Jean-Pierre Petit

Jean-Pierre Petit (born 5 April 1937, Choisy-le-Roi) is a French scientist, senior researcher at National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) as an astrophysicist in Marseille Observatory, now retired. His main working fields are fluid mechanics, kinetic theory of gases, plasma physics applied in magnetohydrodynamics power generation and propulsion as well as topology and astrophysics applied in cosmology. He is a pioneer in magnetohydrodynamics and has worked out the principle and techniques of parietal MHD converter. In cosmology, he works on the Janus cosmological model.

Besides his adventure in the UFO topic as well as his assertions about the existence of Ummo, Petit has succeeded in pursuing a scientific career within the CNRS. Now retired, he is involved with UFO-Science which he co-founded and LAMBDA (Laboratory for Applications of MHD in Bitemperature Discharges to Aerodynamics) which he founded. He claims a true scientific study of the UFO phenomenon would improve our scientific knowledge and help mankind.

Jean-Pierre Petit obtains his Engineer's degree in 1961 at the French aeronautical engineering school ENSAE (Supaero). In the 1960s he works for several months in a French rocket engine test facility as a test engineer in the development of the first nuclear intercontinental missiles SLBM. Because he feels uncomfortable within the military R&D, he prefers to integrate civilian research. In 1965 he is hired by the Marseille Institute of Fluid Mechanics (IMFM), a French laboratory affiliated with CNRS and the French atomic agency CEA, as a research engineer where he makes his first studies in magnetohydrodynamics (MHD). In 1972 he fully incorporates the CNRS after his EngD thesis defense. In 1974 he officially stops experimental research in MHD and starts working at the Marseille Observatory where he reconverts himself in fundamental research as an astrophysicist. However, he personally carries on his experimental research on MHD propulsion until 1987. Convalescent after many months of hospitalization following an industrial injury, he becomes between 1977 and 1983 codirector of the Calculation Center at the French University of Provence where he develops with students some CAD software marketed in 1978. He retires from CNRS in April 2003 but keeps working. In 2007, he founds a non-profit organization called UFO-Science to concretize some research ideas he could not experiment on while working due to lack of allocated funds at the time.

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