James Brian Mitchell was formerly at Professor at the University of Western Ontario in Canada and then at the University of Rennes in France. He has more than 120 publications in scientific journals along with numerous conference presentations, covering a wide range of interests including atomic and molecular physics, combustion, nanoparticles and ball lightning. He has worked at major accelerator facilities in Denmark and Sweden and at Synchrotron radiation facilities in Grenoble and Paris, France. He is the CEO and chief scientist of MERL Consulting, a company involved in research and development in the areas of In-situ burning and the detection of buried oil using mass spectrometry.