要的作用，并为其成功做出了巨大贡献.
