Stanley Pons

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Stanley Pons

Born 1943
Valdese, North Carolina[1]
Citizenship France[2]
Fields Electrochemistry
Institutions University of Utah
Doctoral advisor Martin Fleischmann[1]
Known for Work on cold fusion

Stanley Pons (born in 1943, Valdese, North Carolina) is a French electrochemist known for his work with Martin Fleischmann on cold fusion in the 1980s and '90s. The two met while Pons was a graduate student in Professor Alan Bewick's group at the University of Southampton where he earned his PhD degree in 1978.

Contents

[edit] Cold fusion

On March 23, 1989, while Pons was the chairman of the chemistry department at the University of Utah,[3] he and Fleischmann announced the experimental production of "N-Fusion" which was quickly labeled by the press as cold fusion[4] — a result previously thought to be unattainable. After a short period of public acclaim, hundreds of scientists attempted to reproduce the effects but generally failed.[5] Those that failed to reproduce the claim attacked the pair for fraudulent,[5][6] sloppy[5][7][8] and unethical work,[5] incomplete[7] unreproducible[1] and inaccurate[1] results, erroneous interpretations.[9] Fleischmann and Pons remain convinced the effect is real,[citation needed] but many skeptics and scientists are not.

[edit] Later work

Pons moved to France in 1992, along with Fleischmann, to work at a Toyota-sponsored laboratory. The laboratory closed in 1998 after a ₤12 million research investment with no results. He has given up his US citizenship[10], and he is reported to have become a French citizen and to still be living in the south of France.[2]

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c d Taubes, Gary (1993). Bad science: the short life and weird times of cold fusion. New York: Random House. pp. 6. ISBN 0-394-58456-2. 
  2. ^ a b Voss, D (1999-03-01). "What Ever Happened to Cold Fusion". Physics World. http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/print/1258. Retrieved 2008-05-01. 
  3. ^ William J. Broad (1989-05-09). "Brilliance and Recklessness Seen in Fusion Collaboration". The New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=950DE4DA163CF93AA35756C0A96F948260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all. 
  4. ^ Fleischmann, M; Pons S & Hawkins M (1989). "Electrochemically induced nuclear fusion of deuterium". J. Electroanal. Chem. 261: 301. doi:10.1016/0022-0728(89)80006-3. 
  5. ^ a b c d Adil E. Shamoo, David B. Resnik (2003). Oxford University Press US. ed. Responsible Conduct of Research (2, illustrated ed.). p. 76, 97. ISBN 0195148460. 
  6. ^ Henry Krips, J. E. McGuire, Trevor Melia (1995). University of Pittsburgh Press. ed. Science, Reason, and Rhetoric (illustrated ed.). pp. xvi. ISBN 0822939126. 
  7. ^ a b Bart Simon (2002). Rutgers University Press. ed. Undead Science: Science Studies and the Afterlife of Cold Fusion (illustrated ed.). p. 119. ISBN 0813531543. 
  8. ^ Michael B. Schiffer, Kacy L. Hollenback, Carrie L. Bell (2003). University of California Press. ed. Draw the Lightning Down: Benjamin Franklin and Electrical Technology in the Age of Enlightenment (illustrated ed.). pp. 207. ISBN 0520238028. 
  9. ^ Thomas F. Gieryn (1999). University of Chicago Press. ed. Cultural Boundaries of Science: Credibility on the Line (illustrated ed.). pp. http://books.google.com/books?id=GljD3CHbDx0C&pg=PA204 204]. ISBN 0226292622. 
  10. ^ Weinberger, Sharon (2004-11-21). "Warming Up to Cold Fusion". Washington Post: W22. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A54964-2004Nov16.html.  (page 2 of online version)

[edit] External links


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