Michael McKubre, an esteemed electrochemist at SRI International, has been at the forefront of Cold Fusion/LENR research from the beginning.  A former student of Martin Fleischmann, Dr. McKubre has been an integral figure in ongoing LENR research and testing.
In a recently published interview in New Scientist, Dr. McKubre speaks of his mentor’s legacy and a theoretical model on his controversial work:

We need a good, sound theoretical model – then we can experimentally test it. We have a general idea of what’s generating the heat, but the details – how deuterium nuclei get together to fuse – have yet to be resolved. The hot fusion folk who criticised cold fusion got one thing right: if it were a pairwise reaction of only two deuterium nuclei, like in free space, you should always see the same products as in hot fusion. But, generally, we don’t see those types of products. A theoretical model is coming. I wouldn’t be surprised if we have a good one in the next four or five months.