About · History
Institutional history
A dated record of the Institute, of the research career that preceded it, and of the projects and publications that document both. Entries before 2001 describe work at Adelphi University and at Grumman Aerospace Corporation, not work of the Institute.
Before the Institute: 1965–2000
John P. Dooher received his Ph.D. in physics from Stevens Institute of Technology in 1965. His earliest publications, on the effect of intermediate vector mesons in neutrino production and on nonleptonic decays, appeared in Physical Review in 1966 carrying the affiliation Adelphi University, Garden City, New York. Papers published between 1969 and 1973 — including work on transition radiation from magnetic monopoles in Physical Review D — carry the affiliation Research Department, Grumman Aerospace Corporation, Bethpage, New York. From 1973 to 1982 he appears as a co-author on the multi-gamma-ray and direct-photon experiments carried out at the CERN Intersecting Storage Rings with Brookhaven National Laboratory and University of Rome collaborators.
From the mid-1970s his work turned to energy. A NASA technical report dated 18 August 1977 documents the Adelphi–Goddard Emulsified Fuel Project under contract NAS 5-23688 and names John Dooher as Project Director at the Center for Energy Studies, Adelphi University. A series of Department of Energy interim and final reports between 1976 and 1980 documents the Adelphi program on coal/water/oil emulsions as a clean liquid fuel; the 1979 interim report on coal desulfurization, DOE/PC/10328-T1 under contract DE-AC22-79PC10328, identifies him as principal investigator. Results from that program were published in Fuel in 1978 and 1980.
The Adelphi University Graduate Bulletin for 2000–2001 lists him as Chair of the Department of Physics. The bulletin for 2002–2004 lists a different chair, and an Adelphi news item of 28 July 2016 again describes him as department chair, so the chairship was held in at least two separate periods rather than continuously. The dates of any single term are not established by the sources located.
Formation of the Institute: 2000–2001
The Institute is recorded in the New York State corporate register as a foreign not-for-profit corporation with Delaware as its jurisdiction of formation, with an initial New York filing date of 9 May 2001, in Nassau County. The Internal Revenue Service recognized it as exempt under section 501(c)(3) with a ruling date of July 2001, status code 01, unconditional exemption.
Secondary corporate directories give a Delaware formation date in December 2000. That date is not published here: it appears only in a commercial registry scraper, and no Delaware primary record was consulted. The verifiable dates are the New York filing and the IRS ruling, both in 2001.
The Institute in the scientific and government record: 2007–2022
The earliest independent documentation of the Institute in the scholarly literature is the printed author biography in Optical Engineering 46(12) 128003, published online 18 December 2007, which describes John P. Dooher as “president and founder of the Dooher Institute of Physics and Energy” and records that he was previously director of Adelphi University’s Energy and Environmental Research Programs and chair of the physics department. Those two Adelphi roles are therefore documented as historical as of 2007, and are not current.
On 9 September 2011 the U.S. Department of Energy named the Institute, then located in Garden City, New York, as a team member on the Electric Power Research Institute’s project on liquid carbon dioxide slurries for feeding low-rank coal to gasifiers. The National Energy Technology Laboratory’s program overview of 12 July 2012 repeats the team list and sets out the technical scope. The final technical report was deposited with the DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information under contract FE0007977.
The Institute appears again as an author affiliation on the 2022 Clearwater Clean Energy Conference paper on process intensification for coal and biomass gasification, registered with Crossref under the affiliation “Dooher Institute of Physics, Adelphi University”.
Change of address: New York to Hawaii
Through the period of its documented research participation the Institute was located in Garden City, New York. That is the location the Department of Energy published for it in 2011, and it remains the address on the New York State corporate register. The address of record in current Internal Revenue Service data is in Kailua, Hawaii.
Current federal records place the Institute’s address of record in Kailua, Hawaii. Earlier project and corporate records document its previous Garden City, New York location.
Present status
The Institute’s exempt status is current, its most recent return on file is a Form 990-PF for the fiscal year ending December 2024, and its officers of record are listed on the people page. John P. Dooher is listed on Adelphi University’s current pages as Professor Emeritus of Physics and serves as Research Lead for the Institute’s Advanced Energy Systems Research Program, reported by the Institute as active in 2026.
Full chronology
Nineteen dated entries. Entries dated before 2001 concern Adelphi University or Grumman Aerospace Corporation and are included because they establish the research background, not because they are Institute activities.
- 1965
Ph.D. in Physics awarded by Stevens Institute of Technology to John P. Dooher.
- 1966–1969
Publications in Physical Review and Physical Review Letters on vector-meson field theory and current algebra carry the affiliation Adelphi University, Garden City, New York.
- 1969–1973
Publications on transition radiation from magnetic monopoles and on cosmic-ray pion production carry the affiliation Research Department, Grumman Aerospace Corporation, Bethpage, New York.
- 1973–1982
Participation in the multi-gamma-ray and direct-photon experiments at the CERN Intersecting Storage Rings, published with Brookhaven National Laboratory and University of Rome collaborators.
- 1976–1980
Adelphi University program on coal/water/oil emulsions as a clean liquid fuel, documented in a series of U.S. Department of Energy interim and final reports.
- 1977
NASA report on the Adelphi–Goddard Emulsified Fuel Project (contract NAS 5-23688) names John Dooher as Project Director at the Center for Energy Studies, Adelphi University.
- 2000–2001
The Adelphi University Graduate Bulletin for 2000–2001 lists John P. Dooher as Chair of the Department of Physics.
- 9 May 2001
Dooher Institute of Physics and Energy is recorded in New York State corporate records as a foreign not-for-profit corporation, jurisdiction Delaware, county Nassau.
- July 2001
The Internal Revenue Service recognizes the Institute as exempt under section 501(c)(3); ruling date July 2001, unconditional exemption, contributions deductible.
- 2003
DOE/NETL technical report Development of a phenomenological model for coal slurry atomization.
- 2005
Peer-reviewed paper on fundamental considerations for coal slurry atomization published in Atomization and Sprays; quantum-dot nonlinear optics paper presented at Frontiers in Optics.
- 2007
The printed author biography in Optical Engineering 46(12) 128003 identifies John P. Dooher as president and founder of the Dooher Institute of Physics and Energy, and as previously director of Adelphi University's Energy and Environmental Research Programs and chair of the physics department.
- 9 September 2011
The U.S. Department of Energy announces six IGCC projects supported with up to $14 million. The Dooher Institute of Physics and Energy (Garden City, New York) is named as a team member on the project led by the Electric Power Research Institute.
- 2012
The NETL Gasification Systems Overview of 12 July 2012 lists the CO2 slurry feed project team as EPRI, Dooher Institute of Physics and Energy, Worley Parsons Group and Columbia University.
- 2013
Final technical report of the DOE-funded project, Liquid CO2/Coal Slurry for Feeding Low Rank Coal to Gasifiers, deposited with OSTI under contract FE0007977.
- 2016
An Adelphi University news item of 28 July 2016 identifies John P. Dooher as department chair and professor, and records an undergraduate McDonell Fellowship project on the design and modeling of spouted bed reactors conducted under his mentorship.
- 2018–2019
Peer-reviewed papers on modular coal and biomass gasifiers (ASME Journal of Energy Resources Technology) and on CO2-based viscosity reduction and solid-fuel dispersion (Fuel).
- 2022
Conference paper at the Clearwater Clean Energy Conference on process intensification for coal and biomass gasification, carrying the affiliation Dooher Institute of Physics, Adelphi University.
- Current
The Institute's address of record in Internal Revenue Service data is in Kailua, Hawaii. Its most recent return on file is a Form 990-PF for the fiscal year ending December 2024. John P. Dooher is listed on Adelphi University's current pages as Professor Emeritus of Physics.