Bill Wattenburg

Although he grew up as the son of a logger in the Sierras, he attended U.C. Berkeley, and even studied under Edward Teller. He eventually became a professor at UCB, and since then has been involved in a great deal of government scientific research (some of which he can't talk about), including being involved in designing the guidance computers for NASA's Apollo moon missions. Bill's combinations of experiences and scientific background give him a great wealth of knowledge that he applies to entertain and inform his audience. It also lands him in the national and world news every now and then. You might recall hearing about when he developed an effective, extremely inexpensive land-mine clearing device around the time of the Iraqi war, called a chain-matrix. Or his designing a way to use surplus railroad flatcars to build emergency freeway bridges in times of earthquakes or floods. Show less «