Winston H. Bostick

Biography

Winston H. Bostick, born in Freeport, Illinois, received both his B.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Chicago. His Ph.D. thesis on cosmic rays was completed under the direction of Nobel laureate Arthur Compton. While working at the MIT Radiation Laboratory from 1941 to 1948, he helped build a microwave linear electron accelerator. As an associate professor of Tufts University from 1948 to 1954, he researched magnetic pinch effects, which led to his later work on plasma pinch effects. His discoveries of plasmoids and other plasma-related effects began between 1954 and 1956 at the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, where he continued to act as consultant. A 1956 New York Times front-page story featured Bostick's "plasma gun". He served as professor of physics at the Stevens Institute of Technology from 1956 until receiving professor emeritus status at his retirement in 1981, and as head of the physics department from 1968. While visiting Tijuana, Mexico, in 1991, he died of lung cancer at age 74.