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ObituaryBarry “Mike” Casper Published on 07 December 2007 Barry “Mike” Casper, Professor of Physics at Carleton College and a life-long social and political activist on the local and national levels, died on January 27, 2007 in Northfield, MN. He attended Swarthmore College as an undergraduate and Cornell University for his graduate work, and joined the Carleton faculty in 1966. The combination of intellectual stimulation from students and faculty colleagues that he found there and Minnesota’s tradition of social and political activism provided a fitting home for him as evidenced by his activities over the next 37 years. He retired from Carleton in 2003. In his early years Mike, along with a colleague, developed a new physics course for non-science majors. They co-authored a text, Revolutions in Physics, that was widely adopted. Mike continued to teach that course frequently throughout his years at Carleton. In addition he developed and then taught for many years a sophomore-level quantum mechanics course that succeeded the classical mechanics course and emphasized the conceptual differences between the two subjects. One of his major efforts at Carleton was to develop and sustain the Technology Policy Project. Each year Mike settled on a topic of current interest such as arms control, national energy strategy, health care reform, or the AIDS epidemic, then selected 5 or 6 students who spent the summer as Technology Fellows working on various aspects of the topic, often at appropriate sites around the country. In the fall, the Fellows became the nucleus of a topical seminar that typically concluded with a carefully crafted position paper, appearances at legislative hearings, and/or a campus-wide symposium. Many alumni who participated in one those projects remember it as their most formative and significant experience at Carleton. In the late 60s, Mike was one of a group of American Physical Society members who advocated that, while it might not be appropriate for the APS to adopt official stances on public policy issues, the Society should encourage and sponsor discussion and dialog on issues with significant physics content. The eventual outcome of that effort was the creation of the APS Forum on Physics and Society, which has since played a prominent role in sponsoring conferences, study groups, and workshops dealing with the interrelation between physics and social issues. In addition to being one of the Forum’s founders, Mike served as one if its early chairs. In 1984 he received the Forum Award from the American Physical Society in recognition of his leadership “in promoting public understanding of issues related to nuclear weapons, arms control, and energy.” Mike was also a prime mover in convincing the APS to sponsor Congressional Fellows, scientists who spend a year working “on the Hill” as a consultant to a senator or representative or as an advisor to a committee. The success of the program is widely recognized, as it has sponsored 65 fellows in its 33 years of existence, and inspired several other scientific societies to establish similar fellowships. Above all else, Mike was an activist. In some cases, his activism was within the established political system, such as his 1978 campaign for lieutenant governor of Minnesota, his intimate involvement with Paul Wellstone’s campaign for the Senate in 1990, and then his service as Senator Wellstone’s first policy advisor. His book Lost in Washington: Finding the Way Back to Democracy in America, grew out of that experience; in it he documented the faults he found in the political system and put forth his ideas about how to fix them. In a wide variety of other ways both large and small, Mike worked outside the established political structure. He was a life-long advocate for nuclear weapons control and disarmament; the Nuclear War Graphics Project slide show he produced with his wife Nancy was widely disseminated. His efforts with Paul Wellstone to support and organize resistance against a high-voltage power line across western Minnesota are chronicled in their book Powerline: The First Battle of America’s Energy War. Locally, he worked to provide a support system for new families arriving in the Northfield area from abroad, and he helped the college custodial staff present their grievances to the administration. Mike had a warm, friendly demeanor. He accumulated a wide range of friends and admirers at Carleton, in the local community, and throughout the state and the nation. To know him was to be impressed with his intellect, his enthusiasm, his drive, and his concern for the human condition. He will greatly be missed. B. R. Thomas Current comments and reminiscences on Barry “Mike” Casper:Barry (Mike) Casper combined scholarship, activism, politics |