Bogdan Maglich

Bogdan Castle Maglich (also spelled Maglic or Maglić) (August 5, 1928, Sombor, Yugoslavia – November 25, 2017, Newport Beach, California, USA) was an experimental nuclear physicist and the leading advocate of a purported non-radioactive aneutronic fusion energy source. Maglich built 4 models of Migma, devices producing fusion of deuterium atoms in colliding ion beams.

Bogdan Maglich

Education and academic work

Maglich received his Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Belgrade in 1951, his Master of Science degree from the University of Liverpool in 1955, and his Ph.D. in high-energy physics and nuclear engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1959.

Upon receiving his Ph.D., Maglich joined Dr. Louis Alvarez's research group at Lawrence Berkeley Lab. During this time, he, along with Fred Kirsten, invented the "sonic spark chamber", the first film-less spark chamber particle detector system.[1]

Maglich participated in the discovery of the omega meson, as described in Alvarez's Nobel Lecture:[2]

Although Bogdan Maglic originated the plan for this search, and pushed through the measurements by himself, he graciously insisted that the paper announcing the discovery should be co-authored by three of us who has developed the chamber, the beam, and the analysis program that made it possible.

Between 1963-67, he worked at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva, Switzerland. While conducting research at CERN, he invented the "missing mass spectrometer".[3] With this instrument, his team of French and Swiss physicists reported the discovery of seven mesons.

In 1967, Maglich joined the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania, as well as being visiting faculty at Princeton University. In 1969, he became Professor and Principal Investigator for High Energy Physics at Rutgers University. In 1974, he left academia to pursue his research in the private sector.

Early work

Maglich first rose to prominence in his field working on a team at the University of California's Lawrence Radiation Laboratory analyzing liquid hydrogen bubble chamber data from Berkeley's bevatron accelerator. The team, which also included Luis W. Alvarez, Dr. Arthur H Rosenfeld, and M.L. Stevenson, discovered the first solid experimental evidence for the existence of the ω meson resonance.[4] (In 1968, Luis Alvarez was awarded a Nobel Prize for this and related work.)

Maglich's contribution to this discovery led to him receiving the White House Citation from President John F. Kennedy and being named an honorary citizen in Switzerland by the President of the Swiss Confederation.

Toward the end of the 1960s, R. Macek and Maglich proposed "The Principle of Self Colliding Orbits" and the precetron, a self-colliding particle beam accelerator originally proposed for studying pion-pion collisions.[5] Shortly thereafter, in the early 1970s, the precetron design formed the basis for Maglich's "migmatron" concept of a self-colliding ion beam fusion reactor.[6]

Business ventures

In his attempts to raise funding for his migma research, Maglich has been associated with a string of business ventures. In 1974, he formed "MIGMA Institute of High Energy Fusion," Fusion Energy Corp.

From 1985-87, he was CEO and Principal Investigator of Aneutronic Energy Labs of United Sciences, Inc. at Princeton, a research firm also known as "AELabs." It was during this time that Maglich worked under a research grant from the United States Air Force to attempt to develop his migmatron concept into a compact power source for spacecraft with Bechtel Corp. From 1988-93, he was CEO of Advanced Physics Corporation, chaired by Glenn T. Seaborg.

In 1995, Maglich founded HiEnergy Microdevices, which later became HiEnergy Technologies, Inc., a developer and manufacturer of neutron-based bomb detection equipment based on his invention of "atometery".[7]

He continued to occupy various positions with that company until being terminated for cause. 16 months after Maglic's departure, HiEnergy Technologies declared bankruptcy in 2007.[8]

After leaving HiEnergy Technologies, Maglich became the Chief Technology Officer of California Science & Engineering Corporation (CALSEC).

Personal life

The son of a lawyer and elected member of the Yugoslav Royal Parliament, Maglich (at age 13) and his mother were imprisoned in a Croatian Ustaše (Nazi-affiliated) concentration camp for Serbs, but managed to escape.

Maglich has five children: Angelica (born 1989) and Aleksandra Maglich (born 1991), from a prior marriage to UCLA media artist Victoria Vesna; also Marko (born 1960), Ivanka (born 1961) and Roberta (born 1972).

References
  1. Maglić, B.C.; Kirsten, F.A. (1962). "Acoustic spark chamber". Nuclear Instruments and Methods. Elsevier BV. 17 (1): 49–59. doi:10.1016/0029-554x(62)90169-6. ISSN 0029-554X.
  2. Alvarez, LW (September 1969). "Nobel Lecture". Science. 165: 1071–91. Bibcode:1969Sci...165.1071A. doi:10.1126/science.165.3898.1071.
  3. Maglić, B.; Gosta, G. (1965). "A method for the search for unstable particles using Jacobian peaks in angular distribution". Physics Letters. Elsevier BV. 18 (2): 185–189. doi:10.1016/0031-9163(65)90707-9. ISSN 0031-9163.
  4. Maglić, B. C.; Alvarez, L. W.; Rosenfeld, A. H.; Stevenson, M. L. (1961-09-01). "Evidence for aT=0Three-Pion Resonance". Physical Review Letters. American Physical Society (APS). 7 (5): 178–182. doi:10.1103/physrevlett.7.178. ISSN 0031-9007.
  5. R. Macek and B. Maglich, "Precetron - a principle for optaining pion-pion and muon-muon collisions," Proceedings of 7th International Conference on High-Energy Accelerators, Yerevan, USSR, 27 Aug - 2 Sep 1969, pp 194-220.
  6. Maglić, Bogdan C.; Blewett, John P.; Colleraine, Anthony P.; Harrison, W. Craig (1971-10-04). "Fusion Reactions in Self-Colliding Orbits". Physical Review Letters. American Physical Society (APS). 27 (14): 909–912. Bibcode:1971PhRvL..27..909M. doi:10.1103/physrevlett.27.909. ISSN 0031-9007.
  7. Maglich, B.C. (October 26, 2005). "Birth of Atometery-Particle Physics Applied to Saving Human Lives". AIP Conf. Proc. 796: 431–38. doi:10.1063/1.2130207.
  8. HiEnergy Technologies, Inc. Announces Decision to Seek Bankruptcy Protection to Address Financial and Operational Challenges
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