Bronx Raised Scientist  Turned Obsession With Time Travel to Save Father Into a Career 

A young Ron Mallett with his mother and beloved father and baby brother

Born in Pennsylvania, Ron was raised in The Bronx until he was 11 years old. At the tender age of 10, Ron Mallett  lost his beloved  33 year old father to a heart attack. 

This tragedy set in motion what would turn into a career as a theoretical physicist seeking to create a time machine after finding a magazine with HG Wells”The Time Machine’on the cover. 

Instantly, the 10 year old Ron began to think if this was true and set out to create his own time machine in his family’s basement back in Pennsylvania where his mother moved the near destitute family after his father’s death.  His destination if successful? To warn his father of his health issues and perhaps prevent his untimely death. 

Ron Mallett / image via Connecticut Magazine

Fast forward to the present day and Ron Mallett is now a theoretical physicist at the University of Connecticut and is credited with a theory of time travel that his peers think may be the answer to the possibility of time travel into reality. 

An article in Bloomberg last year stated:

“When he received his doctorate in 1973, Mallett was one of only 79 black Ph.D. physicists among about 20,000 in the U.S., he says. While he detects more tolerance in the profession now, the discrimination — the idea that a black man can’t be this smart — has not disappeared.

Mallett says he kept his work on time travel secret for years partly because colleagues would conclude he was a crackpot unfit for tenure. If he worked openly and with others, he also worried white physicists would get all the credit.

“I’m afraid that’s how it would work,” Mallett says.”

Now Mallet, age 71,is the subject of a documentary about his life’s journey and the strong love for his father that has carried him throughout his life. 

Learn more about this incredible man and his journey:

Meet The Scientist on a Quest to Reunite With His Dead Father – By Time Travel 

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Ed García Conde

Ed García Conde is a life-long Bronxite who spends his time documenting the people, places, and things that make the borough a special place in the hopes of dispelling the negative stereotypes associated with The Bronx. His writings are often cited by mainstream media and is often consulted for his expertise on the borough's rich history.