Dr. Carl Wieman
Distinguished Professor of Physics
University of Colorado and University of British Columbia
2001 Nobel Laureate in Physics
2004 United States Professor of the Year
Website
Over the past few years Dr. Carl Wieman has become increasingly involved with trying to improve undergraduate physics education and has been balancing his time between that and his research. He has been examining alternative curricula and learning about the research in physics education as to how students do and do not learn. A particular concern has been improving how physics is taught to students who are not planning to become physicists, in the hope of one day making physics understandable, useful, and interesting to a large fraction of the population. His efforts have ranged from working with national organizations pursuing widespread change in undergraduate physics education to developing useful innovations in the individual courses that I teach. Because of his particular concerns, these courses have lately been large introductory courses primarily for nonscience students. Wieman currently serves as Chair of the Board on Science Education of the National Academy of Sciences. In 2007, Wieman was awarded the Oersted Medal, which recognizes notable contributions to the teaching of physics, by the American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT).