Bill Wattenburg(1936-2018)
- Actor
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.