Bernhardt Patrick John O’Mara Bockris (5 January 1923 – 7 July 2013)
University education
In 1940 Bockris began his scholarly education at Brighton Technical College which, in 1992, became the University of Brighton. Bockris wanted to study for a degree in Physics but this was not possible due to wartime staff shortages. Instead he took a two-year general degree in the natural sciences. In 1943, after a year of further study, he was accepted by Imperial College, London as a graduate student. He avoided conscription into the British armed forces due to his South African nationality. Despite these obstacles, Bockris finished the research for his thesis, Electrochemistry of Non-aqueous Solutions, in two years, and received his doctorate in September 1945.
Academic career
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Upon completion of his doctorate, at the age of 22, Bockris was immediately appointed to the faculty of Imperial College on the recommendation of Harry Emeléus. Over the course of the next eight years he supervised 28 graduate students with whom he co-authored a sufficient number of publications to qualify for his D.Sc., which he obtained in 1952. Among these students was Roger Parsons, a future fellow of the Royal Society, whom Bockris held in high regard. In 1975 he published a book on the subject. In 1982, at Texas A&M, he announced a "quantum leap" in his hydrogen-fuel technology through a "secret catalyst" that split water into hydrogen and oxygen even without the energy of sunlight. In 1984, he said he had found a material that facilitated complete conversion of sunlight to electricity. All of these "discoveries" were eventually attributed to basic errors in his research, although Bockris himself never acknowledged his mistakes.
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Cold fusion
Bockris performed a series of cold fusion experiments in the wake of the announcement in 1989 by Pons and Fleischmann that their electrolysis of heavy water had produced results consistent with nuclear fusion. Many groups attempted similar experiments: Bockris' research group was one of few to provide results that supported those of Pons and Fleischmann, reporting decisive evidence of tritium production. Their results were greeted with widespread skepticism. Gary Taubes wrote an editorial in Science suggesting that their cells might have been spiked with tritiated water. An academic tribunal at Texas A&M eventually ruled out fraud, declaring that intentionally spiked experiments gave different results. Bockris, seemingly inured to criticism,
Though his professional reputation declined after this episode, the International Society for Condensed Matter Nuclear Reactions continued to hold Bockris in high esteem, awarding him its Preparata Medal in 2012.
Transmutation
In 1993, Bockris claimed to be experimenting with the transmutation of elements, specifically of base metals into gold. The scientist received a degree of media attention for these extraordinary claims, to the extent that other academics at Texas A&M felt that the institution's reputation was suffering from the connection to the discredited "science" of alchemy. An editorial by Mike Epstein in the Journal of Scientific Exploration describes what happened next:
:A petition signed by 23 of the 28 distinguished professors at Texas A&M called on the university provost to strip Bockris of his title as distinguished professor. The petition follows a letter written by 11 full professors in the chemistry department (out of the department's 38 full professors) calling on Bockris to resign and remove the "shadow" he has cast over the department. The petition from the distinguished professors said "For a trained scientist to claim, or support anyone else's claim to have transmuted elements is difficult for us to believe and is no more acceptable than to claim to have invented a gravity shield, revived the dead or to be mining green cheese on the moon. We believe that Bockris' recent activities have made the terms 'Texas A&M' and 'Aggie' objects of derisive laughter throughout the world..."
Epstein's conclusion, however, was a defense of academic freedom:
In 1997, Bockris was awarded an Ig Nobel Prize in the field of Physics for his work in cold fusion and transmutation. The awardee declined to accept the trophy in person.
Honours and awards
- Médaille d’honneur, from the University of Louvain in Belgium, 1951.
- Breyer-Gutmann Medal, Australian Chemical Society, 1975.
- The Chemical Lecture Award, the Swedish Academy, 1979.
- Membership of Swedish Academy of Engineers as foreign member, 1979.
- The Faraday Medal of the Electrochemistry Group of the Royal Society of Chemistry, 1981
- Award of the Chemical Society of the USA for Developments of Modern Fuels, 1982.
- Award in Teaching Electrochemistry, Electrochemical Society, 1985.
- Honorary doctorate from the University of La Plata, Argentina, 1986.
- Honorary PhD of the University of Hokkaido, Japan, 1988.
- Member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences, 1992.
- Volta Medal in Physics associated with the Bicentenary of Volta, Pavia, Italy, 2000.
- Ig Nobel Prize in Physics, 1997
Publications
See also
- List of Ig Nobel Prize winners
- Timeline of hydrogen technologies