In 1967, Puthoff earned a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Stanford University. Puthoff has published his papers on polarizable vacuum (PV) and stochastic electrodynamics topics,. Dr. Hal Puthoff., a theoretical and experimental physicist,. In 1967, Puthoff earned a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Stanford. For over 20 years, scientists at Stanford Research Institute (SRI) carried out SECRET investigations into ESP and psychic phenomena and our ability to experience and describe distant events.