Victor A. Madsen joined the Physics Department at Oregon State University (OSU) in 1963. As a theoretician in nuclear physics, he collaborated with a group of experimental nuclear physicists working on the OSU cyclotron. His most noteworthy research involved analysis of inelastic scattering and charge-exchange reactions. He frequently collaborated with scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and at the Kernforschungsanlage in Julich, Germany. In recognition of his research, Madsen was elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society. In 1985, he received the Milton Harris Award in Basic Research, OSU's highest honor for scientific research.
Madsen was a successful teacher of both undergraduate and graduate students. He pioneered the use of participatory student projects in his advanced undergraduate course in mathematical physics. He continued to teach after his retirement in 1997.
Victor Madsen earned his BS in physics from the University of Washington in 1953; he studied theoretical nuclear physics as a graduate student and completed his Ph.D. at the University of Washington in 1961. Madsen died in Corvallis in 2008.
From the guide to the Victor A. Madsen Papers, 1964-1998, (Oregon State University Libraries)
