Physicist Elected to House of Representatives, Some of His Technology is Used in the Big Collider at CERN–Hopefully This is the Start of a New Trend..Bill Foster

I wasn’t kidding in the title here and if the news we have had the last two years doesn’t speak for that, I don’t know what does. He says we need more like him in Congress and I could not agree more. There’s a short interview and below are a couple of the comments he made and one here of importance:

Only 4 percent of those serving in Congress have a technical background!

Does the business world operate this way, of course not and this

is why we get out butts kicked all the time and business has taken over the consumers and turned us into “data chasers”. This will absolutely make my day if he can replace my Congressional rep who covers the OC in southern California that still does Town Hall meetings via telephone robo calls on the House Science and Technology committee . Amazing isn’t it that Orange County is so full of busting technologies in biotech, general technology, you name it…we have robo calls, so again I would welcome Bill Foster replacing the robo call Congressman for sure. He’s a real scientist too and not just a quant working on the “science of money” as we have enough of those around. BD

Only a handful of physicists have reached the halls of Congress. Bill Foster, a particle physicist and businessman just elected as a Democrat to the House of Representatives from Illinois's newly drawn 11th district, wants this situation to change. The Harvard graduate knows he is one of few in any technical field to hold national office. Foster plans to use his time in the public spotlight to serve as an advocate for bringing more of his peers to Washington.

Although Foster left a career in the laboratory to pursue politics, science is never far from his mind. He says he is continually thinking of new ways to inject the rigor of science into the often messy give and take that is the essence of politics.

”One of the fundamental principles is strength in numbers. I'm not advocating that Congress be dominated by scientists, but when I had a look at the composition of the U.S. Congress, even with a very generous definition of scientists, then roughly 4 percent have technical backgrounds.”

The economic damage from decisions to cut education and science research will not be felt for 10 or 30 years, and this is off the planning horizon of most politicians.

I will repeat my pitch for scientists and engineers to get along in this business. In a month or so when we have our office up and running they should contact our office. We will tell them everything that's easy and hard and fun and frustrating about spending part of your life in service to your fellow man.

Technorati Tags: Science,physicist,technology,Congress,politics,healthcare,biotech