Dr. Stanley Pons, Co-Discoverer of Cold Fusion Photo: S. Krivit

Excerpt from The Rebirth of Cold Fusion
Copyright 2004 S.B. Krivit

B. Stanley Pons

Pons has remained outside of the public view for the last half-decade. An independently wealthy member of a family in the textile business, he had the rare opportunity to pursue whatever professional opportunity he might choose. He grew up in Valdese, a small town in North Carolina. The town was started by a religious sect called the Waldenses, pre-Reformation Christians from Northern Italy and southeastern France. Pons, a member of the sect, now lives in southern France.

His childhood interest in chemistry became the driving force in his life. After 10 years in his family's business, Pons felt unfulfilled and missed the challenges of academic pursuits that he had begun as a Ph.D. student with Professor Harry Mark at the University of Michigan in 1965. He had abandoned that pursuit for personal reasons in 1967 (only a few months before he was to receive his Ph.D.). Mark alerted Pons to the fact that Southampton University was one of the top schools in the world for electrochemistry. After some introductions by Mark on behalf of Pons, he was admitted to the graduate program there in 1976. Pons met Fleischmann for the first time on his arrival in England. Because Pons wanted to remain in the particular field of electrochemistry that he had begun at Michigan (spectro-electrochemistry), Fleischmann recommended that he join the research group of Professor Alan Bewick, who was very active in that research area.

Once awarded his Ph.D., Pons held several academic posts before ending up in 1983 at the University of Utah, where in 1988 he became head of the chemistry department. Pons has published widely in the academic literature, having written or co-written more than 200 scientific papers.

Fleischmann shared with Pons not only a fascination with electrochemistry but also the joys of culinary experimentation. They were known for creating marvelous feasts in the kitchen of Pons' home when Fleischmann came to visit. They also enjoyed skiing and hiking in the Utah mountains, and it was out of this cordial relationship one day on a hike up Utah's Mill Creek Canyon that the two began asking the "what if" questions that eventually led to their world-famous discovery.