UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON NONPROFIT DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS ORGANIZA TION U . S . P O S TA G E PA I D 1150 UNIVERSITY AVENUE MADISON WISCONSIN MADISON, WI 53706-1390 PERMIT NO. 658 VOL. 11 NO. 1 A NEWSLETTER FOR UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN PHYSICS ALUMNI FALL/WINTER 2004–05 ALUMNI VOL. 11 FALL/WINTER PHYSICS NO. 1 OF WISCONSIN FOR UNIVERSITY A NEWSLETTER T H E W I S C O N S I N P H Y S I C I S T S I C I S Y H P N I S N O C S I W E H T VOL. 11 NO. 1 A NEWSLETTER FOR UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN PHYSICS ALUMNI FALL/WINTER 2004–05 ALUMNI VOL. 11 FALL/WINTER PHYSICS NO. 1 OF WISCONSIN FOR UNIVERSITY A NEWSLETTER T H E W I S C O N S I N P H Y S I C I S T S I C I S Y H P N I S N O C S I W E H T FEATURES THE WISCONSIN PHYSICIST University of Wisconsin–Madison From the Editor 2 Department of Physics View from the Chair 2-3 Vol. 11 No. 1 Fall/Winter 2004–05 Copenhagen 4 Editor: Mary Anne Clarke Update on Chamberlin Remodeling 4 Design & Layout: Jim Hanesworth Editorial Assistance: Chris Lynch & Barb Schutz New Sculpture for Chamberlin 5 Some Recollections of Sterling Hall/CHB 6 Invitation to all our Friends and Alums of Physics Reminiscences of Sterling Hall/Anne Herb 7 More information will be coming out later! Faculty News and Awards 8-10 Please mark your calendars, come and join us in the Celebration and Dedication of Chamberlin Hall. The MST Plasma Center/Stewart Prager 11-12 Friday, August 12, 2005 Graduate Program Update/News and Awards 12-13 9:00 a.m. Program Begins New Physics Ph.D.’s 14 1:30 p.m. Chancellor Wiley’s Dedication Ceremony Saturday, August 13, 2005 Barb Schutz, Winner Classified Mid-Career Award 15 Noon Picnic — Lakeshore behind Tripp Commons Undergraduate News and Awards 16-18 University Physical Society Information 19 UW Grad is Star on Her Return: Anne Kinney 20 Alumni Corner 21-22 Our Donors 2003–2004 23 Support Physics at Wisconsin 24 • Remember to talk to us and send your updates to [email protected] Newton apple tree blossoms Newton apple tree Chamberlin Hall viewed from the new Chemistry Building addition. T H E W I S C O N S I N P H Y S I C I S T 1 GREETINGS TO PHYSICS If you have other Sterling Hall remembrances, please send ALUMS & FRIENDS them to me and I’ll share them in our next issue. The remodeling of Chamberlin continues on schedule with the Another year has passed and for the Department, it has been administrative staff scheduled to move in during the first part busy with the upcoming move and the many decisions that of December. I want to thank you for your continued come with the move. I asked a number of people on campus support; please continue to send me your information and what they remember most about Sterling Hall and two news. I hope you’ll be able to join us for our Chamberlin Hall Sterling Hall events came to light, which I’ll share with you. Grand Opening Celebration next August 12 and 13, 2005! The first is the Sterling Hall bombing, which has become a Mary Anne Clarke, Editor legend of the University. I was living in Madison in the late (Sterling Hall events taken from www.crime.library.com/ summer of 1970 when four young men, known as the New serial_killers/unsolved/madison_wi/1.html & Year’s Gang, plotted and carried out the bombing of the www.sit.wisc.edu/~psohandbook/odds/bomb/htm) Army Mathematics Research Center which was located in Sterling Hall, as a protest to the Vietnam War. Karl Armstrong came up with the idea and convinced his younger VIEW FROM THE CHAIR brother, Dwight, as well as David Fine and Leo Burt, to The past year — my fourth in this term — again went swiftly participate in the bombing. by, and there was the usual daunting mix of repetition and Early in the morning hours of August 24, 1970, the New novelty. It called to mind a particularly apposite phrase Year’s Gang loaded about 2,000 pounds of ammonium nitrate soaked in aviation fuel into a stolen Ford. The group (borrowed from my friend and colleague Francis Halzen) parked the van below the Army Mathematics Research “Plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose.” Things do Center, near a driveway in Sterling. At 3:42 a.m. the bomb change and — surprise!! — after the fact they look much exploded. It was powerful enough to knock out windows six the same. (At least a few do!) blocks away, and police found pieces of the Ford van on top of an eight-story building nearby. Residents of Belleville, Illustrative of the changes: the long-time Dean of the College thirty miles from Madison, reported hearing echoes from the of Letters and Science, Phillip Certain, retired and, after a explosion. In all, the bomb caused about six million dollars in summer of searching, Professor Gary Sandefur of the damages, but did surprisingly little damage to the Army Math Sociology Department was Research Center. The greatest casualty of the bombing was appointed the new Dean. not the physical damage, but the death of Robert Fassnacht. Dean Sandefur had served The New Year’s Gang did not intend to kill anyone and thought the building would be empty on a Sunday night. as Interim Provost prior to Fassnacht, a physics post doc, however, was working late that the appointment of Peter night to finish an experiment. His death left the campus Spear, so at least he was shaken with grief and three children without a father. familiar with the challenges Local video shops still rent the documentary, The War at accompanying his new Home, which discusses the Sterling Hall bombing. position. Another example Additionally, books have been written about the event, was the retirement of including The Madison Bombing by Michael Morris and Rads Katharine Lyall and the by Tom Bates. The antiwar protests of the 60's and 70's have ended in Madison, but we remember those times. appointment of Kevin Reilly as the President of the The second memory of Sterling Hall came from an event in 1968, when the body of 18-year-old Christine Rothschild was University of Wisconsin found behind shrubbery outside of Sterling Hall. Christine System. Don Reeder entered UW-Madison in 1967 after having graduated from As the Governor and the Senn High School in Chicago, Illinois. Her parents and three Wisconsin Legislature sisters lived in a modest home on Chicago’s North Side, where her father worked as president of a local brokerage continue to confront the structural chasms that have firm. Christine had hopes of becoming a journalist after appeared in the state budget, their strategy for funding the graduation. She was the first victim of the Capital City serial University of Wisconsin seems to be to shift from general killer. On a dreary May evening in 1968, a male student state funds to tuition and gifts and grants. We hope this discovered her body. Investigators theorized that Christine trend can be arrested, but there are indications that it will had been killed early that morning while she was out jogging. continue, albeit at a slower pace, during the next biennium. The coroner ruled that she had died from at least 12 stab wounds to the chest. Due to lack of leads, and in spite of a Much of the attraction of University of Wisconsin Physics $5,000 reward to anyone offering information, her case consists of the events and opportunities that are funded at ended up as a “cold case” folder. the margin. That is, the state supports only the basic costs 2 U W – M A D I S O N P H Y S I C S and other funds are needed to provide the amenities, a cubic kilometer of ice at the South Pole that will serve as a innovation and other “extras.” very large cosmic neutrino observatory. The project has been extensively reviewed and was approved by the National The end game is now being played out as the contractors put Science Foundation as a Major Research Equipment (MRE) the finishing touches on Chamberlin Hall. You will recall that project. The required expenditure of about a quarter billion the portion built in 1912 for the School of Pharmacy has dollars is managed at the UW. At this time, the project is on been extensively remodeled for the Physics Department. In schedule and on budget. We anticipate that the subsequent analysis of much of the data is envisioned to be done within general the space looks great, but as everyone knows the the Department. Professors F. Halzen, R. Morse and A. Karle “devil is in the details.” At this time, the errors both of are the UW leaders in this strong collaboration. omission and commission have become apparent. We hope • Dr. Gary Shiu received a CAREER award from the National there is sufficient time, money and will to correct them before Science Foundation. Arguably, the most significant we move. At this time, we anticipate occupying Chamberlin development (at least for the future of the department) has Hall during the spring semester. You can monitor the been the successful recruitment of the cluster of three faculty situation from afar by visiting our web page members in String Theory and Topology.