Marthe Bacal received the degree of Docteur ès Sciences Physiques from the University of Paris, Orsay, France, in 1973 and joined Laboratoire de Physique des Milieux Ionisés, Ecole Polytechnique, Palaiseau, France, in 1971, as a Research Scientist and Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (C.N.R.S.), in 1981, while maintaining affiliation with Ecole Polytechnique, Palaiseau, France. In 1996 and 2000 she was an Invited Professor at the National Institue of Fusion Science, Toki, Japan. Her current research interests are physics of negative ion production, negative ion sources, ion thrusters, and plasma-surface interactions. She received the Foucault Prize of the French Physical Society in 1980 and is a Fellow of the American Physical Society.