For Immediate Release
College Park, MD April 22, 2010-- Quoting from the February 2007 issue of The Physics Teacher: "Harvey 'Styx' Leff brings a formidable combination of ability, passion, and demonstrated accomplishment--in the classroom, in research, in academic leadership, and on musical stages--to his service to AAPT."
After receiving his Ph.D. from the University of Iowa under the direction of Max Dresden, he taught on the faculty at Case Western Reserve University, Harvey Mudd College, and Chicago State University. He spent four years as an energy policy analyst for the Oak Ridge Associated Universities before joining the faculty at Cal Poly Pomona in 1983 as department chair. He built a Physics Department that actively encourages and rewards excellence in physics teaching and the participation of faculty members in AAPT.
Harvey served as an officer and Section Representative of the Southern California Section of AAPT from 1987 to 2005, Associate Editor of the American Journal of Physics 1992-95, Chair of AAPT's Professional Concerns Committee 1999-2000, and Chair of the AAPT Nominating Committee 2003-04. He was subsequently elected to the AAPT Presidential Chain, serving as Vice President in 2005, President-Elect in 2006, President in 2007, and Past President in 2008. He was on the Governing Board of the American Institute of Physics 2006-2008.
Among Harvey's six dozen scientific publications, primarily related to thermal physics, are three dozen articles, letters, and book reviews in AAPT's American Journal of Physics and a half dozen in The Physics Teacher. He was a referee for these journals for over forty years. Serving the wider physics-teaching community, Harvey was an organizer of the Gordon Research Conference on Physics Education and Research on Quantum Mechanics in 2002 and Classical Mechanics and Non-linear Dynamics in 2004. In 2003, he co-edited the anthology, Maxwell's Demon 2: Entropy, Classical and Quantum Information, Computing. Finally, using the nickname Styx, Harvey has been drummer for the Out-Laws of Physics since 2003.
Upon learning he would receive an AAPT Distinguished Service Citation, Harvey commented, "AAPT has been a critical element of my growth and success as a physics teacher and I am thrilled to have been chosen for a DSC. I am reminded that when comedian Jack Benny was presented with an award, he quipped that he didn't deserve the award, but didn't deserve arthritis either. I feel the same way, including the arthritis! Without AAPT, my career would have been far less fruitful and my life far less rich. Thank you AAPT."
About AAPT
AAPT is an international organization for physics educators, physicists, and industrial scientists--with more than 10,000 members worldwide. Dedicated to enhancing the understanding and appreciation of physics through teaching, AAPT provides awards, publications, and programs that encourage teaching practical application of physics principles, support continuing professional development, and reward excellence in physics education. AAPT was founded in 1930 and is headquartered in the American Center for Physics in College Park, Maryland.
For more information: Contact Marilyn Gardner, Director of Communications, [email protected], (301) 209-3306, (301) 209-0845 (Fax), www.aapt.org.
Upon learning he would receive an AAPT Distinguished Service Citation, Harvey commented, "AAPT has been a critical element of my growth and success as a physics teacher and I am thrilled to have been chosen for a DSC. I am reminded that when comedian Jack Benny was presented with an award, he quipped that he didn't deserve the award, but didn't deserve arthritis either. I feel the same way, including the arthritis! Without AAPT, my career would have been far less fruitful and my life far less rich. Thank you AAPT."
