Brian Ahern
Brian Ahern | |
|---|---|
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| Known for | Cold Fusion, Nanomagnetism, Ball Lightning |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Materials science, Physics |
Brian S. Ahern is an American materials scientist and physicist known for his research in Low Energy Nuclear Reactions (LENR), also called Cold Fusion, and for a theory connecting nanomagnetism and energy localization to anomalous excess-heat effects. He holds a PhD in materials science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and was co-inventor on one of the earliest patents related to cold fusion.
Biography
Ahern earned a PhD in materials science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where his academic interests included BCS theory and superconductivity. He spent roughly 17 years as a senior scientist in research and development for the United States Air Force, working at the Rome Laboratory at Hanscom Air Force Base. Over the course of his career he was credited as an inventor on more than two dozen patents. He is associated with Hydroelectron Ventures Inc.
Scientific contributions
Ahern's work focuses on the behavior of nanoscale particles and their possible role in producing anomalous heat. He has argued that magnetism exhibits amplified effects in the approximately 3 to 12 nanometer size range, and he has proposed that this "amplified nanomagnetism," together with energy localization and anharmonic collective oscillations, could account for the excess energy reported in cold fusion and LENR experiments. His nanofusion concept involves dispersions of nanosize particles containing roughly 1,000 to 3,000 atoms, loaded with hydrogen or deuterium and stimulated by electrical pulses.
In 2012 he prepared an in-depth report on nano-scale cold fusion for the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI). He later joined the Martin Fleischmann Memorial Project as a researcher and experimentalist, contributing engineered nanoparticles to its work. In 2014 he was a featured lecturer at the MIT LENR Colloquium hosted by Mitchell Swartz and Peter Hagelstein, where he presented on the relationship between excess heat and nanomagnetism.
Patents
- Method of maximizing anharmonic oscillations in deuterated alloys (US Patent 5,411,654), filed 1993 and granted 1995, co-invented with Keith H. Johnson and Harry R. Clark Jr. and assigned to Hydroelectron Ventures Inc., MIT, and the U.S. Air Force. It is cited as among the first patents granted in the field of cold fusion.
- Amplification of energetic reactions (US Patent Application 2011/0233061), with a priority date of 2010.