Bernhardt Patrick John O’Mara Bockris (5 January 1923 – 7 July 2013)[1] was a South African professor of chemistry, latterly at Texas A&M University.
[4] Bockris moved to USA in 1953 to join the University of Pennsylvania as Professor of Chemistry, where he built a large and active research group.
It was here that he published his best known work: the first model of the electrode-electrolyte surface to include the dipole moment of the solvent,[2] and his two-volume textbook Modern Electrochemistry.
[1][4] During next appointment, at Flinders University of South Australia from 1971 onwards, his interests broadened to include photoelectrochemistry and environmental chemistry.
In his later years his research focus veered further toward sources of energy and he embraced positions on some controversial topics that acquired a certain celebrity but damaged his professional reputation.
By the end of his career, he had authored, coauthored or edited more than 700 papers and two dozen books, and 85 students had obtained a PhD degree with his supervision.
[7] In 1982, at Texas A&M, he announced a "quantum leap" in his hydrogen-fuel technology through a "secret catalyst" that split water into hydrogen and oxygen even without the energy of sunlight.
[13] Though his professional reputation declined after this episode, the International Society for Condensed Matter Nuclear Reactions continued to hold Bockris in high esteem, awarding him its Preparata Medal in 2012.
The scientist received a degree of media attention for these extraordinary claims, to the extent that other academics at Texas A&M felt that the institution's reputation was suffering from the connection to the discredited "science" of alchemy.