2015 AAPT Award Citations at the Summer Meeting, College Park, Maryland

The Robert A Millikan Medal, established in 1962, recognizes those who have made notable and intellectually creative contributions to the teaching of physics.

Robert A. Morse will receive the 2015 Robert A. Millikan Medal. This award recognizes educators who have made notable and creative contributions to the teaching of physics.

Morse is co-chair of the AP Physics 1 Development Committee and assistant editor of the Davidson AP Physics EdX project. He got his B.A. in physics at Cornell University, his M.Ed. in Science Education at Boston University, and his Ph.D. in Science Education at the University of Maryland, College Park, MD. He started his career as a physics educator in 1967 as a physics teaching assistant at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He started teaching high school physics at Masconomet Regional High School in Topsfield, MA, where he taught physics, honors physics, AP Physics, Applied Physics, Electronics, Physical Science, and Stagecraft and Lighting.

In 1982 he joined the staff of St. Albans School in Washington, DC, teaching Physics and AP Physics C. He also served as Science Department Chair and Technology Committee Chair. He was trained as an AAPT Physics Teaching Resource Agent in 1985 and has presented or hosted workshops locally and nationally.

A Life Member of AAPT, Morse has served on the committees on Physics in High Schools, Laboratories, and History and Philosophy of Physics. He is a current member of the AAPT PTRA Oversight Committee and served on the Next Generation Science Standards Review Panel for AAPT.

He has made many creative contributions to physics education: technology-infused curricula in his own high school classes, curricular modules on electrostatics and Newton's laws distributed by AAPT/PTRA for a broader audience of students and teachers, serving as a “master teacher for master teachers” in the early PTRA program, offering innovative workshops for instructors at AAPT meetings, and working over the past 14 years on multiple committees to play a lead role in revising the Advanced Placement (AP) Physics B curriculum and exams. To all these endeavors, he brings passion, inquisitiveness, creativity, and deep understanding of how students learn.

Established in 1990, the Klopsteg Memorial Award recognizes outstanding communication of contemporary physics to the general public, in memory of Paul Klopsteg, an American physicist and past AAPT President. The Klopsteg Memorial Award recipient makes a major presentation at an AAPT Summer Meeting on a topic of current significance suitable for non-specialists.

David A. Weintraub of the Vanderbilt University Department of Physics and Astronomy is the 2015 recipient of the Klopsteg Memorial Lecture Award.

Weintraub earned his B.S. at Yale, and both his M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles. He was a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Florida before joining the Astronomy faculty of Vanderbilt University in 1991.

Weintraub excels at presenting science to the public in an entertaining and comprehensible manner, as well as exploring the humanistic aspects of science with his students. He is the author of three popular astronomy books: Is Pluto a Planet? (Princeton U.P., 2006), How Old is the Universe? (Princeton U.P., 2011), and Religions and Extraterrestrial Life: How Will We Deal With It? (Springer Praxis Books, 2014). All three of these books successfully convey the excitement of astronomy to the general public. He has presented numerous public lectures in connection with these books.

A further example of Weintraub's interest in the communication of science to the general public is his role, for the past nine years, as director of the Communication of Science and Technology Program at Vanderbilt. He leads an extremely successful undergraduate program designed to teach students to present scientific ideas in an accessible way to the general public.

His own research area is the study of debris disks around stars, but Weintraub also has a deep interest in the impact of science on human society. He has taught an honors seminar on “The Tangled Web of Astronomy and Religion,” covering such topics as cosmology and the trial of Galileo. He regularly teaches a related course “Theories of the Universe,” which explores the overlap between astronomy, religion, and philosophy throughout the ages. Another illustration of his wide-ranging intellectual interests is his seminar on “Black Holes and Science Fiction.”

His longstanding interest in the impact of science on human society, combined with his excellent popular science writing, make him an ideal candidate for the Klopsteg Memorial Award.

The David Halliday and Robert Resnick Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Physics Teaching recognizes outstanding achievement in teaching undergraduate physics, which may include the use of innovative teaching methods.

Dwain Desbien receives the 2015 David Halliday and Robert Resnick Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Physics Teaching in recognition of his contributions to undergraduate physics teaching and extraordinary accomplishments in communicating the excitement of physics to students. John Wiley & Sons is the principal source of funding for this award, through its donation to AAPT.

Desbien earned a B.A. in Physics at Grinnell College and his M.S. in Physics at the University of Kansas. While at the University of Kansas he began his teaching career as a Teaching Assistant and did research in nuclear physics. He taught at Highland Community College, Highland, KS, before beginning his Ph.D. work at Arizona State University. While working on his Ph.D. at ASU, Desbien taught at Chandler-Gilbert Community College where much of his data were collected for his dissertation. While working on his degree, he was a teaching/research assistant in Physics Education Research. Desbien was hired by Estrella Mountain Community College to start their physics program in 2001 and completed his Ph.D. in 2002. As a physics professor and former division chair, he has built a premier physics teaching program, recognized as one of the 10 best two-year college programs in the United States by the SPIN-UP/TYC Project.

Since 2006 he has served as Co-PI on the Two-Year College Physics Workshop Project, helping conduct three-day intensive workshops around the U.S. At many of these workshops, he was one of the main presenters of modeling discourse management, MBL, simulations, computational modeling, and other student-tested curricular ideas and activities that have worked successfully in introductory physics at many schools and colleges. He has been one of the three primary presenters at the Two-Year College New Faculty Training Experiences and led a series of workshops dedicated to developing new laboratory activities for introductory physics.

Building on the accomplishments of Malcolm Wells, who revolutionized high school physics teaching with his contributions to Modeling Instruction, Desbien has creatively and tirelessly worked to encourage students to take charge of their own learning. He developed new techniques to achieve that goal such as Modeling Discourse Management, Circle Whiteboarding, and Seeding. His skill in implementing such techniques has made him a very effective physics teacher. His continued efforts to help others develop these skills have made a major contribution to physics education. His students are enthusiastic in their praise of his selfless service, support, and creative engineering of learning experiences that empower them to learn in their unique life circumstances.

The Paul W. Zitzewitz Award for Excellence in Pre-College Physics Teaching recognizes outstanding achievement in teaching pre-college physics.

The 2015 Paul Zitzewitz Excellence in Pre-College Physics Teaching Award winner is Gillian Winters, a New York State Master Teacher and high school physics teacher from St. James, NY. This award is in recognition of contributions to pre-college physics teaching, and awardees are chosen for their extraordinary accomplishments in communicating the excitement of physics to their students.

Winters earned her B.S. and M.S. in Physics at the McGill University in Montreal. Her Ph.D. in Physics is from the University of Delaware. Following coursework for certification for Secondary Education, Physics and General Science she began her career as a physics teacher at Sachem Central School District in Holbrook, NY, where she taught Regents Physics and AP-B Physics, and led the Science Research Program. In 2005 she moved to the Smithtown Central School District in Smithtown, NY, where she teaches Regents, AP-B or AP-1 Physics, and AP-C Physics with Calculus.

Winters is a master of incorporating practical applications to physics content instruction. She routinely goes the extra mile for her students and for physics. When a dwindling student population threatened the District's ability to offer AP Physics with Calculus, she volunteered to teach a long-distance course that puts her at Smithtown East on A days with the lesson televised to Smithtown West. On B days the pattern is reversed. Her students are exposed to a variety of rich academic experiences. For example, she conducts a Particle Physics MasterClass as an outreach program of CERN. Her students gather a few afternoons to learn how to analyze data prior to conferencing with students in other countries to participate in a discussion moderated by a physicist from CERN.

She is active in the Women in Science and Engineering workshops at Stony Brook University, the Teslamania, a physics Demonstration competition, and the CERN Physics MasterClass. Her colleagues indicate that she was chosen to be a New York State Master Teacher because of her dedication to students. In this role, she is now working with her younger peers, mentoring them in the art of physics teaching.

Distinguished Service Citations are presented to AAPT members in recognition of their exceptional contributions to physics teaching.

Kathleen A. Harper, Senior Lecturer, Engineering Education Innovation Center, The Ohio State University, is currently serving as chair of the AAPT Nominating Committee and as Section Representative for the Southern Ohio Section of AAPT. She earned her B.S.E. in Electrical Engineering and Applied Physics and her M.S. in Physics from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. Her Ph.D. from The Ohio State University was in physics with emphasis in physics education research.

Her AAPT service includes the Nominating Committee, as is a member of the Membership and Benefits Committee and she has served on the Committee on Research in Physics Education. A member since 1994, Harper has been the Southern Ohio Section Representative since 2007. (More at: http://www.aapt.org/aboutaapt/pressreleases/2015-Dodge-Citation-presented-to-Kathleen-Harper.cfm)

Jill Marshall, University of Texas, Austin, Department of Physics, is recognized for her work at the section and national level of AAPT. She has been active in the Texas Section of AAPT for many years. She was elected to the Texas presidential chain in 2004 and served from 2005 through 2008. During those four years, she led the section with distinction solidifying its relationship with the Texas Science Teachers Association and their large CAST conference. She also helped keep the section meetings joint with the Texas Section APS and SPS Zone 13. Prior to working in Texas, she was an active member of the Idaho-Utah Section of AAPT, serving as President, 1999–2000. At the national level, her service includes: AAPT Past President (2013), Program Chair of the 2011 Winter and Summer Meetings, National Nominating Committee 2005–2006, Committee on Women in Physics 2006–2009, presenter and session organizer at national meetings 1998-to present. (More at: http://www.aapt.org/aboutaapt/pressreleases/SM15HLDCJillMarshall.cfm)

Marie Plumb, Professor of Physics (Retired) at Jamestown Community College, Jamestown, NY, has served as a member of Steering Committee and Co-chair of a national meeting for the Two Year Colleges in the 21st Century Project; PI and co-PI on several NSF Grants; instituted an ongoing outreach program to bring hands-on science activities to a local elementary school; served as reviewer of grants for NSF; participated in PEPTYC program at Texas A&M; and hosted TYC workshops. She served on the Statistical Research Committee of the American Institute of Physics (2011–2015) and currently serves on the Executive Board of the Dresser Rand Challenger Center, a member of the National Challenger Center Association. She was recognized with the Outstanding Physics Graduate Student Award (1990), Outstanding Educator Award (2000), Presidents Award for Excellence in Teaching (2003), and New York State Chancellor's Award for Excellence (2004). (More at: http://www.aapt.org/aboutaapt/pressreleases/

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Scott Schultz, Science Division Chair and Professor of Physics at Delta College, University Center, MI, joined AAPT in 1993, while in graduate school at North Carolina State University. He has served on the AAPT Nominating Committee twice, once as chair, as well as on the Committee on Educational Technology, and the Committees on Physics in Two-Year Colleges. He earned his B.A. with a double major in physics and secondary education at Canisius College. His M.S. in physics with a science education minor was earned at North Carolina State University. He studied graduate courses in quantum optics and physics education at Texas A&M University, completing the PEPTYC program. Schultz has taught physics at Jamestown Community College, Ravenscroft High School and has been at Delta College for 17 years. He has served the AAPT physics education community in many ways over the years. (More at: http://www.aapt.org/aboutaapt/pressreleases/Scott-Schultz-2015-Dodge-Citation.cfm)

Albert Thompson earned his B.A. in Physics with a minor in Education at The Colorado College. His M.A. in Secondary School Administration was earned at the University of Colorado at Boulder, and his EdD in K-12 School Administration at the University of Northern Colorado. He began PTRA training in 1992 and continued in the program through 2010. He retired as a Physics, Physical Science, Astronomy, and Global Science teacher at Ponderosa High School in Parker, CO. Thompson, an emeritus member, first joined AAPT during 1961–1968 when AAPT recognized him for “An Outstanding Program in Physics” at Cherry Creek High School in Englewood, CO, then rejoined in 1984 after returning to teaching physics. He has been actively involved in the Colorado-Wyoming Section and is the founding Coordinator of the AAPT eMentor Program. Thompson came to the AAPT Executive Officer, Warren Hein, in the summer of 2008 with the idea of AAPT starting an electronic mentoring service for new physics teachers and consented to be the first director of AAPT's e-Mentor project. (More at: http://www.aapt.org/aboutaapt/pressreleases/Albert-Thompson-Dodge-Citation.cfm)

Steve Iona

Past President, AAPT