Robert G. Jahn | |
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Born | Robert G. Jahn 1 April 1930 |
Nationality | American |
Fields | Physics, Parapsychology |
Institutions | Lehigh University, California Institute of Technology, Princeton University. |
Alma mater | Princeton University |
Known for | Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research Lab, Electrically powered spacecraft propulsion |
Notable awards | Curtis W. McGraw Research Award, Honorary Doctor of Science degree from Andhra University |
Robert G. Jahn, Ph.D. (born April 1, 1930) is a retired American plasma physicist, Professor of Aerospace Science, and Dean of Engineering at Princeton University. Jahn was also a founder of the Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research Lab (PEAR), a parapsychology research program which ran from 1979 to 2007.
Jahn holds a B.S.E. degree in Engineering Physics (1951), a M.A. Degree in Physics (1953), and a Ph.D. degree in Physics (1955), all from Princeton University, and has held faculty positions in Physics Department at Lehigh University, at the California Institute of Technology, and, since 1962, at Princeton.
During his career, Jahn worked on electrically powered spacecraft propulsion and directed several major research programs in advanced aerospace propulsion systems, in cooperation with NASA and the U.S. Air Force. In 1961, he founded the Electric Propulsion and Plasma Dynamics Laboratory at Princeton and directed it for more than three decades. He served as Dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Science at Princeton from 1971 - 1986.
Jahn is a fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and was Chairman of its Electric Propulsion Technical Committee. He is a member of the NASA Space Science and Technology Advisory Committee. He was a member of the Board of Directors of Hercules Inc. from 1985 to 2001 where he served as Chairman of its Technology Committee. He also served on the Emergency Committee, the Nominating Committee, and the Social Responsibility Committee. He resigned from the Hercules Inc. board in 2001 at the age of 70.
Jahn is currently Chairman of the Elwing company which manufactures propulsion systems for satellites.
Jahn also engaged in the study of psychokinesis for many years. With Brenda Dunne, he established the Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research Lab (PEAR) in 1979 following an undergraduate project to study purported low-level psychokinetic effects on electronic random event generators. Over the years, Jahn and Dunne claim to have created a wealth of small-physical-scale, statistically significant results that they claim suggested direct causal relationships between subjects' intention and otherwise random results.