Роберт Фасснахт: Вьетнам соғысына қарсы наразылықтың құрбаны

American physicist

Robert E. Fassnacht (January 14, 1937 – August 24, 1970) was an American physics post doctoral researcher who was killed by the August 1970 bombing of Sterling Hall on the University of Wisconsin–Madison campus, perpetrated as a protest against the Vietnam War. Fassnacht was a student from South Bend, Indiana, who received a Westinghouse scholarship to attend college. He was at the University of Wisconsin–Madison pursuing post doctoral research in the field of superconductivity.

On the night of August 23 and into the early morning hours of August 24, 1970, Fassnacht was in the lab taking care of unfinished work because he and his family were slated to leave for a vacation in San Diego, California. His lab was located in the basement of Sterling Hall. He was in the process of cooling down his dewar with liquid nitrogen when the explosion occurred. Rescuers found him face down in about a foot of water. The cause of death, determined from the autopsy, was internal trauma. As a protest against the Vietnam War, the bomb was built and planted by Karleton "Karl" Armstrong, Dwight Armstrong, David Fine, and Leo Burt. The intention was to destroy the Army Mathematics Research Center, but instead destroyed much of the physics department and severely damaged neighboring buildings.

Fassnacht was survived by his wife, Stephanie, and their three children, a three year old son, Christopher, and twin daughters, Heidi and Karin who turned one a month after their father's death. Instead she held the Board of Regents responsible. Christopher attended Harvard University and Caltech and is now a physics professor at the University of California at Davis. Heidi and Karin both graduated from the University of Wisconsin–Madison.