Associate Professor Timothy Stelzer has been elected to the chair line of the American Physical Society (APS) Forum on Education (FEd). He will serve three term years, beginning in April 2014 as vice chair, then serving as chair-elect starting in April 2015, then chair in April 2016.
Stelzer received his PhD in theoretical particle physics and is a founding member of the physics education research group whose primary research area is physics education. He points out that many of the most innovative and proven-effective teaching pedagogies for the modern classroom—including peer instruction, just-in-time-teaching, and flipped classrooms—have emerged from undergraduate physics education, which puts the FEd in a good position to take a leadership role in the national dialogue on the future of higher education.
“It’s an important time in higher education right now. Student’s unprecedented access to content online is dramatically changing higher education, allowing us to devote our in-class time to helping students develop their higher order learning and problem solving skills.”
“It’s a credit to the APS that they have this Forum on Education—it provides the physics community with a national podium to deliver a clear, cohesive message about the future of education,” comments Stelzer. “Many physics faculty across the nation are already engaged in a constructive dialogue on best pedagogies and tools for the modern classroom. We need to support and foster this discussion, and make sure that it is heard by administrators and policy makers.”
In his candidate statement, Stelzer speaks of how the APS’s contributions to physics education have touched him personally:
As a direct beneficiary of the APS’s enlightened approach to physics education, I will be able to continue and build upon the excellent work of my predecessors if I am elected. This includes promoting the importance of physics education to the future of our discipline, highlighting examples of excellent practices, and reducing barriers to adopting best practices. One important avenue for achieving these goals is the forum sponsored sessions during the national meeting. If elected, I would work closely with other members of the forum to ensure these sessions were of the highest quality, and met the diverse needs and interests of our members. In particular, I would invite prominent researchers who are also outstanding teachers to speak at our targeted sessions. In addition to sharing important educational ideas, these talks can inspire others and increase involvement. These talks would also display the APS’s commitment to education, positioning us as innovators in the broader discussion in higher education today.
Stelzer received his bachelor's degree in physics from St. John's University in 1988 and his Ph.D. in physics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1993. He completed postdoctoral appointments at the Center for Particle Theory at Durham University (UK) and then at the Department of Physics at the University of Illinois. He joined the faculty at Physics Illinois in 1998 as a visiting assistant research professor. He was appointed an assistant research professor in 2000 and associate professor of physics in 2012.
The APS FEd has as its primary mission to involve its members in activities related to physics education, at all educational stages, from elementary to grad school and life-long learning. It is one of a number of educationally oriented organizations and activities sponsored by the APS.