This 19th cold fusion conference will be held in the beautiful city of Padua, Italy from April 13 to 17, 2015. Those interested can now sign up for a newsletter to receive information about the conference and site as it is updated.

The conference is organized by TSEM, an Italian company focusing on energy, security and healthcare technologies. Conference Chair Antonio LaGatta is founder and president at TSEM. About four years ago, LaGatta led TSEM into the study of high bandwidth calorimetric measurement of palladium excess heat. TSEM has collaborated with SRI, ENEA and NRL.

LaGatta writes in his Welcome Message: “Results achieved during the last years of works have been amazing and it’s now time to give a new emphasis to such important discipline. Deserving of a fresh perspective, the conference will be changing in parallel with how our world is about to change.” LaGatta notes that the organizers will make much effort in getting Italian media and international press to cover the event so that the world can “understand the importance of what the scientific community is doing and what the impact of these results will be for the entire world.”

Trevor Dardik, chair of the Finance Committee and member of the organizing committee, notes, “It is our belief that this conference should mark the point in time when the astounding research that has so far taken place in LENR should meet the growth opportunities that industry brings. The addition of the Engineering Application Committee is a direct link between academia and industry with the goal of moving the research into the commercial sector. It is only through this type of large-scale gathering that great steps can be made to grow industrial, as well as general public, interest in this growing field.”

The ICCF19 site includes a history lesson of sorts. Readers will find a fantastic overview of the ICCF conference series, written by ICCF4 Co-Chair Michael McKubre. McKubre has written his personal perspective on each of the conferences, through ICCF18. The content is bolstered by photos from the events of dignitaries in the field, as well as some of the conference posters. McKubre notes that one intent of the historical presentation is to “feature the cold fusion warriors that are no longer with us,” to better memorialize the important role(s) they played in the development of the cold fusion field. He highlights the chairmen of each conference in this way as well.

In addition to highlighting some of the technical content that was most impressive at each of the conferences, McKubre records the progression of the International Advisory Committee (IAC), the group responsible for organizing all but the first and second events. The IAC consists mainly of former conference chairs. They meet at each ICCF to vote on the next location and chair. They have stayed as true to the continental rotation as possible (Americas, Europe, Asia) through the years. As a former co-chair, McKubre recognizes the difficult job faced by each conference chair and their organizing committee. He writes, “At some point we will need to make this job easier, perhaps with better definition and possibly some level of permanent support structure. In the meantime the tasks of the Chairmen continue in their participation on the IAC to provide their individual and collective experience. Without these individuals the ICCF series would have been much weaker and very likely to have collapsed.”

McKubre says of the longevity of the cold fusion conferences amidst public misperception about the field, “Certainly many predicted that we would not proceed beyond one or two and each passing conference further secures our place in history and continues to annoy, defy and diminish the case of the decreasing band of skeptics.”