Madison, Wisconsin: University Archives and Records Management Services
Summary
Abstract: In his three interviews with Vicki Tobias, conducted during summer 2007, Professor Emeritus Donald Reeder detailed his professional career as a Physics professor and department chair for the UW-Madison Physics department. He briefly touched on his childhood and early education, as it influenced his career direction, but mostly discussed his academic career spanning the late 1950s to present. He discussed the following topics: history of Physics department at UW-Madison; national and international physics laboratories including SLAC, CERN, DESY, FERMI, and others; the Compact Muon Solenoide (Detector) project; the Atomic Energy Council (AEC); US Department of Energy laboratory, Argonne; development of the bubble chamber and its importance to the field; campus life in the late 1950s through 1970; Sterling Hall bombing in 1972; and key physicists at both UW-Madison and other institutions such as Converse (Connie) Blanchard, Ugo Camerini, Al Erwin, William (Jack) Fry, Bud Goode, Willy Haeberli, and Ray Herb.