John Hagelin (June 9, 1954 - ) is a theoretical physicist specialising in superstring theory, a practicioner and teacher of Transcendental Meditation, an electronic designer of high end audio equpment and has been a candidate for President of the United States three times. He was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
He is a follower of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, and he was chosen by the United States Natural Law Party, which was created by the Maharishi, as a Presidential candidate. In the 2000 Presidential election, Hagelin was also nominated by what saw itself as the core faction of the Reform Party, which disputed the nomination of Pat Buchanan. After a lengthy battle with the supporters of Buchanan, the Federal Election Commission ruled that Buchanan was the official candidate of the Reform Party and hence eligible for federal election funds.
In the 2004 primary elections, Hagelin endorsed Democratic candidate Dennis Kucinich. When the national office of the Natural Law Party shut down in April 2004, Hagelin joined a movement called the United States Peace Government .
Hagelin received a Bachelor of Arts from Dartmouth College in 1975 and a Masters of Arts (1976) and Ph.D. (1981) in physics from Harvard University, and was a researcher at CERN (the European Center for Particle Physics) in Switzerland and SLAC (the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center). He is currently Professor of Physics and Director of the Institute of Science, Technology and Public Policy at Maharishi University of Management, and Minister of Science and Technology of the Global Country of World Peace.
In 1994 Hagelin was the recipient of an Ig Nobel Prize, which is for "achievements" that "cannot, or should not, be reproduced", e.g., for pseudoscience. In his case the prize was awarded for his experimental conclusion that 4,000 meditators at the Maharishi University of Management caused an 18 percent decrease in crime in Washington, DC. Before Hagelin started with his dubious works on TM, he was given the Kilby Award in 1992, for scientists who have made "major contributions to society through their applied research in the fields of science and technology". The award states it is for "a scientist in the tradition of Einstein, Jeans, Bohr and Eddington".
Hagelin has published a number of peer-reviewed papers in particle physics dealing with supersymmetry and grand unification theory. After that he tried to link particle physics to Transcendental Meditation and failed to publish a single paper in a established journal. His last accepted contribution to physics is from 1994. His former co-authors nowadays distance from Hagelin.
Hagelin has a keen ear and derives much enjoyment from high end audio equipment. He had various insights on how to improve the sound quality of digital to audio (D-to-A) conversion from compact disc playback. Working with Age of Enlightenment audio he co-designed a high end D-to-A system that has been commercially marketed.
Hagelin was married to Margaret Cohig of Vancouver Canada in the 1980s and was then divorced. The couple had no children. He is now single.
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Last updated: 05-22-2005 23:31:48
Last updated: 05-13-2005 07:56:04
