William Happer
Credentials
- Ph.D, physics, Princeton (1964).
- Bachelor's degree in physics from University of North Carolina (1960).
Source: [1]
Background
William Happer is the emeritus Eugene Higgens Professor of Physics and Cyrus Fogg Brackett Professor of Physics at Princeton University. Happer is a Director of the
CO2 Coalition, a group formed in 2015 out of the former
George C. Marshall Institute where Happer was also
previously Chairman of the Board.
[2],
[3]
Happer is involved with a range of other climate change denial groups. He is on the Academic Advisory Council of the
Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF). Will Happer is also
member of a group titled
Climate Exit (Clexit), founded in the summer of 2016.
[4],
[5]
According to Will Happer's profile at the
Cato Institute where he is
adjunct scholar, his specialty at Princeton University was modern optics, optical and radiofrequency spectroscopy of atoms and molecules, radiation propagation in the atmosphere, and spin-polarized atoms and nuclei. From 1991-1993, Happer was the Director of Energy Research at the U.S. Department of Energy.
[7]
Fossil Fuel Funding
William Happer has accepted funding from the fossil fuel industry in the past. In a Minnesota state hearing on the impacts of carbon dioxide,
Peabody Energy paid him $8,000 which was routed through the CO2 Coalition.
[8]
In 2015 undercover investigation by Greenpeace, Happer told Greenpeace reporters that he would be willing to produce research promoting the benefits of carbon dioxide for $250 per hour, while the funding sources could be similarly concealed by routing them through the
CO2 Coalition.
[8]