Bill Foster

Foster was born in 1955 in Madison, Wisconsin. As a teenager, he attended James Madison Memorial High School. He received his Bachelor of Science in physics from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1976 and his Ph.D. in physics from Harvard University in 1983. The title of his doctoral dissertation is "An experimental limit on proton decay:

p

→

p

o

s

i

t

r

o

n

+

π

0

{\displaystyle p\rightarrow \mathrm {positron} +\pi ^{0}}

."

When Foster was 19, he started a company with his younger brother, Fred. The company, Electronic Theatre Controls, has become a manufacturer of theatrical lighting fixtures and control systems.

After completing his Ph.D., Foster moved to the Fox Valley with his family to pursue a career in high-energy (particle) physics at Fermilab, a Department of Energy National Laboratory. During his 22 years at Fermilab, he participated in several projects, including the design of equipment and data analysis software for the CDF Detector, which were used in the discovery of the top quark, and the management of the design and construction of a 3 km Anti-Proton Recycler Ring for the Main Injector.

In 1998, Foster was elected a fellow of the American Physical Society. He was a member of the team that received the 1989 Bruno Rossi Prize for cosmic ray physics for the discovery of the neutrino burst from the supernova SN 1987A. He also received the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers' Particle Accelerator Technology Prize and was awarded an Energy Conservation award from the United States Department of Energy for his application of permanent magnets for Fermilab's accelerators. He and Stephen D. Holmes received the Robert R. Wilson Prize for Achievement in the Physics of Particle Accelerators in 2022 for "leadership in developing the modern accelerator complex at Fermilab, enabling the success of the Tevatron program that supports rich programs in neutrino and precision physics."

Health care reform

Foster voted for the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). On June 29, 2012, the Chicago Tribune reported that Foster said of his vote for Obamacare, "I'm proud of my vote, and I would be proud to do it again."

Foster and his wife, Aesook Byon, live in Naperville, Illinois. He has two adult children from his first marriage to Ann Foster. When Bill and Ann Foster divorced in the mid-nineties, they remained on good terms and agreed to live within blocks of each other. Their children lived at both of their houses. Foster is a grandparent.

Foster is among the few U.S. representatives not to identify with any religion.

Foster voted with President Joe Biden's stated position 100% of the time in the 117th Congress, according to a FiveThirtyEight analysis.

Taxes

Foster supported allowing the Bush tax cuts to expire. During a debate with his opponent in the 2012 election, Foster said, "The tax cuts were promised to generate job growth, but did not. If you follow the money, when you give a dollar to a very wealthy person, they won't typically put it back into the local economy." He said the tax benefits ended up in overseas accounts and spent on luxury purchases.

Foster has opposed efforts to repeal the estate tax. On August 31, 2005, U.S. Newswire reported that Foster said, "The proponents of estate tax repeal are fond of calling it the 'death tax'. It's not a death tax, it's a Rich Kids' tax." In 2009, just before the estate tax was scheduled for a one-year repeal, Foster voted to permanently extend the then current estate tax rate of 45%.