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Bill Foster

AKA George William Foster III

Born: 7-Oct-1955
Birthplace: Madison, WI

Gender: Male
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Politician, Physicist
Party Affiliation: Democratic

Nationality: United States
Executive summary: Congressman from Illinois, 2008-11

Entrepreneur and physicist elected to Congress in a 2008 special election to fill the remaining term of US Rep Dennis Hastert, who had resigned. Moderate Democrat; generally pro-abortion rights, pro-embryonic stem cell research, pro-gay rights. Supported 2008 GM/Chrysler bailout, 2008 Wall Street bailout, 2009 economic stimulus, and 2010 health care reform. Lost re-election bid in 2010, and succeeded in Congress by Randy Hultgren.

Co-founded Electronic Theatre Controls, an entertainment lighting business, when he was 19. Worked two decades as a physicist at Fermi, where he was part of the team that discovered the top quark, the heaviest known form of matter, and had a lead role in designing the permanent magnet-based Fermilab Antiproton Recycler Ring. His father, civil rights attorney G. W. Foster, Jr, oversaw the federal enforcement of the Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education ruling.

Father: George W. Foster, Jr. (constitutional law professor, b. 1920, d. 2002)
Mother: Jeanette Raymond ("Jimmy")
Brother: Fred Foster (partner in Electronic Theatre Controls)
Wife: Annie (software engineer, div. 1990s, one son, one daughter)
Son: William ("Billy", attorney, b. 1984)
Daughter: Christine (software designer, b. 1987)
Wife: Aesook Byon (physicist, m. Nov-2008)

    High School: James Madison Memorial High School, Madison, WI (1972)
    University: BA Physics, University of Wisconsin-Madison (1975)
    University: PhD Physics, Harvard University (1983)

    US Congressman, Illinois 14th (2008-11)
    Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory Scientist (1990-2006)
    Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory Wilson Fellow (1984-89)
    Electronic Theatre Controls Co-Founder (1975-2007)
    Member of the Board of Electronic Theatre Controls (1975-2007)
    AAS Bruno Rossi Prize for Cosmic Ray Physics 1989
    Fermilab Technology Award 1999
    IEEE/NPSS Particle Accelerator Science and Technology Award 1999
    American Physical Society 1988
    Science Debate 2008
    Phi Beta Kappa Society

Official Website:
http://foster.house.gov/


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