Thomas A Ligon

Thomas A. Ligon Jr. Education: B.S., Biology, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1975, with option in Health Physics. 1974 Undergraduate Research Award, Society of the Sigma Xi. B.S., Engineering Technology, Electrical, VPI&SU, 1978. With a background in electronics, chemical kinetics, biology, health physics, and aviation, Tom Ligon is a technical jack of all trades. He believes Heinlein’s adage, “Specialization is for insects.” If he does have one specialty, it is test-rigging. From computer data acquisition to carpentry, Tom has a knack for piecing together sophisticated tests from ordinary parts and materials. In 1995, that background made him the right person at the right time to join with R. W. Bussard at the Energy-Matter Conversion Corporation, helping to re-start an earlier effort at proving the Polywell concept for producing controlled nuclear fusion. Not long after joining EMC2, Dr. Bussard suggested Tom should tap one of his other talents, writing, to tell the world about Inertial Electrostatic Fusion. And so, Tom wrote an article called “The World’s Simplest Fusion Reactor”, which was published in the December 1998 issue of Analog Science Fiction and Fact. The article won the Analab award for best fact article of the year. At Dr. Bussard’s suggestion, the article recommended the Hirsch-Farnsworth Fusor as a good high-school science project. Largely as a result of that article, an amateur fusion movement was born, and at least eight high-school students have made fusion to date. One of them, Michael Li, won second place in the 2003 Intel Science Talent Search. Now Tom is helping Dr. Bussard spread the word about successful tests of Dr. Bussard’s reactor run in November 2005. Dr. Bussard believes he has achieved proof of concept for the reactor, and is ready to scale it up. If successful, this technology should be ideal for space propulsion, as well as terrestrial power production.