John P. Dooher, Ph.D.

Summary

John P. Dooher is a physicist whose published work spans two distinct fields over six decades. From 1966 to 1982 he worked in theoretical and experimental high-energy physics, publishing on vector-meson field theory, current algebra, magnetic monopoles and cosmic-ray processes in Physical Review, Physical Review Letters and Physical Review D, and appearing 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 moved to energy: the combustion of coal/water/oil emulsions, the rheology and atomization of slurry fuels, optical diagnostics of flames, and the gasification of coal and biomass. That work is documented in a series of Department of Energy technical reports from 1976 onwards, in papers in Fuel, Physical Review A, Atomization and Sprays, the International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, the ASME Journal of Energy Resources Technology and again in Fuel in 2019, and in conference papers in the Clearwater coal and clean-energy series through 2022. A separate line of work with colleagues at Adelphi examined multiphoton absorption in cadmium selenide quantum dots, published in Optical Engineering in 2007.

He founded the Dooher Institute of Physics and Energy, which was recognized as tax-exempt under section 501(c)(3) in July 2001, and is its President and a Director. He holds four United States patent filings as an inventor, two of which were granted.

Institute roles

Founder

Documented in the printed author biography in Optical Engineering 46(12) 128003 (2007)

President

Documented in the same 2007 author biography, and in the officer listing of the Institute’s federal returns for FY2022–FY2024

Director

Officer listing in the Institute’s federal returns for FY2022–FY2024

Research Lead

Advanced Energy Systems Research Program, active 2026

Current research leadership

Dr Dooher is the research lead for the Institute’s Advanced Energy Systems Research Program, which the Institute reports as active in 2026. The program’s technical details remain confidential while the work is under active development.

Academic appointment

Current

Professor Emeritus, Physics, College of Arts and Sciences, Adelphi University, Garden City, New York. This is the title published on Adelphi’s faculty profile, its physics departmental directory, its faculty profile index and its central university directory, all consulted 31 August 2026. The official Adelphi faculty profile is linked above as an external institutional record.

Historical appointments and roles

Each entry below is dated to the source that establishes it. None of these titles is current.

The chairship appears in at least two separate periods: the 2002–2004 Graduate Bulletin lists a different chair. The dates of any single term are not established by the sources located, and none is asserted here.

Education

Ph.D., Physics, Stevens Institute of Technology, 1965. This is the only degree listed on the Adelphi University faculty record, and it is independently confirmed by the printed author biography in the 2007 Optical Engineering paper. Earlier degrees, if any, are not published in either source and are therefore not listed here.

Research interests

The following grouping follows the research-interest taxonomy published on the Adelphi University faculty record, reorganized to match the areas in which publications exist.

Source: research interests as published on the Adelphi University faculty record.

Research leadership

Adelphi University’s Physics Research page states, of the Intelligent Flame Analysis System developed at Adelphi:

“IFAS, or the Intelligent Flame Analysis System, is a flame analysis and diagnostic tool developed at Adelphi. The system uses a unique combination of spectral imaging techniques and special computer software to determine combustion gas distributions in furnace flames. Under the direction of Dr. John P. Dooher, undergraduate students have the opportunity to work with the IFAS for a variety of applications.”

Adelphi University, Physics Research, College of Arts and Sciences

This Adelphi University record provides independent documentation of Dr Dooher’s research leadership in physics and energy research. The same page describes work in flame analysis, diagnostics and coal–oil energy systems.

Within the Institute, research direction is documented by the 2011–2013 project on which the Institute was a named team member, and by the publications carrying the Institute as an author affiliation. See energy physics research.

Selected publications

Ten items from a catalogue of 38. The complete publications index is searchable and filterable, and every entry carries its digital object identifier or government record number.

1. Bentley, S. J., Anderson, C. V. & Dooher, J. P. (2007). Three-photon absorption for nanosecond excitation in cadmium selenide quantum dots. Optical Engineering 46(12), 128003. doi:10.1117/1.2823156
2. Dooher, J. P., Castaldi, M. J. & Modroukas, D. P. (2019). Advanced concepts in modular coal and biomass gasifiers. Journal of Energy Resources Technology 141(1), 012001. doi:10.1115/1.4040526
3. Tupsakhare, S., Dooher, J., Modroukas, D. & Castaldi, M. (2019). Improved gasification efficiency in IGCC plants & viscosity reduction of liquid fuels and solid fuel dispersion using liquid and gaseous CO₂. Fuel 256, 115848. doi:10.1016/j.fuel.2019.115848
4. Castaldi, M. & Dooher, J. (2007). Investigation into a catalytically controlled reaction gasifier (CCRG) for coal to hydrogen. International Journal of Hydrogen Energy 32(17), 4170–4179. doi:10.1016/j.ijhydene.2007.06.014
5. Dooher, J. P. (2005). Fundamental considerations for coal slurry atomization. Atomization and Sprays 15(5), 585–602. doi:10.1615/AtomizSpr.v15.i5.60
6. Ahner, H. F., Dooher, J. & Moose, A. E. (1992). Application of lattice-gas automata to converging flow and non-Newtonian fluids. Physical Review A 45(10), 7632–7635. doi:10.1103/PhysRevA.45.7632
7. Dooher, J. et al. (1980). Combustion studies of water/oil emulsion on a commercial boiler using No. 2 oil and low and high sulphur No. 6 oil. Fuel 59(12), 883–892. doi:10.1016/0016-2361(80)90039-3
8. Dooher, J. (1971). Transition radiation from magnetic monopoles. Physical Review D 3(11), 2652–2660. doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.3.2652
9. Dooher, J. (1967). Implications of vector-meson field theory and partially conserved axial-vector current on electron-positron annihilation into hadrons. Physical Review Letters 19(10), 600–603. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.19.600
10. Dooher, J. & Tausner, M. (1966). Effect of intermediate vector mesons on neutrino production of lepton pairs. Physical Review 142(4), 1018–1024. doi:10.1103/PhysRev.142.1018

Funded research

Independently documented awards on which he is named:

• NASA contract NAS 5-23688 — Adelphi–Goddard Emulsified Fuel Project; named as Project Director in the NASA report dated 18 August 1977.
• DOE contract DE-AC22-79PC10328 — coal desulfurization during the combustion of coal/oil/water emulsions; identified as principal investigator on interim report DOE/PC/10328-T1.
• DOE coal/water/oil emulsion report series, 1976–1980 — sole author of eight interim and final reports deposited with OSTI.
• DOE / NETL, 2003 — sole author of the technical report Development of a phenomenological model for coal slurry atomization.
• DOE contract FE0007977, 2011–2013 — the Institute was a named team member on the project led by the Electric Power Research Institute, which held the award.

The Adelphi University faculty record additionally states that he was “responsible for the design and development of the Adelphi University Energy Research Program” and “obtained over five million dollars in outside funding for alternative energy sources”, naming NASA, the Environmental Protection Agency, the United States Department of Energy, the Empire State Electric Energy Research Corporation, the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, the Electric Power Research Institute, the Long Island Lighting Company and industrial firms as funders. That statement is reproduced here as an attributed quotation from the university record. It is cumulative, undated and unitemized; it describes funding obtained for Adelphi University rather than for the Institute; and this audit located no individual award record for several of the funders named. See research support and funding history for the full treatment.

Patents

Four United States filings name him as an inventor; two were granted.

• US 8,974,557 B2, Tunable catalytic gasifiers and related methods — granted 10 March 2015. Sole inventor.
• US 8,597,386 B2, Method and system for continuously pumping a solid material and method and system for hydrogen formation — granted 3 December 2013, with David R. Rubin.
• US 2009/0320368 A1, Methods and systems for gasifying a process stream — with Marco J. Castaldi and Klaus S. Lackner. The United States application was abandoned; the corresponding Australian patent was granted.
• US 2010/0129691 A1, Enhanced product gas and power evolution from carbonaceous materials via gasification — with Marco Castaldi. Application abandoned.

Full patent record with filing dates, assignees and status.

Selected technical reports

• Liquid CO₂/Coal Slurry for Feeding Low Rank Coal to Gasifiers, DOE contract FE0007977, OSTI record 1122274. The OSTI record lists the Electric Power Research Institute as corporate author; individual authors are not shown in that record.
• Development of a phenomenological model for coal slurry atomization, DOE/NETL, 1 August 2003. doi:10.2172/882521
• Coal desulfurization during the combustion of coal/oil/water emulsions, DOE/PC/10328-T1, 1979. OSTI 5309833
• Feasibility study of using a coal/water/oil emulsion as a clean liquid fuel — interim reports and final report, 1976–1980, deposited with OSTI.

Conference presentations

Documented appearances are concentrated in the International Technical Conference on Coal Utilization and Fuel Systems series at Clearwater, Florida, in 2008, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2016 and 2022, and at Frontiers in Optics 2005 in Tucson, Arizona. The 2008 and 2022 papers have proceedings records; the 2010 and 2016 papers are documented in the reference list of the 2019 ASME paper; the 2011 and 2012 papers are listed on the Adelphi faculty record without a proceedings record. The publications index marks which is which.

Research mentorship

Adelphi University reported on 28 July 2016 that an undergraduate McDonell Fellowship student studied the design and modeling of spouted bed reactors under his mentorship. Adelphi separately states that undergraduates work with the Intelligent Flame Analysis System under his direction. These are the only publicly documented instances located. Research mentorship.

Honors listed on the Adelphi University faculty record

The Adelphi faculty record lists two honors: the Ying of Balquhain Baronial Prize (2000) and the Knight Commander Award from the Barony of Balquhain (2014). The 2007 Optical Engineering author biography also describes him as a Ying of Balquhain fellow. These are awards of a Scottish baronial body; they are listed here because they appear on the university record, and they are not scientific or university honors.

External institutional records

The records below allow a third party to verify the statements on this page independently.