John E Brandenburg
John E. Brandenburg | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Rochester, Minnesota, United States |
| Residence | Madison, WI, United States |
| Nationality | USA |
| Alma mater | Southern Oregon University; University of California, Davis |
| Known for | GEM (Gravity-Electro-Magnetism) unification theory; Mars nuclear hypothesis; MET plasma thruster |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Plasma physics, space propulsion |
John E. Brandenburg is an American theoretical plasma physicist known for his work on space propulsion and magnetic confinement fusion, his GEM (Gravity-Electro-Magnetism) field unification theory, and his controversial hypothesis that ancient nuclear explosions occurred on the planet Mars.
Biography
Brandenburg was born in Rochester, Minnesota, and grew up in Medford, Oregon. He received a BA in physics, with a minor in mathematics, from Southern Oregon University in 1975. He went on to the University of California, Davis, where he earned an MS in 1977 and a PhD in plasma physics in 1981, conducting his doctoral research through the university's extension program at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, where he studied theoretical plasma physics relevant to high-temperature plasmas and fusion.
Over his career Brandenburg has held positions with a range of high-technology and research organizations, including Mission Research Corporation, Sandia National Laboratories, Research Support Instruments, The Aerospace Corporation, and the Florida Space Institute at the University of Central Florida. He later worked at Orbital Technologies Corporation in Madison, Wisconsin, as a senior propulsion scientist, where his work included space plasma technologies, nuclear fusion, and advanced propulsion. He has also served as a consultant at Morningstar Applied Physics LLC and as a part-time instructor of astronomy, physics, and mathematics at Madison College and other institutions in the Madison, Wisconsin, area.
Work
Brandenburg is the principal inventor of the Microwave Electro-Thermal (MET) plasma thruster, a space propulsion concept that uses water as a propellant.
He is the originator of what he calls the GEM (Gravity-Electro-Magnetism) unification theory, which seeks to unify gravity with electromagnetism. He proposes that the theory could lead to advanced space propulsion and states that it predicts the value of the Newtonian gravitational constant "G".
Brandenburg is also known for a series of hypotheses concerning the planet Mars. Drawing on his interest in the so-called "Face on Mars" in the Cydonia region, he has argued that the Martian surface and atmosphere show evidence of past intelligent life and of large ancient nuclear explosions. He points in particular to isotopic traces such as xenon-129 as, in his interpretation, indicating natural nuclear events or nuclear detonations on Mars roughly 180 million years ago. These interpretations are not accepted by the mainstream scientific community, which attributes the relevant isotopic and surface features to natural planetary processes.
Books
- Dead Mars, Dying Earth (1999, with Monica Rix Paxson)
- Life and Death on Mars (2010)
- Beyond Einstein's Unified Field (2011)
- Death on Mars: The Discovery of a Planetary Nuclear Massacre (2014)
- The GEM Unification Theory
- Morningstar Pass (novel)