Education
I received my B.A. in Physics in 1996 from Occidental College (Los Angeles, CA), a small liberal arts school quite similar to Goucher, where I received very personal attention and was encouraged to boundlessly broaden my educational interests and cultural horizons. That experience had a profound effect on me, setting many standards that have influenced my professional interests and career goals. I believe strongly in the merits of initimate academic environments that focus on providing the highest-quality of education and creating atmospheres in which professors mentor as much as instruct. I find that the philosophy of the liberal arts fosters learning as an end in itself, and I hold very dearly the notion that academia is intended to challenge our minds and broaden our experience beyond that of our ordinary, adopted routines. As John Dewey explained, “the aim of education is to enable individuals to continue their education. The object and reward of learning is continued capacity for growth.”
I subsequently did my graduate work at Columbia University (New York, NY), earning a Ph.D. in Astronomy in 2003, after which I worked as a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore for three years. Prior to joining Goucher, I taught physics and astronomy at Columbia University, The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Arts and Sciences, and Towson University.
Physics relates to more than just science majors, and accomplishes much more than teaching a student to calculate how far a block slides on an inclined plane. On the one hand, any succesful academic pursuit requires critical thinking and analysis skills, and science, whether physical, biological or human-life, promotes and develops these tools. On the other, for a liberal arts education to introduce students to the world around them, must it not also show them how and why it works?
All students have the capacity to synthesize from their body of knowledge to understand and analyze new situations, and developing it in students is one measure of a successful college education. I teach physics with this goal in mind. I want a student to understand why things happen the way they do, and I try to give them the tools to take their knowledge beyond the limits of their textbook, classroom, and curriculum. I try to make education a series of discoveries, in which a student walks away from a lecture, assignment, or test having learned something new and exciting, often interdisciplinary, so that they see that their time spent in my class relates to much more than just those few hours a week.