Ronald Mallett, scientist of "Time Travel"!

Ronald Mallett

*Ron Mallett was born on this date in 1945. He is an African-American scientist, inventor and educator.

From Roaring Spring, Pennsylvania, when Ronald L. Mallett was 10 years old, his father died, at age 33, of a massive heart attack. Inspired by a Classics Illustrated comic book version of H.G. Wells' The Time Machine, Mallett resolved to travel back in time to save his father, which has become his life's dream. In 1973, he received a Ph.D. from Penn State University. Also that year, he received the Graduate Assistant Award for Excellence in Teaching.

In 1975, he came to the University of Connecticut as an assistant professor, where he continues to work today. His research interests include general relativity, quantum gravity and time travel. In 1980, he was promoted to associate professor, and since 1987, he has been a professor. He has received two grants and many other distinctions. Mallett currently is a professor of physics in the University of Connecticut.

In 2000, Mallett first argued that the ring laser would produce a limited amount of frame-dragging which might be measured experimentally, saying: In Einstein's general theory of relativity, both matter and energy can create a gravitational field. This means that the energy of a light beam can produce a gravitational field. My current research considers both the weak and strong gravitational fields produced by a single continuously circulating unidirectional beam of light. In the weak gravitational field of a unidirectional ring laser, it is predicted that a spinning neutral particle, when placed in the ring, is dragged around by the resulting gravitational field. R. L. Mallett, "Weak gravitational field of the electromagnetic radiation in a ring laser", Phys. Lett. A 269, 214 (2000).

In 2007, his life story of pursuing a time machine was told on This American Life. His areas of study include Black Holes, General Relativity and Gravitation, Quantum Cosmology, Relativistic Astrophysics and Time Travel. He is a member of both the American Physical Society and the National Society of Black Physicists. Mallett’s plan for a time machine uses a ring laser and the theory of relativity.

Reference:
UConn.

Image by Robert Parkey