UW-Madison Physics Professor Inspires Generations of Students

by Kaleab Afeworki, age, 13

Dr. Dan McCammon is a real-life rocket scientist. He studies x-rays, launches sensors into space, and somehow still finds the time to open the doors of his lab to students with an interest in science.

That’s how a group of students from Simpson Street Free Press got an up-close look at Dr. McCammon’s work. Each year, during the UW-Madison’s annual Physics Fair, Simpson Street reporters visit his lab. This year, several of us sat down with him afterwards for an interview.

A physics professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Dr. McCammon is known for his research on x-ray astronomy through his X-ray Astrophysics Group laboratory. He uses his expertise and research experience to help undergraduate students find their way in the field of physics and build their careers.

Growing up in Hawthorne, California, Dr. McCammon didn’t anticipate being an astronomer. He first wanted to be a fireman, then he wanted to be an electrical engineer. He liked to mess around with old electronics that he found in his home, like ham radios.

After graduating from high school, Dr. McCammon took a summer job assisting an engineer at Space Technology Labs. “I had a great time,” Dr. McCammon recounted, “because I liked to build things and I was working in the lab with a bunch of technicians.”

Dr. McCammon launched his own path in astrophysics as an undergraduate student in the 1960s. He went to Caltech, majoring in physics since everyone was required to take two years of physics. He figured that would give him time to think about what he wanted to do. Academically, he wasn't doing so well, and was getting mediocre grades in most of his classes. Meeting with his advisor was a pivotal moment for Dr. McCammon.

“I was required to see my advisor,” Dr. McCammon said. “When you go to college, be sure you see your advisor.”

His advisor told him to get a job in physics so he could see if the work was something he liked. The advisor even offered Dr. McCammon a job in his own laboratory working on infrared detectors.

While in college, Dr. McCammon built sensors and got to put them in telescopes in an observatory. He didn’t really understand the measurements he was gathering, but he knew he liked to build things – he had learned that much working at his summer job with engineers and technicians after high school.

“I discovered, ‘Hey, you know, physicists get to be their own technicians,’” Dr. McCammon said. “I would have never stayed in physics, if I hadn’t been working in this lab.”

Even by the time he reached his senior year of college, Dr. McCammon didn’t believe he was cut out for graduate school. His advisor thought otherwise and gave Dr. McCammon a list of four schools to apply to where the advisor knew faculty members. Dr. McCammon got accepted into all four of them, including UW-Madison. Still, he didn’t believe in himself.

“I never thought I’d finish the PhD,” he said.

The biggest hurdle was the requirement for graduate students to learn two foreign languages so that they could understand research from other countries.

Dr. McCammon took on the challenge. He took advantage of his three years of high school German classes and, after some studying and tutoring, he just barely passed his Spanish exam. He received his PhD in physics in 1971 from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

After earning his doctorate, Dr. McCammon worked as a research associate in the X-ray Astronomy Group lab for his three-year postdoc at UW-Madison. On his way back from a rocket launch in Australia, he stopped in Thailand to visit a good friend from graduate school, who happened to be chair of the chemistry department in Bangkok. This visit got Dr. McCammon a job offer for a faculty position in the physics department of the then-new Prince of Songkhla University in Songkhla, Thailand. He worked there on a two-year contract while he considered possible next steps for his career, since he wasn't really sure what his career would become.

“I had the most fun with the biologists, because they went out in the jungle and collected plants and analyzed them for medicinal stuff and so I’d go with them,” said Dr. McCammon, "but it probably wasn't getting my career anywhere."

Once his contract ran out, Dr. McCammon received a letter from his PhD advisor inviting him back for another postdoc opening in the X-ray Astronomy Group lab at UW-Madison. He accepted.

At the lab, Dr. McCammon collaborated with other high energy physicists on low temperature x-ray detectors. Four years after rejoining the laboratory, his old advisor encouraged him to pursue a faculty position.

Dr. McCammon became a faculty member in 1980. One of his duties was teaching students, which Dr. McCammon enjoyed just as much as his research. “When your research isn’t going well, you can think well, you know, at least I’m teaching all these kids something!”

For over 40 years, Dr. McCammon has worked as a tenured professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the physics department. When he started, he was one of the few faculty members studying astrophysics; now, the research of about a third of the professors in the department involves astronomy. Dr. McCammon has also served as the undergraduate major advisor for physics for 20 years. He inherited the X-ray Astronomy Group lab from his old professor, carrying on his legacy of research on diffuse background x-rays that fill all of space with a soft glow. Dr. McCammon’s team most recently launched a sounding rocket to study x-rays in Australia in 2022.

Dr. McCammon explained to Simpson Street reporters why his lab uses rockets to view x-rays. X-rays only travel an inch or two in air, so “if you really want to see them coming from space, you’ve got to get above the Earth’s atmosphere.”

The ideal way to do this is with a satellite that can stay in space for years, sending back information and data over a long time. However, a satellite costs around $100 million, whereas a rocket is relatively cheap and can transport the same sensors and x-ray detectors as a satellite.

Though the rockets stay above Earth’s atmosphere for a much shorter time than satellites do, they provide the laboratory with more freedom and give the students great experience working with rockets, which is an opportunity available at only a few universities nation-wide. Due to their competitive experience, Dr. McCammon said with a chuckle, “I don’t have to help my students look for a job.”

One of our team members asked Dr. McCammon to share some advice for students interested in physics or astronomy. He first replied, “Come work with me!”

After some giggles and a moment of thought, he added, “Try to get involved somehow.” Although Dr. McCammon advises young people to be a little more intentional about seeking and seizing opportunities than he was, his journey highlights the importance of getting involved and trying things out to see if you might be interested.

Over the years, Dr. Dan McCammon has spent time with and inspired students from Simpson Street. He has had an inspiring and serendipitous career, launching rockets, working with infrared detectors, and studying x-rays and radio waves. Just a few months ago, Dr. McCammon received the 2025 Distinguished Career Award from The American Astronomical Society's High Energy Astrophysics Division for his trailblazing research on x-ray astronomy. To this day, he takes all of this knowledge and shares it with students and the community, sparking young people’s curiosity and passion about science and space.