Barbara Whitten—The Oersted Medal
Established in 1936, the Oersted Medal recognizes those who have had an outstanding, widespread, and lasting impact on the teaching of physics.
Barbara Whitten is an Emeritus Professor of Physics at Colorado College. During her time there, she developed several innovative classes with real-world relevance, such as those involving sustainability and improving energy efficiency in housing, and was a founding member of the Women and Gender Studies program.
Although Barbara has an impressive list of experience and publications within molecular and atomic physics and more recently in computational environmental physics, it is for her substantial work in improving diversity and inclusion within physics departments that she is recognized today. As one of her nominators noted, “when thinking about ways to increase the numbers of women and other underrepresented groups in undergraduate physics programs, instead of guessing what might be the correct approach, she decided to ask.” Site visits, extensive interviews, and eventually NSF funding to support this research led to publications such as Physics Today's 2003 seminal article, “What Works for Women in Undergraduate Physics?” An additional project of Barbara's was the development of the “Physics for Everyone” curriculum in which undergraduate students helped develop physics problems that were embedded in real-world contexts that promoted participation in physics by traditionally underrepresented groups. More recently, Barbara is a co-PI on the NSF-funded, AAPT e-Alliances program for mutual mentoring of women physics faculty, an outgrowth of a mentoring collaboration developed with three other women faculty at liberal arts colleges.
In the words of her second nominator, Barbara “has altered the direction of how we discuss inequalities in our teaching practice by changing our focus from diversity to inclusiveness and she has championed the role of community in the education and professional development of physicists.”
For all these contributions to physics education, AAPT is proud to present the 2018 Oersted Medal to Dr. Barbara Whitten.
Mark Beck—The Richtmyer Memorial Lecture Award
Established in 1941, the Richtmyer Memorial Lecture Award recognizes those who have made outstanding contributions to physics and their communication to physics educators.
Mark Beck is Benjamin H. Brown Professor of Physics and Chair of the Department of Physics at Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington. He earned his B. S. and Ph.D. in Optics at The Institute of Optics, University of Rochester. His first position, at Reed College, and now at Whitman were selected in part because of his attraction to teaching and conducting research with undergraduate students.
After Mark and his undergraduate researchers built the right apparatus, they were able to test quantum mechanical predictions in the laboratory. These tests provided support for the quantum nature of the physical world and for quantum entanglement. The ability for undergraduates to conduct such experiments and see quantum effects for themselves was revolutionary. Multiple influential publications have allowed such experiments to be carried out at other institutions. As a colleague at Whitman College remarked, “Beck's single greatest accomplishment is a reformulation of the teaching of undergraduate Quantum Mechanics. His intellect and vision allowed him to develop instrumentation, curricular materials and an accompanying text all of which have been popularly received and are becoming widely used. He is a talented physicist and consummate teacher.”
Mark has also been recognized at Whitman College as a master teacher, receiving two teaching awards there. He has been involved with the Northwest Chapter of the American Physical Society and is a member of the APS Division of Laser Science's Distinguished Traveling Lecturer Committee.
AAPT is pleased to present the 2018 Richtmyer Memorial Lecture Award to Dr. Mark Beck.
Mehran Kardar—J. D. Jackson Award
The John David Jackson Award for Excellence in Graduate Physics Education is presented to physicists and physics educators who, like J. D. Jackson after whom the award is named, have made outstanding contributions to curriculum development, mentorship, or classroom teaching in graduate physics education.
Mehran Kardar, the Francis Friedman Professor of Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), received his B.A. in Natural Sciences and his M.A. from the University of Cambridge, later completing his Ph.D. at MIT. From 1983 to 1986 he was a Junior Fellow of the Harvard Society of Fellows and a Visiting Summer Research Collaborator at Brookhaven National Laboratories. In 1986 he joined the MIT Department of Physics as an Assistant Professor, eventually moving into a full professorship in 1996.
Mehran's influence in graduate statistical physics is substantial. Nomination letters from students who took his classes more than 20 years ago sound like they were written about something that happened just last year. To quote: “Even during his first year of teaching, Professor Kardar's year-long course on modern statistical physics stood out as the best organized and the most lucid, and his homework assignment the most thought provoking, among the many excellent lecturers we had…However it was only after we started teaching physics ourselves were we able to appreciate the scope of this achievement.” The extensive notes that Mehran routinely made available to his students eventually became two textbooks published by Cambridge Press in 2007 and adopted by several leading physics departments.
In his nomination materials, Mehran was further praised for both his selfless and effective mentoring of students and his influential research in physics, as well as the strong interactions between these two areas of his professional life. One of his publications has more than 2500 citations, and more than a dozen of his doctoral advisees have permanent faculty or research positions.
For all these contributions to physics education, AAPT is proud to present the 2018 John David Jackson Award for Excellence in Graduate Physics Education to Dr. Mehran Kardar.
Homer L. Dodge Citations for Distinguished Service to AAPT
The Homer L. Dodge Citation for Distinguished Service to AAPT recognizes members for their exceptional contributions to the association at the national, section, or local levels.
Jon Anderson
Jon Anderson earned his B.S. and M.Ed. at the University of Minnesota and took post-M.Ed. courses at Aurora University. He began his teaching career as a high school science teacher in 1986 and has taught at Southwest High School (Minneapolis), Thomas Jefferson High School (Bloomington), Mounds View High School (Arden Hills), and Centennial High School (Circle Pines), Minnesota.
As a long-time member of AAPT, Jon has attended numerous national meetings as both a presenter and a participant. He is currently serving on the Committee on High School Physics, is the new Academic Coordinator for the PhysicsBowl, and was named an AAPT Fellow in the spring of 2017. Jon has been involved in the PhysTEC project since 2007, first serving as a Teacher in Residence (TIR) at the University of Minnesota. He became the coordinator of TIRs and Visiting Master Teachers (VMT), an AAPT position in the PhysTEC project, in 2009. In this role he organizes and leads training workshops for TIRs; promotes PhysTEC to the broader physics community; and supports other TIRs in presenting about their work.
His service to the PhysTEC project has been invaluable. With his great enthusiasm for the teaching profession, his exceptional talent for mentoring physics educators, and remarkable skill at building professional community, Anderson has made a difference to the national community of physics teacher educators.
Nancy Easterly
Nancy Easterly earned her B.A. in physics with a minor in mathematics at Ohio Wesleyan University. Her M.Ed. is in Curriculum and Instruction with a minor in oceanography from Texas A&M University. She began teaching as a science and math teacher for grades six through eight and in 1978 took a position as physics teacher at Cypress Creek High School in Houston teaching Regular Physics, Honors Physics, AP-C, and serving as Physics Team Leader. In 2004 she started teaching Physical Science for Elementary Education Majors at the University of Houston-Downtown and currently teaches Elementary Physics at Lone Star College North Harris/Greenspoint.
For the past several years, she worked with the Georgia Math and Science Partnership (MSP) Grant at the University of West Georgia, converting the original high-school level workshop materials to meet the needs of elementary and middle school teachers attending. She is a highly respected physical science and physics workshop leader and has spent the last eighteen years dedicated to improving the teaching and learning of physics.
Service to national organizations as well as local ones has also been a focal point of Easterly's career. She has demonstrated distinguished service to AAPT by being a PTRA since 1999, and was the lead PTRA for several years for the Houston Area Physics Teachers, organizing many meetings for teachers. Nancy has also been an e-mentor for AAPT since its inception, helping over two dozen teachers.
Mary Ann Hickman Klassen
Mary Ann Hickman Klassen earned her B.A. in Astrophysics at Agnes Scott College and her M.S. in Physics at the University of Wyoming. She started her career at Swarthmore College as Lab Coordinator in 1995 and is currently Senior Lecturer at Swarthmore.
An active member of AAPT since 1995, Mary Ann has volunteered in the Southeastern Pennsylvania Section of AAPT, serving as President from 2010-11. She has organized or presented in the Introductory Laboratories workshops at Summer AAPT meetings since 2007 and served as a reviewer for The Physics Teacher in 2016.
Mary Ann has served twice as member and Chair (including Vice Chair the second time, once this position was introduced) of the Committee on Laboratories. Labs was named the 2015 Committee of the Year in part due to their development of the “AAPT Recommendations for the Undergraduate Physics Laboratory Curriculum,” which Mary Ann has helped to promote through support of sessions and workshops, both as a presenter and as an organizer.
As an Area Committee Chair, Mary Ann serves on the Programs Committee, which puts together the sessions and workshops for upcoming national meetings. She also currently serves on the Meetings Committee as an at-large member, helping in the national site selection process. At meetings she can often be found in the PIRA Resource Room, volunteering her time and expertise in supporting members who need assistance or are looking for new apparatus.
Daniel Schroeder
Daniel Schroeder earned his B.A. in physics at Carleton College and his Ph.D. in physics at Stanford University. He began teaching at Weber State University in 1993, where he continues to teach. He is probably best known among physicists as the author of An Introduction to Thermal Physics (2000) and coauthor, with Michael Peskin, of An Introduction to Quantum Field Theory (1995).
Dan has been an active member of the Idaho-Utah Section of AAPT since 1993, serving as its President in 2003. His service to the American Journal of Physics began in 1998 when he was appointed to the Editorial Board. He served as Book Review Editor from 2003 through 2008 and as Associate Editor from 2012 to 2016. He now serves as a Consulting Editor.
Dan has given numerous presentations at AAPT meetings over the years, including multiple workshops on Creating Interactive Web Simulations using HTML5 and JavaScript. Moreover, Dan has been directly involved in writing undergraduate textbooks and producing a number of educational simulation programs that are freely available to the physics community, including the original Spins program that he co-wrote with Thomas Moore. Such books and simulation programs have been a benefit to many AAPT members over the years.
Steve Spicklemire
Steve Spicklemire earned his B.S. in physics at Rose Hulman Institute of Technology, Terre Haute, IN. His M.S. and Ph.D. in physics were earned at California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA. His teaching career began at the University of Indianapolis (UIndy) in 1988, where he was recognized as "Outstanding Teacher of the Year" in the division of science and mathematics for the academic year 1992–1993. From 2011 to 2013 he was a Visiting Professor at the United States Air Force Academy's Department of Physics before returning to UIndy June 2013 as Chair of the Department of Physics and Earth-Space Science.
Since joining AAPT in 1990, Steve has been very active in the local Indiana section, serving at times as Secretary, Vice-President, President and, for many years, Treasurer. He is currently the Indiana section representative to the national association, and he previously served on AAPT's Committee on Laboratories. A nominator noted, “Steve has been the Treasurer for the section for many years and has been a true steward of the section's finance.” Additionally, he continued to support the Indiana section during his sabbatical time at the Air Force Academy. He co-hosted several meetings of the Indiana Section, along with Tim Duman.