Michael Charles Harold McKubre is an electrochemist involved with

cold fusion Cold fusion is a hypothesized type of nuclear reaction that would occur at, or near, room temperature. It would contrast starkly with the "hot" fusion that is known to take place naturally within stars and artificially in hydrogen bombs and p ...

energy research. McKubre was the director of the Energy Research Center at

SRI International SRI International (SRI) is an American nonprofit scientific research institute and organization headquartered in Menlo Park, California. The trustees of Stanford University established SRI in 1946 as a center of innovation to support economic d ...

in 1998. He is a native of New Zealand.

Education

McKubre completed two degrees at

Victoria University of Wellington Victoria University of Wellington ( mi, Te Herenga Waka) is a university in Wellington, New Zealand. It was established in 1897 by Act of Parliament, and was a constituent college of the University of New Zealand. The university is well know ...

, a

Master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

in 1972, titled ''A Study of the Frequency Domain Induced Polarisation Effects Displayed by Clay and by Cation Exchange Resin, Model Soil Systems'', followed by a

PhD PHD or PhD may refer to: * Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification Entertainment * '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series * ''Piled Higher and Deeper'', a web comic * Ph.D. (band), a 1980s British group ** Ph.D. (Ph.D. albu ...

in 1976 on membrane polarisation effects in simulated rock systems.

Career

From 1989 to 2002, he researched cold fusion at SRI International. Unlike other researchers in the same field, he obtained mainstream funding during all his research: first from the

Electric Power Research Institute EPRI, is an American independent, nonprofit organization that conducts research and development related to the generation, delivery, and use of electricity to help address challenges in the energy industry, including reliability, efficiency, affor ...

, then from the Japanese government, and in 2002 he had funding from the U.S. government.Interview of McKubre and Beaudette, by

KUER-FM KUER-FM (90.1 Hertz, MHz) is a public broadcasting, public radio station in Salt Lake City, Salt Lake City, Utah. Owned by the University of Utah, its studios are located in the Eccles Broadcast Center on the University of Utah campus, while its ...

from

University of Utah The University of Utah (U of U, UofU, or simply The U) is a public research university in Salt Lake City, Utah. It is the flagship institution of the Utah System of Higher Education. The university was established in 1850 as the University of De ...

audio file
, 2002-11-27 In January 1992 a cold fusion cell exploded in an SRI lab. One of McKubre's collaborators was killed and three people including McKubre were wounded. McKubre still has pieces of glass embedded in his side. Subsequent experiments were done behind bulletproof glass. In 2004 he and other cold fusion researchers asked the

United States Department of Energy The United States Department of Energy (DOE) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government that oversees U.S. national energy policy and manages the research and development of nuclear power and nuclear weapons in the United Stat ...

(DOE) to give a new review to the field of cold fusion, and he co-authored a report with all the available experimental and theoretical evidence since the 1989 review. The 2004 review concluded that "while significant progress has been made in the sophistication of

calorimeter A calorimeter is an object used for calorimetry, or the process of measuring the heat of chemical reactions or physical changes as well as heat capacity. Differential scanning calorimeters, isothermal micro calorimeters, titration calorimete ...

s since the review of this subject in 1989, the conclusions reached by the reviewers today are similar to those found in the 1989 review." As of 2010, he was still making experiments with palladium cells at SRI International, and collaborates with the ENEA laboratory, where the most reliable palladium is being produced. McKubre more recently took part as one of the 22 physicists of the Steorn "jury".

Selected publications

* (manuscript) Paper listing the available experimental evidence of cold fusion.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:McKubre, Michael New Zealand scientists SRI International people Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Cold fusion Electrochemists Victoria University of Wellington alumni