Science/Engineering/Technical forums

Hello Everyone,

My name is Dr. Matt Moynihan. I got a PhD working on subsystems for the National Ignition Facility in 2013. From 2006 to 2013 I was a PhD student working at the University of Rochester's Laboratory for Laser Energetics. My thesis was chaired by Riccardo Betti, winner of the 2012 Edward Teller award.

I started following the Polywell and fusors in 2008. At that time, I could not openly talk about my interest in this topic, as the Lab discouraged the IEC field as a "Waste of time".

Hence, I founded "The Polywell Blog" under the pen name John Smith in October 2009. I worked from 9 to 5 on my PhD and spent nights and weekends developing the blog.

To date I have created:
15 films on the polywell
36 Posts on fusors, polywells, fusion, ect..
2 dozen Wikipedia articles on fusion

Here are some of my other profiles:
https://www.linkedin.com/pub/dr-matthew ... 70/ab1/147
https://plus.google.com/u/0/+JohnSmithT ... lGuy/posts\
https://www.quora.com/profile/Matthew-J-Moynihan

Hello Dr. Matt, nice to see you here.

This statement in your post piques my curiosity:

I started following the Polywell and fusors in 2008. At that time, I could not openly talk about my interest in this topic, as the Lab discouraged the IEC field as a "Waste of time".

Care to elaborate? Are you at liberty to divulge? Or are you still under some kind of employment related "gag order" (using the term loosely) ?

I always find such statements curious, since they seem to reflect a certain, hmm... rigidity of thinking? ... in a realm that would seem to demand as much flexibility and open mindedness as frail human psyches can muster.

A "waste of time." Did the proponents of this conclusion ever substantiate the claim?

--P

You wouldn't be the same "John Smith" who has made a few relatively intelligent comments on my youtube stuff, would you?