Mr. Physicist Goes to Washington

Congress gains another scientific voice with the election of Bill Foster

By Gregory Mone Posted 03.12.2008 at 12:30 pm 1 Comment

Bill Foster When this man goes to Washington, it will raise the number of physicists in Congress to three. foster08.com

Former Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory physicist Bill Foster has been elected to Congress in Illinois. This brings the total number of physicists in Congress to three. While this doesn’t necessarily ensure a bright future for science in this country, it will surely help the cause to have more knowledgeable and passionate voices in Washington.

Foster, who worked at Fermilab for 22 years and also had a successful career as an entrepreneur, has never held political office before. And though his stance on science isn’t listed as one of the major platforms of his campaign—that probably wouldn’t get him elected—he’s certainly passionate about the future of physics in this country, which some say is seriously imperiled. Let’s hope he can convince some of his new colleagues to take the issue seriously, too.

Via Physicsworld

Previous Article: The Internet is for Porn, Not Voting

Next Article: From Abalone to Self-Healing Gadgets

Want to learn more about breakthroughs in electronics, medicine, nanotech, and more?
Subscribe to Popular Science today, for less than $1 per issue!

1 Comment

Link to this comment

zoharalson

03/12/08 at 11:03 pm

I think this is really great! As a college student majoring in physics, I definitely agree that's it's not as emphasized as it really needs to be. I see my younger brothers moving through high school with some extremely relaxed standards due to the No Child Left Behind Act, and I can't help but be a little depressed at the current state of our science education program. I'm lucky to go to a school with a very high quality physics department, not to mention the rest of the sciences, but I'm not very satisfied with the amount of importance that main stream society puts on this kind of education. Hopefully Foster will help to bring change and a bigger emphasis on science education.

Science

+ More Photo Galleries

June 2013: American Energy Independence

Five amazing, clean technologies that will set us free, in this month's energy-focused issue. Also: how to build a better bomb detector, the robotic toys that are raising your children, a human catapult, the world's smallest arcade, and much more.