Dr. Peter R. Solomon
Peter R. Solomon, PhD is a Physicist, Entrepreneur, Educator, and Author with over 60 years of experience in scientific research, technology development, and science education. He is the Founder and Chairman of the Board of Advanced Fuel Research, a technology development firm in East Hartford, Connecticut, and CEO of TheBeamer, an educational media company.
Peter is the CEO of Image Insight, a company specializing in radiation detection technology. He is devoted to passing on his love for science to younger generations through compelling storytelling and transmedia educational content.
He is a scientist, educator, successful entrepreneur, and author whose current mission is to warn the next generation about the threats posed by unchecked science and technology. He is sounding this alarm through his novels and his website 100yearstoextinction.com and social media. Read 100 Years to Extinction: The Tyranny of Technology and the Fight for a Better Future.
Peter believes that astrophysicist Stephen Hawking’s dire prediction of human extinction on Planet Earth by 2117 may be right. The rapid pace of science and technology has far outrun our civilization’s social and political capabilities to control them, making for an uncertain future.
Over the next decade, his mission is to raise awareness and urgency in humanity’s effort to confront the technological threats that Stephen Hawking warned could lead to our demise. His goal is to raise awareness of the real dangers humanity faces on Planet Earth and inspire action, arguing that to avoid extinction, we must come together as one global community—what he calls the “Earthling Tribe”.
Peter is the author of two award-winning children’s books, The Stardust Mystery and The Race to the Big Bang, both of which won first place as the Best STEM Children’s E-Book in 2021 in the Purple Dragonfly Book Awards. The Stardust Mystery received a 5-star review from Readers’ Favorite.
Watch THE TYRANNY OF TECHNOLOGY, a six-minute video exploring the technology threats to humanity identified by Stephen Hawking, King Charles, Greta Thunberg, Robert Oppenheimer, Geoffrey Hinton, and Jennifer Doudna.
Peter is now turning to older audiences with his novels 100 Years to Extinction (2025) and 12 Years to AI Singularity (January 2026), both inspired by Hawking’s warnings. Both novels are intended for adults and young people who Peter hopes will become deeply concerned about the world they will inherit. Read 100 Years to Extinction by Peter Solomon.
Peter believes that science and technology will shape the future of humanity, and his passion is making their complexities understandable to all. He believes the most powerful way to reach non-scientists is through storytelling.
He also founded Advanced Fuel Research in 1980 in East Hartford, Connecticut, with his wife Sally Solomon and partner David Hamblen. AFR is a technology development firm that has been the recipient of numerous research contracts from agencies such as the Department of Defense, Department of Energy, Department of Homeland Security, NASA, and the Environmental Protection Agency.
Peter has had extensive experience in performing and managing interdisciplinary experimental and theoretical research in several fields including superconductivity, electron spin resonance, solid state physics, and work during the last fifteen years in energy, radiative properties, FT-IR process monitoring, and hydrocarbon research. He guided the development of FT-IR as an on-line in-situ monitor in high temperature reaction systems and developed the use of FT-IR as a tool for quantitative functional group determination in coals and other hydrocarbons. Read Progress in Coal Pyrolysis.
From Advanced Fuel Research, Peter and his partners spun off three successful companies. They started On-Line Technologies in 1991 to develop equipment to test computer chips, which was sold to MKS Instruments in 2001 for approximately $23.8 million. In 2001, the team founded Real-Time Analyzers to design and manufacture devices for measuring fuel quality.
In 2010, they founded their third AFR spin-off, Image Insight, based on GammaPix radioactivity detection technology that uses smartphones and surveillance cameras to detect gamma radiation. Image Insight has received R&D contracts totaling over $3.5 million from agencies such as the U.S. Department of Defense and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The GammaPix technology has been recognized with a Top Technology R&D 100 Award (2012) and the “Most Innovative Product or Service” at the “Innovation in Resilience” conference in the UK (2012).
Peter has been the CEO of TheBeamer since November 2014. TheBeamer develops transmedia products including games, books, videos, AI-backed expert avatars, and TV production for education and entertainment. TheBeamer’s resource development is supported by National Science Foundation grants of over $1 million. The company’s aim is to provide resources for STEM education that present science through compelling transmedia stories.
The birth of Peter’s twelfth grandchild was the inspiration for The Stardust Mystery book, with characters inspired by his grandchildren. The theme of the story is that “we are made of STARDUST that was once in the body of Albert Einstein and the last T-Rex.” This is what students can discover through video games, science videos, illustrated storybooks, and Expert Avatar personal tutors. Read West Hartford Physicist Develops Game To Teach History Of Science. Listen to 100 Years to Extinction – The Tyranny of Technology and the Fight for a Better Future on Kansas Public Radio.
Peter earned his PhD in Physics from Columbia University in 1965, his M.A. in Physics from Columbia University in 1963, and his BSc in Physics from the City College of New York in 1960. Between 1965 and 1980, Peter was a member of the staff and management at the United Technologies Research Center (UTRC) in East Hartford, Connecticut, where he conducted pioneering research before leaving to start Advanced Fuel Research.
Over his career, Peter has been awarded 20 patents, authored more than 300 scientific publications, and served as Principal Investigator on over $25 million in U.S. government research contracts and grants across two decades. He has managed research contracts totaling over $20 million.
He has received numerous awards and distinctions. In 1991, he was elected the winner of the American Chemical Society Henry H. Storch Award in Fuel Chemistry. He was the Keynote Speaker at the Fourth Annual Australian Coal Science Conference in 1991 and the Keynote Speaker for the International Coal Science Conference in 1991.
Peter has won five R&D 100 Awards in 1995, 1996, 2001, 2008, and 2012, recognizing his contributions to innovative technology development. His work in coal pyrolysis, FT-IR spectroscopy, and fuel science has been highly cited, with publications such as Kinetics of volatile product evolution in coal pyrolysis: experiment and theory cited over 500 times. Read The Impact of Coal Pyrolysis on Combustion.
Peter lives in West Hartford, Connecticut, with his wife Sally Moshein Solomon. They have twelve grandchildren who have inspired much of Peter’s educational work and whose personalities shaped the young characters in his books. He is open to volunteer for causes including Education, Environmental Sustainability, and Science and Technology.
Read General model of coal devolatilization, Coal pyrolysis: experiments, kinetic rates and mechanisms, and FT-ir analysis of coal: 2. Aliphatic and aromatic hydrogen concentration.
Visit his LinkedIn profile, Google Scholar page, his 100 Years to Extinction website, the Stardust Mystery YouTube Channel, and TheStardustMystery.com. Follow him on Facebook.