Peter L. Hagelstein is an associate professor of electrical engineering at the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...

(MIT), affiliated with the Research Laboratory of Electronics (RLE). Hagelstein received a B.S. and M.S. in 1976 and Ph.D. in electrical engineering in 1981, from MIT. Hagelstein began his career at the

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) is a Federally funded research and development centers, federally funded research and development center in Livermore, California, United States. Originally established in 1952, the laboratory now i ...

, working on high-energy laser and plasma physics from 1981 to 1985. While working in the

, he pioneered the work that later produced the first X-ray laser, which would later become important for the US

Strategic Defense Initiative The Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) was a proposed missile defense system intended to protect the United States from attack by ballistic nuclear missiles. The program was announced in 1983, by President Ronald Reagan. Reagan called for a ...

, popularly referred to as the "Star Wars" program. His work on X-ray lasers was honored with the

Ernest Orlando Lawrence Award The Ernest Orlando Lawrence Award was established in 1959 in honor of Ernest Lawrence, a scientist who helped elevate United States, American physics to the status of world leader in the field. Lawrence was the inventor of the cyclotron, an parti ...

in 1984. Following this time, he took up an academic appointment at MIT in 1986. In 1989, he started investigating

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 nuclear fusion, "hot" fusion that is known to take place naturally within Main sequence, stars and artific ...

(also called ''low-energy nuclear reactions'') with the hope of making a breakthrough similar to the X-ray laser. In the period between 1989 and 2004, the field became discredited in the eyes of many scientists. Hagelstein continued his research activity in the field, chairing the Tenth

International Conference on Cold Fusion The International Conference on Cold Fusion (ICCF) (also referred to as Annual Conference on Cold Fusion in 1990-1991 and mostly as International Conference on Condensed Matter Nuclear Science since 2007) is an annual or biennial conference on the ...

in 2003. On November 14, 2017, he gave a 90 minute presentation reviewing relevant experiments and describing possible mechanisms. Following the cold fusion episode, his primary research has shifted to solid-state physics, including the development of new

thermoelectric materials Thermoelectric materials show the thermoelectric effect in a strong or convenient form. The ''thermoelectric effect'' refers to phenomena by which either a temperature difference creates an electric potential or an electric current creates a te ...

. In addition, he is active in education, writing a textbook on quantum and statistical mechanics.

References

Bibliography

Hagelstein's profile at MIT
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hagelstein, Peter L. Living people MIT School of Engineering faculty Cold fusion American electrical engineers Year of birth missing (living people) MIT School of Engineering alumni