Fred Begay aka Fred Young or Clever Fox, is a Native American nuclear physicist. Begay was born in 1932 at Towaoc

Towaoc, Colorado

Towaoc is a census-designated place on the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe Reservation in Montezuma County, Colorado, United States. The population was 1,097 at the 2000 census. The Towaoc Post Office has the ZIP Code 81334....

 on the Ute Mountain Indian Reservation in Colorado. His mother was Navajo

Navajo people

The Navajo of the Southwestern United States are the largest single federally recognized tribe of the United States of America. The Navajo Nation has 300,048 enrolled tribal members. The Navajo Nation constitutes an independent governmental body which manages the Navajo Indian reservation in the...

 and Ute

Ute Tribe

The Ute are an American Indian people now living primarily in Utah and Colorado. There are three Ute tribal reservations: Uintah-Ouray in northeastern Utah ; Southern Ute in Colorado ; and Ute Mountain which primarily lies in Colorado, but extends to Utah and New Mexico . The name of the state of...

 and his father was Navajo. As a youth, Begay was trained by the Bureau of Indian Affairs

Bureau of Indian Affairs

The Bureau of Indian Affairs is an agency of the federal government of the United States within the US Department of the Interior. It is responsible for the administration and management of of land held in trust by the United States for Native Americans in the United States, Native American...

 to become a farmer and never graduated from high school. After serving in the Korean War in the US Army, he attended the University of New Mexico

University of New Mexico

The University of New Mexico at Albuquerque is a public research university located in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in the United States. It is the state's flagship research institution...

 where he earned a bachelor's degree in math and science in 1961, a master's in physics in 1963 and a Ph.D in physics in 1971. Begay joined the physics staff of Los Alamos National Laboratory

Los Alamos National Laboratory

Los Alamos National Laboratory is a United States Department of Energy national laboratory, managed and operated by Los Alamos National Security , located in Los Alamos, New Mexico...

 in 1971. His work is in the alternative use of laser

Laser

A laser is a device that emits light through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of photons. The term "laser" originated as an acronym for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation...

, electron and ion beams to heat thermonuclear plasmas

Plasma (physics)

In physics and chemistry, plasma is a state of matter similar to gas in which a certain portion of the particles are ionized. Heating a gas may ionize its molecules or atoms , thus turning it into a plasma, which contains charged particles: positive ions and negative electrons or ions...

 for use as alternative energy sources. Begay was profiled in the 1979 NOVA

NOVA (TV series)

Nova is a popular science television series from the U.S. produced by WGBH Boston. It can be seen on the Public Broadcasting Service in the United States, and in more than 100 other countries...

documentary, The Long Walk of Fred Young.