Biography

Representative Bill Foster was elected to fill the remaining term of former Speaker Dennis Hastert in one of the most closely watched special elections in more than a decade.  His stunning victory was hailed by analysts across the country as a sign of the changing landscape of 2008.  He was sworn in to represent the people of Illinois' 14th Congressional District on March 11, 2008.

Before being elected Congressman, Rep. Foster worked as a researcher at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab) for 22 years. At Fermilab, Foster started his distinguished career by helping discover the top quark, the heaviest known form of matter. He also led the team that designed and built several scientific facilities and detectors still in use today including the Recycler Ring, a giant particle accelerator.

At 19 years old, Foster started a company out of his basement with his brother Fred. In 1975, they invested $500 and built ETC, Inc. a theater lighting company into a firm that now manufactures more than half of all the theater lighting equipment in the United States.

Rep. Foster is especially proud of his family, and is happy to follow in his parents’ footsteps by choosing public service. Bill's children, Billy and Christine, were born and raised in the Fox Valley and attended Batavia High School and Illinois Math and Science Academy respectively.  Billy currently resides in Madison, WI and works for a leading medical imaging and radiation therapy firm while Christine is majoring in biochemistry at Stanford University.

Bill Foster was born October 7, 1955 in Madison, Wisconsin. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1976, and graduated from Harvard University with a Ph.D in physics in 1983. He has been elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society, received the Rossi Prize for Cosmic Ray Physics for the discovery of the neutrino burst from Supernova SN1987a, received the Particle Accelerator Technology Prize from the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, and was awarded an Energy Conservation award from the U.S. Department of Energy for his invention and application of permanent magnets for Fermilab's accelerator.  He currently resides in Geneva.