Creator: Henry Blosser

Subjects: Sesquicentennial

Description:

Henry Blosser came to Michigan State University in 1958 where he served as director of the MSU Cyclotron until 1986 when he became co-director with Sam Austin, a position he held until his retirement in 1988. The Cyclotron was built in 1963 and came into operation in 1966. It made more accurate measurements of nuclear properties than had ever been done before and had the most precise beams of any cyclotron before or since. Under Blosser’s direction, the MSU Cyclotron became the leading international cyclotron of nuclear physics research.

In the early 1970s Blosser became interested in the possibility of superconducting coils for cyclotrons which brought about the K-500 in 1983, a machine which had 10 times the energy of the first cyclotron. While creating the third generation cyclotron (the K1200) in the early 1980s, Blosser was also working on a medical project used to aid in the cure of advanced prostate cancer where a neutron beam produced by a cyclotron has become an exceptionally effective cure. Since his retirement from MSU in 1988, Blosser has been working on another medical project – a superconducting proton therapy cyclotron.

Topics/People Covered in the Interview include: Walter Adams; Phil Arnette; Atomic Energy Commission; Sam Austin; Ballam Report; Brobeck & Associates; computer modeling; Department of Energy; Konrad Gelbke; Aaron Golansky; Morton Gordon; Sherwood Haines; John Hannah; David Johnson; Kellogg Center; Bill Kelly; Hewitt Menes; cyclotron funding; K-1200, K-50 and K-500 cyclotrons; MSU Physicis Department; Mystic computer; Dean Muelder; National Science Foundation; Physical Review journal; William Powers; prostate cancer; Martin Reiser; Shaw Hall; Richard Trilling; University of Michigan; University of Rochester; University of Virginia; Lawrence VonTersch; Clifton Wharton; Lee Winder

Date: August 9, 2000

Collection Number: UA 3

Language: English

Rights Management: Educational use only, no other permissions given. Copyright to this resource is held by Michigan State University and is provided here for educational purposes only. It may not be reproduced or distributed in any format without written permission of the University Archives & Historical Collections, Michigan State University.

Contributing Institution: University Archives & Historical Collections, Office of the Provost

Relation: Sesquicentennial Oral History Project

Contributor: MSU Archives and Historical Collections