Biography:Salvatore Pais

Short description: American physicist, aerospace engineer, and inventor

Salvatore Pais
Born	Salvatore Cezar Pais
Occupation	Physicist, aerospace engineer, inventor
Academic background
Alma mater	Case Western Reserve University
Thesis	"Bubble generation under reduced gravity conditions for both co-flow and cross-flow configurations" (1999)
Doctoral advisor	Yasuhiro Kamotani Simon Ostrach
Academic work
Discipline	Physicist
Main interests	Physics of low gravity

Salvatore Cezar Pais is an American physicist, aerospace engineer, and inventor who works at the Naval Air Station Patuxent River. His patent applications on behalf of his employers have attracted international attention for their potential military and energy-producing applications, but also doubt about their feasibility, and speculation that they may be misinformation intended to mislead the United States' strategic adversaries about the direction of United States defense research.

Education and doctoral research

Diagram of a reduced-gravity manoeuvre known as parabolic flight of the type Pais undertook during his PhD research. Source: NASA

Salvatore Pais received his advanced education at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio, graduating with an MS for a thesis titled "Design of an experiment for observation of thermocapillary convection phenomena in a simulated floating zone under microgravity conditions" in 1993.

Pais received his PhD in mechanical and aerospace engineering from Case Western in 1999 on the subject of "Bubble generation under reduced gravity conditions for both co-flow and cross-flow configurations" for which he endured a number of parabolic flights in order to produce a low-gravity environment. His doctoral advisers were Yasuhiro Kamotani and Simon Ostrach who had carried out spacelab experiments in low-gravity aboard the space shuttle STS-50 in 1992. Pais's research was sponsored by NASA.

Career

Drawing from Pais's patent application for a "craft using an inertial mass reduction device"

Drawing from Pais's patent application for a "plasma compression fusion device"

Pais works as a scientist, aerospace engineer, and inventor, at the United States Navy's Naval Air Station Patuxent River. His patent applications on behalf of his employers have attracted international attention for their futuristic-sounding technology and potential military and energy-producing applications, but have also led to speculation that they may be misinformation intended to mislead the United States' strategic adversaries about the direction of United States defense research.

His patent applications include:

• An "electromagnetic field generator and method to generate an electromagnetic field" (2015), the principal stated application of which is to deflect asteroids that may hit the Earth. The patent is assigned to the US Secretary of the Navy.
• A "craft using an inertial mass reduction device" (2016), one embodiment of which could be a high speed "hybrid aerospace/undersea craft" able to "engineer the fabric of our reality at the most fundamental level", the patent application for which was supported by the Naval Aviation Enterprise's chief technical officer on the grounds that the Chinese military were already developing similar technology.
• A "piezoelectricity-induced room temperature superconductor" with the function of enabling "the transmission of electrical power with no losses."(2017). The Institution of Engineering and Technology commented that no evidence was presented to show that the device worked and that the highest temperature superconductors so far created worked at around -70 °C.
• A "high frequency gravitational wave generator" that may be used "for advanced propulsion, asteroid disruption and/or deflection, and communications through solid objects."(2017).
• A "plasma compression fusion device" (2018), described by Popular Mechanics as a "compact nuclear fusion reactor" that "seemingly stretch[es] the limits of science."

Selected publications

• The Induced Thrust Effect; A Propulsion Method. Society of Automobile Engineers Technical International Papers. September 1, 1991. doi:10.4271/912234. ISSN 0148-7191. https://www.sae.org/publications/technical-papers/content/912234/. 
• "Conditional possibility of spacecraft propulsion at superluminal speeds". International Journal of Space Science and Engineering 3 (1): 89–92. 2015. May 12, 2015. doi:10.1504/IJSPACESE.2015.069339. https://www.inderscience.com/offer.php?id=69339. 
• "The high energy electromagnetic field generator". International Journal of Space Science and Engineering 3 (4): 312–317. 2015. April 12, 2016. doi:10.1504/IJSPACESE.2015.075910. https://www.inderscience.com/offer.php?id=75910. 
• High Frequency Gravitational Waves - Induced Propulsion. Society of Automobile Engineers Technical International Papers. September 19, 2017. doi:10.4271/2017-01-2040. ISSN 0148-7191. https://saemobilus.sae.org/content/2017-01-2040/. 
• "A Hybrid craft using an inertial mass modification device". AIAA Space Forum 2017-5343. American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA). 2017 (published September 15, 2017). doi:10.2514/6.2017-5343. https://arc.aiaa.org/doi/abs/10.2514/6.2017-5343. 
• "Room Temperature Superconducting System for use on a Hybrid Aerospace-Undersea Craft". AIAA Scitech Forum 2019-0869. American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA). 2019 (published January 6, 2019). doi:10.2514/6.2019-0869. https://arc.aiaa.org/doi/abs/10.2514/6.2019-0869.