Richard A. Oriani (July 19, 1920 – August 11, 2015) was an El Salvador-born American chemical engineer and metallurgist who was instrumental in the study of the effects of hydrogen in metal.

Although he was at the top of his class, Oriani had difficulty finding work because although his father had lived in Salvador for a number of years, he never pursued Salvadoran citizenship.

The work served as a foundation for subsequent researchers who expanded and refined Oriani's original theory, leading to a deep understanding of how one of the mankind's most important structural materials can fail catastrophically.

In 1990, barely a year after the original announcement of excess energy in an electrochemical cell by Pons and Fleischmann, Oriani corroborated this finding using a sophisticated calorimetric technique.

Oriani has conducted meaningful and successful collaborations with many researchers and theorists in the field, including John Fisher and Japan's Tadahiko Mizuno.

He has published at least nine papers describing nuclear reactions unexplained by the present state of scientific knowledge, in spite of editorial bias against such revolutionary findings.

(November/December 2010, Issue 94, Infinite Energy) An avid and self-taught musician, playing the viola and piano, he met his wife Constance at a musical group in New York.

Language: English, Database: CAPLUS, doi:10.1143/JJAP.41.6180 Application of a Kelvin Microprobe to the Corrosion of Metals in Humid Atmospheres By Yee, Shelgon; Oriani, R. A.; Stratmann, M. From Journal of the Electrochemical Society (1991), 138(1), 55–61.

Language: English, Database: CAPLUS, doi:10.1149/1.2085578 Anomalous Heavy Atomic Masses Produced by Electrolysis By Oriani, R. A. Edited By:Hagelstein, Peter L.; Chubb, Scott R From Fusion Technology (1998), 34(1), 76–80.

Language: English, Database: CAPLUS Effects of Applied Current Density and Potential Step on the Stress Generation during Anodic Oxidation of Tungsten in 0.1 M H2SO4 Solution By Kim, Joong-Do; Pyun, Su-Il; Oriani, R. A. Edited By:Filimonov, V. A From Electrochimica Acta (1995), 40(9), 1171–6.