Biography
I was born and raised in Chicago’s north side. I attended St. Benedict High School (1958-1962), DePaul University (1962 -1966), and cartooned Collegiate, a four-panel comic strip for the DePaulia for three years. Kings Features did not pick it for syndication. I got my PhD from the University of Notre Dame in 1974 in Nuclear Physics. I taught at Lake Forest College from 1978-1984 where I learned to make holograms. I got married in 1972 to Pat Schmidt who is now deceased. We had five kids. Katey, Dan, Ed, Tim and Chris. I learned to sail in 1974 and have pursued the activity to this day. I came to Northwestern in 1984 as the lecture demonstrator (toy man) and the director of the Undergraduate Labs. While maintaining our world class lecture demo cabinet, I will take the show on the road periodically and play the wizard with physics demonstrations to marvel at. I do drawings and sketches, play guitar and banjo, build and fly RC model airplanes. Garden and have six grandkids to spoil. Three live with me and their single mom.
aschmidt@northwestern.edu