Robert C. Buschert Scholarship Fund

Robert Buschert, professor of physics, is one of the distinguished teachers and researchers at Goshen College. He pioneered the idea of having undergraduate science students do significant research as part of their course of study and set up the Turner Laboratory to do that experimentation. His research on the diffraction effects of imperfections in highly perfect crystals has received international recognition.

Buschert’s route to professor of physics at Goshen College was somewhat involved. He was born in Cambridge, Ont., Canada in 1924, graduating from high school in 1942. After high school he spent three years in Canadian alternative service.

Following the war he wanted to go to the University of Toronto to study electrical engineering, but the program was only open to returning veterans. With that door closed he decided to come to Goshen College. At GC he became interested in physics while studying with Paul Bender and Harold Hartzler. After two years at GC, he finished his undergraduate work at Purdue in 1948 and transferred his credits back for the degree.

Immediately after college he began his long career as a teacher. From 1948 to 1950 Buschert taught math and physics at GC. In 1950 he returned to Purdue for further graduate work, receiving his Ph.D. in 1956.

His next career step was in the private sector. From 1956-58 he was employed at Bell Telephone Laboratories in New Jersey where he worked on logic circuits.

Then Buschert returned to teaching. He taught physics at Purdue from 1958-65 before returning to Goshen in 1965. At GC he was determined to continue doing research, as well as teach. As a way to continue his research interests, Buschert proposed to GC President Paul Mininger that he construct a particular diffraction instrument. To secure funding for the project, Mininger suggested he talk to Basil Turner, a member of the Presidenrs Advisory Board and CEO of the CTS, Corp., in Elkhart. Mr. Turner advised Dr. Buschert to set up a laboratory for his work rather than just do a research project, and he donated the funds to make the laboratory a reality.

The results are evident today in the Turner Precision X-ray Laboratory where undergraduate students can participate in research using state-of-the art x-ray diffraction techniques.

“I wanted the research for my students and myself, he said. 9 just knew I couldn’t live with myself if I wasn’t active in research.”

He also discovered that working one-on-one in research projects with undergraduates was one of the most rewarding parts of teaching.

“I just found it very satisfying to see students develop the skills for constructing laboratory equipment, for example. (Buschert had helped build up a machine shop to modify and construct the instruments needed to do the research.)

Buschert research interests went far beyond Goshen College, however. From 1974 to 1989 he spent nearly every summer and several school years at Euratom, the Common Market Laboratory in lspra, Italy doing further research.

Through his years of teaching and directing research at GC, Robert Buschert has been a mentor to many students who went on to distinguished careers as teachers and researchers. Through research and teaching he has passed on to the next generation his love of science and its practical applications that can enrich the human community.

Of particular note has been the course in religion and science he team taught for many years with Professor of Philosophy and Religion Marlin Jeschke. In that course Buschert and Jeschke challenged students to integrate their faith with science, rather than keep them in separate compartments or to assume they were irreconcilable.

It is because of Basil Turner’s respect for the research and teaching Robert Buschert has done at Goshen College that he established this endowed scholarship.