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Bernard Haisch is a German-born American astrophysicist who has done research in solar-stellar astrophysics and stochastic electrodynamics. He has developed with Alfonso Rueda a speculative theory that the non-zero lowest energy state of the vacuum, as predicted by quantum mechanics, might provide a physical explanation for the origin of inertia, and might someday be used for spacecraft propulsion. Haisch has advocated the serious scientific study of phenomena outside the traditional scope of science and is known for his interest in the UFO phenomenon as well as a variety of other unorthodox topics.

Since 2002 Haisch has been involved with ManyOne Networks and related Digital Universe projects which aim to produce, among other things, a multimedia online encyclopedia. In 2006 Haisch published a popular book in which he attempted to reconcile modern scientific belief with traditional religious belief. He attributes his spiritual interests to his educational experience at the Latin School of Indianapolis (a high school affiliated with the Roman Catholic Church), and at the St. Meinrad Seminary and Archabbey.

Scientific career

Haisch was born in Stuttgart, Germany and earned a Ph.D. in astronomy from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1975 and thereafter spent three years as a postdoctoral fellow at the Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics at the University of Colorado in Boulder, Colorado.

Haisch has worked at the Solar & Astrophysics Laboratory at Lockheed Martin in Palo Alto, California and served as deputy director of the Center for Extreme Ultraviolet Astrophysics Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley. He has been a visiting scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Garching, Germany and at the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands. His main research from the mid 1970s until the late 1990s was high energy astrophysics, and specifically the ultraviolet and X-ray emissions from coronae and flares on the Sun and other late-type stars.

Haisch has published more than one hundred research papers on a variety of topics, many in prestigious journals such as Nature, Science, Physical Review, Astrophysical Journal, and Annalen der Physik. He also served for ten years as an editor of the Astrophysical Journal.

In the 1990's Haisch and Alfonso Rueda developed a "quantum vacuum inertia" hypothesis responsible for mass. The inertialess "SHARP drive" in Arthur C. Clarke's 3001: The Final Odyssey was named for Andrei Sakharov, Haisch, Rueda, and Harold E. Puthoff.

Haisch is a former editor-in-chief of the Journal of Scientific Exploration.

In addition to papers in mainstream journals and conference proceedings, Haisch has also published papers in Science & Spirit magazine and the Journal of Noetic Sciences, a parapsychological journal published by the Institute of Noetic Sciences.

Other ventures

California Institute for Physics and Astrophysics

In 1999 Haisch founded the California Institute for Physics and Astrophysics in Palo Alto, California, an organization mainly devoted to the study of the electromagnetic quantum vacuum and funded by private philanthropic money. The institute formerly employed five full-time physicists doing research on string theory, general relativity and stochastic electrodynamics. Haisch served as the institute's director from 1999 until 2002.

UFO Skeptic

Haisch has also created a website called UFO Skeptic, which promotes the investigation of the UFO phenomenon by professional scientists.

Digital Universe

In 2002 Haisch became Chief Science Officer of ManyOne Networks. Since 2004 he also served as president of the now defunct Digital Universe Foundation, which, among other things, aimed to create a peer-reviewed alternative to English Misplaced Pages, seeking to provide a comprehensive and reliable account of current mainstream scientific theory, evidence, and belief.

Publications

• Haisch, Bernard (2006). The God Theory: Universes, Zero-point Fields, And What's Behind It All. York Beach, ME: Red Wheel/Weiser Books. ISBN 1-57863-374-5.

• Haisch, B.; Strong, K.T.; Rodono, M. (1991). "Flares on the Sun and other stars". Annual Review of Astronomy & Astrophysics. 29: 275–324. Bibcode:1991ARA&A..29..275H. doi:10.1146/annurev.aa.29.090191.001423.
• Haisch, B.; Schmitt, J.H.M.M.; Fabian, A.C. (1992). "Disappearance of coronal X-ray emission in stars with cool dense winds". Nature. 360 (6401): 239. Bibcode:1992Natur.360..239H. doi:10.1038/360239a0.
• Haisch, B.; Antunes, A.; Schmitt, J.H.M.M. (1995). "Solar-like M-class X-ray flares on Proxima Centauri observed by the ASCA satellite". Science. 268 (5215): 1327–9. Bibcode:1995Sci...268.1327H. doi:10.1126/science.268.5215.1327. PMID 17778978. S2CID 46660210.
• Haisch, B.; Rueda, A.; Puthoff, H. E. (1994). "Inertia as a zero-point-field Lorentz force". Physical Review A. 49 (2): 678–694. Bibcode:1994PhRvA..49..678H. doi:10.1103/PhysRevA.49.678. PMID 9910287.
• Haisch, Bernard; Rueda, Alfonso (1998). "Contribution to inertial mass by reaction of the vacuum to accelerated motion". Found. Phys. 28 (7): 1057–1108. arXiv:physics/9802030. Bibcode:1998physics...2030R. doi:10.1023/A:1018893903079. S2CID 15176550.
• Haisch, Bernard; Rueda, Alfonso (21 September 1999). "Toward an Interstellar Mission: Zeroing in on the Zero-Point-Field Inertia Resonance". AIP Conference Proceedings. 504: 1047–1053. arXiv:physics/9909043. doi:10.1063/1.1290904. S2CID 118870412.
• Haisch, Bernard; Rueda, Alfonso; Dobyns, York (2001). "Inertial mass and the quantum vacuum fields". Annalen der Physik. 10 (5): 393–414. arXiv:gr-qc/0009036. Bibcode:2001AnP...513..393H. doi:10.1002/1521-3889(200105)10:5<393::AID-ANDP393>3.0.CO;2-Z.
• Haisch, Bernard (2001). "Freeing The Scientific Imagination". Noetic Sciences Review. 57: 24.
• Haisch, Bernard; Rueda, Alfonso (2005). "Gravity and the Quantum Vacuum Inertia Hypothesis". Annalen der Physik. 14 (8): 479–498. arXiv:gr-qc/0504061. Bibcode:2005AnP...517..479R. doi:10.1002/andp.200510147. S2CID 14283455.
• Deardoff, J.; Haisch, B.; Puthoff, H. E. (2005). "Inflation-Theory Implications for Extraterrestrial Visitation" (PDF). Journal of the British Interplanetary Society. 58: 43–50. Bibcode:2005JBIS...58...43D.

References

1. Haisch, Bernard. "Dear Colleagues". ufoskeptic.org.
2. Matthews, Robert (February 4, 1994). "Inertia: Does Empty Space Put Up the Resistance?". Science. 263 (5147): 612–613. doi:10.1126/science.263.5147.612.
3. Powell, Corey S. (May 1994). "Unbearable Lightness". Scientific American. Vol. 270, no. 5. pp. 27–28. doi:10.1038/scientificamerican0594-27.
4. Levin, Yefim S. (January 27, 2009). "Inertia as a zero-point-field force: Critical analysis of the Haisch-Rueda-Puthoff inertia theory". Physical Review A.
5. Clarke, Arthur C. (1997). 3001: The Final Odyssey. pp. 64, 255–256.
6. Gilster, Paul (2004). Centauri Dreams: Imagining and Planning Interstellar Exploration. p. 174.
7. Haisch, Bernard; Sims, Marsha (2004). "A Retrospective on the Journal of Scientific Exploration" (PDF). Journal of Scientific Exploration. 18 (1).

Further Reading

• Haisch, Bernard (July 24, 2006). "Why Wiki can drive you wacky". Los Angeles Times.

• 21st-century American physicists
• American astrophysicists
• Living people
• Ufologists
• German deists
• American deists