Registration Opens for ICCF-18 at the University of Missouri

The 18th International Conference on Cold Fusion will be held on July 21-27th at the University of Missouri, in Columbia, Missouri, and registration for the conference is opened on March 15th.

The theme listed on the main conference page is “Applying the Scientific Method to Understanding Anomalous Heat Effects: Opportunities and Challenges.” MU is an appropriate host for this conference, being the home of the newly-funded Sidney Kimmel Institute for Nuclear Renaissance (SKINR)

In the welcome message, Dr. Robert Duncan, Vice Chancellor for Research at MU states:

There have been great advances in this discipline over the last five years by research labs and private institutions around the world, and this work will be explored at ICCF-18. The Naval Research Lab (NRL), and many other excellent laboratories have confirmed that the excess heat effects reported by Fleischmann and Pons are real, and roughly one thousand times larger than can be attributed to a chemical process. Other phenomena, such as transmutation and nuclear process of geologic origin, remain at the forefront of current inquiry. There have also been developments and confirmations of nuclear process in other condensed matter systems, and many of these reports come from outside the traditional ICCF Community. For example, NASA, using its FERMI gamma burst satellite has confirmed antimatter ejections from major thunderstorms many hundreds of times. In the past, we have seen the development of pyro-electric hydrogen fusion at UCLA, and the development of piezo-electric hydrogen fusion continues at MU today. Clearly, condensed matter nuclear science is undergoing a renaissance.

The conference web site provides information regarding schedule, registration, accommodations, tours, and a call for papers.

One of the more interesting aspects of the web site is the outline for the tour of the SKINR where some of the research focuses of the institute are listed:

The seven collaborative scientific groups within the SKINR matrix include:

  • High Intensity Ions Bombardment — Dr. John Gahl-Lead.
  • Low intensity Ions Bombardment and High Pressure Shock ways on Gas Loaded targets — Dr. Scott Kovaleski-Lead.
  • Development of Nano Structures on Metallic lattices- Dr.Shubhra Gangopadhyay — Lead.
  • Charged Nano Particles suspension- Dr. Kattesh Katti – Lead.
  • Neutron Scattering employing the MU Research Reactor (MURR) of loaded targets — Dr. Helmut Kaiser-Lead.
  • High Pressure Gas Loading — Dr. Peter Pfeifer-Lead.
  • Gas Loading Thermal Shock and Neutron Diamond detectors — Dr. Mark Prelas-Lead.

It looks like it should be an interesting conference, and I would expect there will be decent attendance. Rob Duncan made quite a splash at last year’s NI Week in Austin, Texas where he made many positive remarks about the need to study the ‘anomalous heat effect’ with the strict application of the scientific method, and is turning out to be quite a mover and shaker in the academic community when it comes to LENR.

UM ICCF-18 logo