Third physicist in Congress

Millionaire physicist Bill Foster may be the only candidate for congressional office to have a section of his campaign website devoted to particle accelerators and superconducting magnets. More remarkably, the Democrat just won 53% to 47% in a Republican stronghold.

In early March, Foster defeated businessman and dairy magnate Jim Oberweis in a special election in Illinois to replace Republican representative and former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, who announced his retirement late last year.

“Back in the laboratory, we’d say that this was a pretty successful experiment,” Foster said in a victory speech at a banquet hall in Aurora. “We sent a clear message to everyone in Washington. You demanded change, and you are demanding it now.”

Foster founded a successful national theater lighting company, then had a 22-year career at Fermilab as a high-energy physicist. He worked on the collider detector that discovered the top quark and is the co-inventor of Fermilab’s antiproton recycler ring. Fermilab, which in recent months has had to lay off 10% of its staff, is near the heart of his congressional district.

Foster won’t have much time to become established in Washington political circles because his seat is up for grabs in November.