IU cyclotron innovator reflects on 35-year career

When Dennis Friesel first came to IU in 1970, he expected to stay just 18 months. A post-doctorate physicist straight from the University of Notre Dame, Friesel had been enlisted to be part of a four-member team building a new cyclotron facility.\nThe IU Cyclotron was to be the first of its kind in the United States.\nBut 18 months quickly turned into a five-year stay when the cyclotron was completed. Now, with retirement set for this summer, 35 years have passed for Friesel. \n"Every time I would start to get bored, a new project would come along which would keep my attention for a few years," he said. "And then I'd take a break, consider changing jobs and something else would be brought to me." \nThe building is not the only thing that has changed in 35 years. A staff of 25 has grown to 130, and the cyclotron, once strictly used for nuclear physics research, is now also a practical research center. It houses a two-room Proton Therapy Treatment Center that is used to treat cancer patients all day, every day, with a third room under construction. \nA cyclotron accelerates charged particles at a high voltage. Inventor Ernest Lawrence originally used the machine to conduct experiments that needed particles with energy. The \ncyclotron also produces spectrally pure ultraviolet and low-frequency X-rays, which are used for numerous purposes, including cancer treatment.\nBut for Friesel, the biggest change has been the way in which he and his colleagues are able to conduct research and business at the facility. It once took five years to build a new part for the cyclotron, and scientists had to pray their hypothesis was correct when conducting new experiments. Computers have changed all of that. \n"Now instead of using a hand calculator, you can type into the computer the information you have and get a full-blown analysis," Friesel said. "Instead of using paper and pencil, you do your work on a computer design machine and it prints it out for you. Technology has changed the way we conduct our research and experiments immensely."\nTechnology has also allowed the cyclotron to continue to draw big name businesses to use the facility. NASA, one of the main benefactors to the cyclotron until 1998, used it to test out space suits to see whether the suits would sustain heat on Mercury, which has an average temperature of 354 degrees Fahrenheit. The cyclotron, which shoots out a proton beam of 200 electronvolts (MeV), was able to test the material in just minutes to determine its strength. \nFor Friesel, who once dreamed of being a pilot in the Air Force, instances like that remind him why he chose the life of a physicist. As a child, he was a "builder," taking apart objects and then putting them back together just to see their parts. He said he has always enjoyed learning why things are the way they are. In retrospect, Friesel said flying planes would not have proved as satisfying.\n"I guess you could say that science was the course of least resistance," Friesel said, leaning far back in his desk chair. "I walked the line until grad school because that's what I was supposed to do and ended up here. But I'm thankful for it. I would have gotten bored in an airplane."\nWorking on the cyclotron has been no walk in the park. Many long days and even longer nights have been the norm for Friesel, but he said it was pure fun. He compared a college student's inclination to partying to that of his and his colleagues' decision to constantly work. \n"Just like a college student who drinks on the weekend because it's fun, our idea of a good Saturday night was working on the cyclotron and as soon as something fit, and we accomplished what we were doing, we stepped back and celebrated," Friesel said. "We popped open our beers, too."\nDave Jenner, IUCF construction coordinator and division head of technologies, began working with Friesel 23 years ago. \n"He is the single most responsible person for the cyclotron being the success that it was," Jenner said. "He worked 16-hour work (days) and basically lived at the facility for the first 25 years the cyclotron was running. He was headstrong, insistent and people delivered. His expectations were clear."\nJohn Collins, division head of software engineering at the IUCF, echoes that sentiment. \n"He's extremely forthright, a real type-A personality," he said. "Subtlety is hardly something he can spell, much less be. While there are negatives to that, the positive is that those qualities are characteristics of a good leader."\nWhen the cyclotron lost its funding in 1998 because the instrument had done all the experiments it could do, Friesel contemplated retiring and trying a different job, but once again something fell into his lap. The facility was able to stay afloat "by hook or by crook." Before Friesel knew it, he was chairman of the Proton Therapy Treatment Center, which uses the cyclotron's proton beam to treat localized tumors in cancer patients. The center has treated more than 160 patients, most of whom see reductions in their tumor size without surgery. \nThough Friesel plans to retire in July, but even he acknowledges that it's not set in stone. \n"I'm going to relax a bit," Friesel said. "Maybe do some consulting work."\nSurprising words for a man who has spent the last 35 years working, but as Friesel knows, things can always remain interesting.