Eric Lerner - FFS Science Advisor
Eric Lerner, the former Executive Director of the Focus Fusion Society, has stepped down from that role as of September 22, 2009, and is now one of our Science Advisors. Eric is the President of Lawrenceville Plasma Physics (LPP).
Eric is the author of The Big Bang Never Happened, published in 1991 by Random House, and now in a Vintage paperback edition.
He has been an independent researcher in plasma physics since 1979, and has become internationally known for his studies linking cosmic plasma phenomena and laboratory fusion devices, especially the dense plasma focus.
He has developed original theories of quasars, large scale structure, the microwave background and the origin of light elements all based on the plasma cosmology approach, which is an alternative to the Big Bang theory. This work has been presented at international conferences and published in the Astrophysical Journal, Astrophysics and Space Sciences and other scientific journals.
In 1986, Lerner outlined a new theory of quasars that did not require black holes, describing quasars as a magnetic self-compression process similar to that occurring in the plasma focus. In effect, the plasmoid in the plasma focus is a tiny scale model of a quasar.
In the course of this work, Lerner developed a quantitative theoretical model of the plasma focus which was consistent with all then-available data.
The next year, he showed, in proposals to the Department of Energy, how this new theory indicated that the plasma focus could burn advanced fuels, especially hydrogen-boron, and developed the theoretical framework for describing the effect of differing filling gases on the plasma focus.
While the Department of Energy declined to fund this work, Lawrenceville Plasma Physics obtained small grants from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory for space applications. In 1994, Lerner and colleagues at the University of Illinois successfully tested some of the predictions of his theory using a small plasma focus device there.
In 2001, Lerner and colleagues at Texas A&M University successfully achieved ion and electron energies equivalent to two billion degrees K, sufficient to fuse hydrogen-boron fuel. Two years later Lerner demonstrated that the high magnetic fields that can be produced in the plasma focus will greatly reduce the cooling of the plasma by x-rays form the electrons, and thus make achieving net energy production easier.
He is currently preparing for a new set of plasma focus experiments, including using hydrogen boron fuel, as well as continuing research in plasma cosmology.
In addition to research activity, Mr. Lerner has written widely on scientific and technological subjects, publishing over 600 articles in magazines such as IEEE Spectrum, Aerospace America, Discover and IBM Research.