Professor of Astronomy and Physics and Chair of the Department
Dr. Fisher joined the Lycoming College Astronomy and Physics Department in 1984, a year after earning his Ph.D. at the University of Delaware and after completing a one-year post-graduate fellowship with the Bartol Research Foundation of the Franklin Institute. Dr. Fisher’s research areas and professional activities have included condensed matter physics, radiation damage in crystalline materials at low temperatures, radiation damage in novel amorphous ferromagnetic materials at high temperatures, electrical resistivity measurements of the novel ferromagnetic materials as a function of temperature from cryogenic temperatures to below their glass transition temperatures, space flight operations from an engineering historical approach, novel laboratory teaching methods, dinosaur paleontology from a physicist’s point of view, development of radio astronomy observational capabilities on campus and establishing remote observations using NRAO Green Bank facilities, and aspects of the history of physics such as the Manhattan project. Dr. Fisher has authored well over 75 articles that have appeared in peer-reviewed research articles, technical journals, popular media, reference works, and has even published a few poems.
Several of his largest works were for Salem Press, and some of those were done during sabbaticals:
- Publication in the area of space flight began with being a major contributor to the multi-volume McGill Survey of Science: Space Exploration which gave rise to the more expansive series referred to as USA In Space.
- For USA in Space, Fisher has served as a major contributor, co-editor (Editions 2 and 3), and sole editor (for Edition 4). Each edition updated the previous one, coming out with a new edition in three or four volumes of text roughly every decade. USA In Space covers the full spectrum of American space flight history both robotic spacecraft missions and crewed flights through the International Space Station era and intended return to the Moon (Artemis program). Co-editorial work was done with the (late) noted space flight historian Russell R. Tobias. Articles in USA In Space were composed by noted space flight historians, scientists, engineers, and NASA program personnel as well.
- For Solar System, Dr. Fisher collaborated with fellow department member Dr. Richard R. Erickson (now retired) to co-edit the second edition of this work. Both Fisher and Erickson had to compose numerous new articles to update the work as well as perform extensive editorial changes from the first edition. Dr. Fisher concentrated on those articles regarding planetary science whereas Dr. Erickson concentrated on new articles covering Earthly subjects.
Dr. Fisher has contributed to several projects which were coordinated out of NASA’s Johnson Space Center History Office.
- Fisher was part of a team of space flight historians who set up a CD database (now available on line from NASA) on the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo crewed missions.
- Fisher joined an international team selected by the NASA History Office leadership to correct air-to-ground transcripts of the Apollo 11 first lunar landing mission for posterity. This involved going through digitized versions of original recordings of every conversation between Mission Control Houston and the astronauts from pre-launch to post-splashdown. The intent was to correct the historical record for posterity.
- Fisher assisted in the development of CD collections of transcripts for the first few shuttle missions. Like A and B, these are now available on digital platforms through NASA.
Over his four-decade career, Dr. Fisher has developed a number of new courses that became part of the department’s curriculum. These have been updated and modified by subsequent newer members of the department faculty. Among such courses are: Math Methods of Physics, Condensed Matter, Planetary Science, Invisible Universe, and Nuclear and Particle Physics.
During his most recent sabbatical Dr. Fisher was able to take a short course on atomic bomb development provided in conjunction with the Chautauqua program and the Smithsonian Institution’s National Atomic Museum located in Albuquerque. This experience brought him into contact with a number of then surviving members of the Manhattan Project, and included visits to Los Alamos and the Trinity Bomb site where the first atomic device was detonated.
Dr. Fisher has continued since his youth in developing an extensive historical preservation effort for crewed space flight beginning with the Gemini program as a teenager and continuing through present-day International Space Station operations, commercial space flight, and expanding international space program activities. Also, as an experimentalist, Dr. Fisher has been instrumental in maintaining the equipment and infrastructure within the Astronomy & Physics Department since joining Lycoming College in 1984.