Vice Chancellor for Research Seminar Series

Excess Heat and Particle Tracks from Deuterium-loaded Palladium - May 29, 2009

Speaker Biographies

Robert Duncan

Robert Duncan received his bachelor's degree in physics from MIT in 1982 and his doctorate in physics from the University of California-Santa Barbara in 1988. He has served as a professor of physics and astronomy at the University of New Mexico (UNM), as a visiting associate on the physics faculty at Caltech, as a joint associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at UNM, and as the associate dean for research in the College of Arts and Sciences at UNM. As an expert in low temperature physics, Dr. Duncan has served as principal investigator on a fundamental physics research program for NASA. As the Director of the New Mexico Consortium’s Institute for Advanced Studies at Los Alamos National Laboratory he has worked to fund major conferences and summer schools in quantitative biology, information science and technology, energy and environment, and astrophysics and cosmology. To date, Duncan has received more than $8 million in funding from various sources on research efforts that he leads as PI. He joined the University of Missouri as the Vice Chancellor for Research in August, 2008, accepting responsibility for MU’s research enterprise, including more $250 million per year in contracts and grants, and MU’s major research facilities, including USA’s largest research reactor in academia, multiple interdisciplinary research centers, and associated economic development and technology incubation efforts. Dr. Duncan is a Fellow and life member of the American Physical Society. He was named the Gordon and Betty Moore Distinguished Scholar in the Division of Physics, Mathematics, and Astronomy at Caltech in 2004, and he chaired the Instrumentation and Measurement Topical Group for the American Physical Society in 2002, and the International Symposium on Quantum Fluids and Solids in 2003.

Lawrence Forsley

Lawrence Forsley is president of JWK International Corporation. He has been a long time collaborator and co-author with the US Navy SPAWAR-Pacific. Previously, he taught at the University of Rochester, where he was a group leader with the Laboratory for Laser Energetics engaged in inertial confinement fusion (ICF, or, laser fusion) in Rochester, NY. He was a consultant to the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory mirror fusion program, TMX-U, in Livermore, California; a visiting scientist on the ASDEX Tokamak at the Max Planck Institut fur Plasmaphysik in Garching, Germany and initiated a program in the basic physics of sonoluminescence at the US Naval Research Laboratory. For the past several years he has worked closely with Drs. Pam Mosier-Boss, Stan Szpak and Frank Gordon at SPAWAR where he has been developing and using charged particle and neutron diagnostics, and gamma ray detectors. These diagnostics temporally, spatially and spectrally resolve the nuclear emanations from palladium co-deposition experiments with high resolution cryogenically cooled germanium gamma ray detection, CR-39 solid state nuclear track detectors and witness materials. He is an author or co-author of over 30 peer-reviewed papers, book chapters, and conference presentations. In his spare time he's developed and deployed intelligent ground-based seismic sensors and used space-based Differential Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (DInSAR) to monitor ground deformation. He is co-inventor on several patents.

Pamela Mosier-Boss

Dr. Pamela Mosier-Boss is an analytical chemist in the Advanced Systems and Applied Sciences Division of SSC-Pacific. She has been involved in research on SCAPS, battery systems, metal hydrides, conducting polymers, piezoelectric ceramics, drag reducing polymers, anti-fouling polymers, SERS to detect anions and VOCs, and phage to detect bacteria. She received her Ph.D. in analytical chemistry from Michigan State University and B.S. degrees in biology and chemistry from Kent State University. She has authored/co-authored more than 60 publications including more than 40 refereed publications, authored/co-authored more than 40 conference papers, and authored/co-authored more than 12 patents and patent disclosures.

Frank Gordon

Frank E. Gordon is the Head, Research and Applied Sciences Department, US Navy SSC-Pacific. A native of Kansas, Dr. Frank E. Gordon received his bachelor's of science degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Kansas in 1967, and a doctorate in engineering from the University of Kansas in 1971 with the support of a fellowship from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Dr. Gordon began his federal service in March 1971 as a mechanical engineer at the Naval Undersea Center (NUC), now the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center, San Diego (SSC San Diego). In 1973, Dr. Gordon was selected to head the Test Division where test and evaluation operations were conducted on a number of Navy weapon systems. In 1979, Dr. Gordon was appointed the Navy's strategist for Undersea Warfare Weaponry Technology Strategy. He became the head of the ASW department in 1986, and was selected to the Senior Executive Service in 1987. In May 1992, Dr. Gordon became the executive director of the Naval Command, Control and Ocean Surveillance Center, In-Service Engineering West Coast Division (NISE West), headquartered in San Diego, with detachments and facilities throughout the Pacific. Dr. Gordon became head of the Research & Applied Sciences Department in March 1996. In this position he supervises 430 civilian employees and manages a budget of over $270 Million. Dr. Gordon has authored and co-authored a number of publications and holds four patents jointly with co-inventors. His community activities include serving as a member of the Mechanical Engineering Advisory Board at the University of Kansas. He and his wife, Lynda, have two adult children.

Mark Prelas

Mark Prelas is a professor of engineering at the University of Missouri Nuclear Science and Engineering Institute. His research interests include chemical, biological and nuclear sensors; direct energy conservation; energy storage; wide band-gap electronic materials; and material synthesis. He has published more than 200 articles and given more than 120 presentations at various international conferences. In 2008, he was awarded the Frederick Joliot-Curie Medal for his contributions to the physics of power engineering. He is currently an advisor on chemical and biological sensors for the U.S. Semiconductor Corporation.

David Nagel

David Nagel is a research professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at George Washington University. He is an expert on low-energy nuclear reactions. His research interests include the development of micro- and nano-technologies, and wireless sensor systems, cold fusion, and MicroElectroMechanical Systems. He has published more than 150 articles and serves as a micro- and nano-technology consultant to government and industry.  

Michael McKubre

Michael McKubre began his undergraduate studies at George Washington University and completed his B.Sc., M.Sc. (with honors) and doctorate in chemistry and physics at Victoria University, Wellington, New Zealand. During his Ph.D. studies he taught undergraduate and graduate courses in Electrochemistry, Surface Chemistry and Electronics. On completing his Ph.D., Dr. McKubre was granted a two year Postdoctoral Research Fellowship at Southampton University, England. There he undertook research into the electrochemical kinetic processes involved with flow-through electrochemical reactors; researched, designed, constructed and employed a novel AC impedance device to characterize flow-through reactors; assisted with the supervision of Ph.D. and M.Sc. students working on related and derivative projects. Dr. McKubre joined SRI as an electrochemist in 1978 and was appointed manager of the electrochemistry program in 1982. He is an internationally recognized expert in the study of electrochemical kinetics and was one of the original pioneers in the use of ac impedance methods for the evaluation of electrode kinetic processes. Dr. McKubre also introduced harmonic impedance spectroscopy (HIS) as a tool to measure rates and mechanisms of electrochemical reactions. These techniques have found wide application in the fields of battery science, fuel cells, corrosion, electrochemical sensors, hydrogen production and storage. In the last decade and a half as Director of the Energy Research Center, Dr. McKubre has applied himself to the discovery and application of potential new energy sources, specifically those associated with the deuterium/palladium system. He is recognized internationally in this field as an expert in the areas of PdH and PdD electrochemistry and calorimetry and has directed research and undertaken consulting in this area for the Electric Power research Institute (EPRI), the Japanese Ministry of Industry and Technology Innovation (MITI), the Defense Advanced Research Program Agency (DARPA), the US Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) and Office of Naval Research (ONR), and Italian National Energy Agency (ENEA). In 2004 Dr. McKubre helped initiate and complete a review by the US Department of Energy (DoE) of “cold fusion” in collaboration with Profs. Peter Hagelstein (MIT) and David Nagel (GWU and ex NRL). Once dismissed as a mistake or misnomer, the emerging experimental evidence of lattice nuclear effects is now recognized as having significant potential energy and strategic significance. Dr. McKubre was co-chairman of the Third International Conference on Cold Fusion (ICCF-3) and has served on the International Advisory Committee (IAC) of the ICCF since it’s inception in 1990.

Peter Hagelstein

Professor Hagelstein attended MIT as an undergraduate (1972-1974) and as a graduate student (1974-1981) in the EE&CS department. He worked on laser modelocking for Bachelor's and Master's degree thesis projects. His PhD research involved the modeling and development of x-ray lasers, work that was carried out at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. His PhD thesis won the Hertz Foundation exceptional PhD thesis award. The Department of Energy awarded him the E. O. Lawrence award in 1984 for contributions to national defense, in response to the development of the x-ray laser. Hagelstein joined the faculty of MIT in the Fall of 1986, where he worked on table-top x-ray lasers. He received the APS award for Excellence in Research in the area of Plasma Physics for contributions to the development of the laboratory x-ray laser. Since 1989, Professor Hagelstein has pursued research on the Fleischmann-Pons effect. He was awarded the 2004 Preparata Medal from the International Society of Condensed Matter Nuclear Science. In recent years he has also been involved in the development of new thermal to electric conversion systems. At MIT, he has taught graduate courses on applied quantum and statistical mechanics, and numerical modeling.

Yeong Kim

Yeong E. Kim is a theoretical physicist and holds a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley. He was a post-doctoral fellow at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, a visiting staff member at Los Alamos National Laboratory, and a consultant for Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. He is currently a professor of physics at Purdue University. In addition, he is group leader of Purdue Nuclear and Many-Body Theory Group, and Director of the Purdue Center for Sensing Science and Technology. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society. His current research interests are in the areas of nuclear physics (nuclear fusion, nuclear astrophysics, applied neutron physics), condensed matter and nanoscale physics (quantum dots), atomic, molecular and optical physics (Bose-Einstein condensation, nonlinear dynamics), and sensing science and technology. He has published over 200 papers in professional journals. Additional details can be found at the web site: http://www.physics.purdue.edu/people/faculty/yekim.shtml

Edmund Storms

Edmund Storms obtained a Ph.D. in radiochemistry from Washington University (St. Louis) and retired from the Los Alamos National Laboratory after 34 years of service. His work there involved basic research in the field of high temperature chemistry as applied to materials used in nuclear power and propulsion reactors, including studies of the "cold fusion" effect. Over seventy reviewed publications and monographs resulted from this work as well as several books, all describing an assortment of material properties. After retiring from the LANL in 1991, he moved to Santa Fe, NM were he built a home and laboratory in which he has studied the subject. These studies have resulted in eighteen presentations to various conferences including the ACS and APS. In addition, twenty-three papers have been published including four complete scientific reviews of the field, one published in 1991, another in 1996 and 1998, and the latest in 2000. In May 1993, he was invited to testify before a congressional committee about the "cold fusion" effect. In 1998, Wired magazine honored him as one of the 25 people who is making a significant contribution to new ideas. Based on his experimental experience and a complete library of the literature on the subject, he wrote a book about low energy nuclear reaction that was published by World Scientific Publishing in September, 2007. He continues to study the phenomenon in his laboratory in Santa Fe.