Robert A. Huggins is Professor Emeritus at the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the School of Engineering

Stanford University School of Engineering

Stanford University School of Engineering is one of the schools of Stanford University. The school has had eight deans; the current is James D. Plummer.-Previous Deans:# Theodore J. Hoover 1925-1936# Samuel B. Morris 1936-1944...

 at Stanford University

Stanford University

The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...

 and Chief Scientist at the Center for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research at the University of Ulm

University of Ulm

The University of Ulm is a public university in the city of Ulm, in the South German state of Baden-Württemberg. The university was founded in 1967 and focuses on natural sciences, medicine, engineering sciences, mathematics, economics and computer science...

.

Education and career

Huggins earned his BA in Physics

Physics

Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...

 from Amherst College

Amherst College

Amherst College is a private liberal arts college located in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States. Amherst is an exclusively undergraduate four-year institution and enrolled 1,744 students in the fall of 2009...

, and went on to obtain an MS and Sc.D. in Metallurgy

Metallurgy

Metallurgy is a domain of materials science that studies the physical and chemical behavior of metallic elements, their intermetallic compounds, and their mixtures, which are called alloys. It is also the technology of metals: the way in which science is applied to their practical use...

 from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...

, where he also served as an instructor. He joined the Stanford faculty in 1954.

Cold fusion

Huggins is known for his association with the controversial theory of cold fusion

Cold fusion

Cold fusion, also called low-energy nuclear reaction , refers to the hypothesis that nuclear fusion might explain the results of a group of experiments conducted at ordinary temperatures . Both the experimental results and the hypothesis are disputed...

. While at Stanford, he attempted to recreate the discredited work of Stanley Pons

Stanley Pons

Bobby Stanley Pons is an American-French electrochemist known for his work with Martin Fleischmann on cold fusion in the 1980s and '90s.-Early life:...

 and Martin Fleischmann

Martin Fleischmann

Martin Fleischmann is a British chemist noted for his work in electrochemistry. He came to wider public prominence following his controversial publication of work with colleague Stanley Pons on cold fusion using palladium in the 1980s and '90s.-Early life:Born in Karlovy Vary, Czechoslovakia,...

, at one point reporting success. Only weeks later, such claims were rejected by a colleague.