Waves in plasmas: some historical highlights

To illustrate the development of some fundamental concepts in plasma waves, a number of experimental observations, going back over half a century, are reviewed. Particular attention is paid to the phenomena of dispersion, collisionfree damping, finite-Larmor-radius and cyclotron and cyclotron-harmonic effects, non-local response, and stochasticity. One may note not only the constructive interplay between observation and theory and experiment but also that major advances have come from each of the many disciplines that invoke plasma physics as a tool, including radio communication, astrophysics, controlled fusion, space physics, and basic research