The Plasma Accelerator Group was started in 1992 at the University of Southern California. The group began primarily as a theoretical and computational program providing support for experiments on plasma-based accelerators. It was about this time that the first electron was accelerated to just over 1 MeV in the beat wave accelerator concept at UCLA. Since then, experiments around the world have "raised the bar" for plasma accelerators to 1 GeV energies and kiloAmps of current in distances of only millimeters.

Currently, the USC plasma accelerator group is advancing plasma accelerator research on several fronts: Lead role in the E-167 (a plasma wakefield accelerator experiment at SLAC with UCLA to reach 14 GeV energy gain in a meter long plasma), Theoretical and computational support for near term laser-driver experiments, and Theoretical and computational modeling of beam quality and efficiency issues in plasma acceleration. Beginning in 1995, the group expanded to include experimental as well as theoretical work on novel radiation sources. This work has led to exciting milestones in short pulse and tunable microwave production. Current research is aimed at developing DARC source and Cherenkov Wake sources capable of GWatt powers at THz frequency.