An American fringe scientist sued an innocent astronomer on the suspicion of being part of a Jewish conspiracy. His crime: having a colleague who made fun of a telescope that registered “invisible terrestrial entities.” The lawsuit cost Dutch skeptics almost $300,000 to defend in a Florida court.
Prof. Ruggero Maria Santilli in June 2008
QuattroRuote magazine
Ruggero Maria Santilli was born in 1935 about sixty miles north of Naples, Italy, where he attended university, becoming “Dottore” (Master) in physics on December 10, 1958. Subsequently he taught physics in two Turin high schools. Around 1966, he attended the School of Specialization in Nuclear Physics in Turin. There he supposedly obtained the “equivalent of a PhD”— though Italy had no formal PhD (“Dottore di Ricerca”) before 1980. A recent search of the archives of Turin University found no trace of a specialization thesis by Santilli.