Person · Huntsville, AL
Dr. Ning Li
Gravity physicist, UAH and AC Gravity. Chinese-born physicist at UAH who, with Douglas Torr, proposed in the early 1990s that superconductors could produce measurable gravity-like fields. NASA Marshall tested the idea and got null results. In 1999 she founded AC Gravity LLC, took an Army contract out of Redstone Arsenal, got a clearance and stopped publishing. A 2008 rumor that she vanished to China was false; she was hit by a car in 2014, later had Alzheimer's, and died in Huntsville in 2021.
On the record
- Died 27 Jul 2021.
- List check (the press lists): entry checks out. The cause is not in an official record but her son gives it: a 2014 traffic injury, then Alzheimer's.
- As the list had it: "Expanded 14-name list, late Apr 2026 (PolitiFact, Wikipedia): Ning Li, University of Alabama in Huntsville physicist, superconductor antigravity research, died 2021, cause not public."
- Cause or status, as sourced: No cause in the obituary. Per her son (Huntsville Business Journal): a 2014 vehicle strike on the UAH campus caused permanent brain damage, then Alzheimer's. The Wikipedia table lists Alzheimer's disease. PolitiFact: 'not public'. No medical examiner involvement reported.
- Peer-reviewed papers 1991 to 1997, including a 1997 Physica C static test with NASA Marshall co-authors that found no effect.
- DoD FY2001 report lists AC Gravity at $448,970; the funder was Army AMCOM, Redstone Arsenal.
- Science, 1996: 'NASA's fling with anti-gravity'.
- Her son: after her clearance 'She became much quieter'; Chinese officials asked her to return in 2008 and she declined; 2014 accident and Alzheimer's.
- Obituary: died 27 Jul 2021; 'one of the world's leading scientists in super-conductivity anti-gravity'.
- AAWSAP DIRD #14, 'The Role of Superconductors in Gravity Research' (Hathaway, for DIA, FY2009), discusses her work with Torr.
Claims (7)
She disappeared or defected to China.speculationSourced, unconfirmed
She ran 'a very black program' in Huntsville that continues, and Chinese counterintelligence harasses scientists around it.anonymousSourced, unconfirmed
Her device produced '11 kilowatts of output effect'.firsthandSourced, unconfirmed
'What happened to Ning Li?' Results 'disappear into the classified realm.'analysisSourced, unconfirmed
She was still working with DoD and could not discuss her work.secondhandSourced, unconfirmed
The missing final report was not 'nefarious'; she 'didn't quite get around to it'.firsthandSourced, unconfirmed
Cases (1)
Connected
Gravity and antigravity research fieldPlasma physics and fusion fieldInstitute for Exotic Science / HoloChron LLC orgNASA orgNASA Marshall Space Flight Center orgRedstone Arsenal (Army AMCOM, MDA, NASA Marshall host) orgUniversity of Alabama in Huntsville orgAmy Catherine Eskridge personJoshua K. LeBlanc personMaj. Gen. William "Neil" McCasland personDr. Nuno F. G. Loureiro personDr. Sergey O. Macheret person