Robert W. Fuller

American physicist

Robert Works Fuller (born 1936) is an American physicist, author, social reformer, and former president of Oberlin College.

Robert Fuller attended Oberlin College, leaving without graduating in order to earn his Ph. D. in physics at Princeton University in 1961. He taught at Columbia University, where he co authored the book Mathematics of Classical and Quantum Physics.

The mounting social unrest of the 1960s, and Fuller's commitment to educational reform—which he had already demonstrated as a Trinity College dean—led his alma mater, Oberlin College, in 1970, to make him its tenth president, succeeding Robert K. Carr. At age 33 Fuller became one of the youngest college presidents in the country. His Oberlin presidency was a turbulent time on campus and in higher education generally. Fuller established a faculty administration body to consider basic structural change in the curriculum and calendar, as well as a Commission on the Status of Women, tripled the enrollment of minorities, and the college established an African Studies program. He took special interest in the arts, as well. He recruited Herbert Blau to head the Inter Arts Program, which included the actor Bill Irwin and the director Julie Taymor. He encouraged The Oberlin Dance Collective,

In what has been called the "Oberlin Experiment," he recruited and hired Jack Scott, writer about the sociology of sports, as chairman of the physical education department and athletic director. Scott, in turn, recruited and hired the first four African American athletic coaches at a predominantly white American college or university, including Tommie Smith, Gold Medalist sprinter from the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City, and a woman for women's sports. Scott and Fuller were interviewed on campus by Howard Cosell and appeared on prime time television to talk about these changes they were seeking. In 1974, after four years as Oberlin's president, Fuller resigned the office. He was succeeded by Emil C. Danenberg.

Fuller lives in Berkeley, California with his wife, Claire Sheridan. He has four children and four grandchildren.

Effect of a Composition Dependent Surface Tension upon the Masses and Stability of Heavy Nuclei, With R. Brandt, F. G. Werner, M. Wakano and J. A. Wheeler. Proc. of International Conference on Nuclidic Masses, Hamilton, (1960). Dependence on Neutron Production in Fission on Rate of Change of Nuclear Potential (Thesis with John A. Wheeler), Physical Review 126, 684 (1962). Causality and Multiply Connected Space Time, with John A. Wheeler, Physical Review 128, 919 (1962). S Matrix Solution for the Forced Harmonic Oscillator, with S. M. Harris and E. L. Slaggie. American Journal of Physics 31, 431 (1963).