Willard H. (Bill) Wattenburg Research scientist at the Research Foundation, California State University, Chico; scientific consultant to the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Dr. Willard H. (Bill) Wattenburg is presently a research scientist at the Research Foundation, California State University, Chico, and a scientific consultant to the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory where he conducts most of his experimental work. He was co-founder and CEO of Berkeley Scientific Laboratories for many years before he returned to full-time research at Chico and Livermore.

Wattenburg holds patents on ideas relating to computer design, medical diagnostic instruments, power line communication systems, tennis training devices for handicapped people, movable traffic barriers for multi-lane highways, and home alarm systems.

Wattenburg graduated summa cum laude from California State University, Chico, with a double major in electrical engineering and physics. He returned to Berkeley as a graduate student on a National Science Foundation scholarship in 1958. There he studied electrical engineering. Professor Edward Teller (known to many as the “father of the hydrogen bomb”) was his physics teacher. He was awarded a Ph.D. in electrical engineering and physics at Berkeley (summa cum laude) in 1961.

Wattenburg received a Certificate of Merit from the Secretary of Defense in 1970 for his service on the U.S. Air Force Scientific Advisory Board from 1966 to 1970. Bill was named a Distinguished Alumni of Chico State in 1999, in the College of Engineering, Computer Science, and Technology.

In addition to his scientific work, Wattenburg has hosted “The Open Line to the West Coast” on KGO Radio in San Francisco since 1972.