Bill Foster for Congress

It's a little out of the usual for this blog, but I think you'll understand. Bill Foster (far left) is running for Congress in Illinois' 14th district. You may know IL-14 as Denny Hastert's old district (he's retiring), but to me, and particle physicists around the country, IL-14 is better known as the home of the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, home (for a few more months) of the world's highest-energy particle collider, the Tevatron. And Bill Foster has been one of the key people at Fermilab for many years.

I myself worked at the Tevatron for five years as an assistant professor at Harvard on the CDF experiment. I commuted between Cambridge and Illinois weekly for several of those years.

So let me say personally: Bill Foster is, scientifically speaking, the real deal. (Or, if you don't believe me, maybe you'll listen to 19 Nobel Laureates who have endorsed him.) Foster was on the experiment that detected the neutrino burst from the supernova 1987a. Speaking for myself, that was one of the coolest measurements in particle physics in the last quarter-century. This allowed a very stringent limit on the mass of neutrinos (basically, by relating the race among the neutrinos of different energy between to the speed of light). Looking for supernova bursts is now a standard part of every neutrino experiment.

I didn't personally know his politics, but physicists tend to be the ultimate reality-based community. If he can become a Congressman, it's a sign this country might not be completely lost.

IL-14 is a tough district, very R. But Fermilab brings in a lot of dollars and jobs to the district, and the locals might be persuaded to vote for someone they know will fight effectively on its behalf.

You can find out more at his website, Bill Foster for Congress '08.

(h/t darksyde)