ADOPT-A-PHYSICIST CLASS GROUPS
Class Name: AP Physics
Group 1
Benjamin Blonder
Employer : Non-profit / Professional Organization : University of Arizona,
Ecology and evolutionary biology dept. (EEB / UA)
Biography : I grew up in New Jersey near Murray Hill, where my father was a physicist with AT&T's Bell Laboratories. Throughout my childhood I was able to visit labs, build projects (including a very memorable 16-foot tall catapult) and be around scientists. I had a great physics teacher in high school who got me into programming; I taught myself a few languages so I could write a 3D gravitation simulator. (it worked!) When I went to college I knew I wanted to study physics but at a place I could explore other interests and be with non-scientists - so I chose
Swarthmore College, a liberal arts school. I was surrounded by bright and deeply interesting people for four years in a very close community. Around this time I started getting interested in biology (life is so complex - what fundamental rules can we discover about it?) and quickly found myself at the edge of science, where the laws of physics begin to influence and shape the form of the natural world. My first summer of college I applied for 10 research jobs at only got one - surprisingly, at Harvard, where I got to explore optical sensors to detect chemical reactions in living cells. My second summer I had a job in a biochemistry lab at Carnegie
Mellon studying the structure of certain antibody proteins that functioned as really sensitive fluorescent probes of cellular activity. My third summer I began thesis research at Swarthmore, building a confocal microscope to study the physics of cell membranes. I also got to teach my own class with the college's approval on the
'physics of biological systems' - tons of fun! That and a few other volunteer teaching experiences convinced me I wanted to focus on sharing the excitement of science with others, so I signed up to teach science for a year in rural Idaho. A few years later, I'm now working on a PhD in ecology and trying to do as much teaching and outreach work as I can. I love being outside and learning the fundamental principles of nature.
I'm a graduate student in ecology at the University of Arizona. I'm trying to understand how much carbon is used by different kinds of leaves around the world, by linking form (vein network patterns) to function (photosynthetic rates).
This work is a great blend of using my physics background, thinking creatively about biology, and having lots of adventures hiking around to test my ideas. I've done field work in the Colorado Rocky Mountains and will soon be going to Costa
Rica and Hawaii to pursue the project. It's not so bad when you get to explore mountains and islands and climb trees for your job!
I also am involved heavily in education and science outreach. My previous job teaching environmental science made me realize how much I like teaching, so I deliver programs and workshops for the university and for their Biosphere 2 facility. If you haven't heard of the Biosphere, it's a surreal place - a huge facility once meant to simulate a human colony on another planet, but it's a great laboratory for doing climate change research because scientists can measure and change every aspect of the environment inside of it.
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Most of my classmates who graduated with physics degrees went directly on to physics graduate school. I'm working on a PhD in ecology, applying the www.adoptaphysicist.org - 1 -

ADOPT-A-PHYSICIST CLASS GROUPS
Class Name: AP Physics mathematical skills and fluid dynamics background I have from my education to understanding what the shape and structure of plant leaves mean. My education has given me the breadth to be an effective educator and learner in a whole new field. Swarthmore College, as a Quaker school, really emphasized effective communication and service; I had many opportunities to volunteer, teach, and put on new hats when I was a student. I got to do original biology research, meet lots of practicing scientists, and teach my own class. All of my summer research experience has also helped me understand how and why science can and -needs- to be relevant to the general public. There are lots of things you can do with a the skills a physics degree gives you! www.adoptaphysicist.org - 2 -

ADOPT-A-PHYSICIST CLASS GROUPS
Class Name: AP Physics
Group 2
Henry Greenside
Employer : College or University : Duke University
Biography : I am currently a professor of Physics at Duke University. I was an undergraduate at Harvard University where I majored in mathematics and physics and I got my PhD in theoretical condensed matter physics at Princeton University.
I have worked in several areas of theoretical physics including: condensed matter physics (asking a question like whether a superconductor can ever be a ferromagnet), fusion plasma physics (working on the American project to create a star on Earth that generates energy the same way that the Sun generates energy, by nuclear fusion, this would largely solve the energy crisis and global warming crisis in one shot), pattern formation (understanding how complex patterns form in nature) and currently how brains work (theoretical neurobiology). I use a mix of mathematics and computer simulations to explore scientific problems that are motivated by experiments carried out by other scientists. As a professor, I spend about fifty percent of my time during the school year (September through May) teaching physics classes to undergraduate students and graduate students at Duke.
The rest of my time, including the three months of the summer, I spend doing research, usually in collaboration with some graduate students and postdocs in my research group. My group makes trips to different parts of the States to attend scientific conferences where we present our latest scientific results and try to learn from others what is being done. My group writes up and publishes discoveries made by my group in various scientific journals so that others can appreciate what we have done and perhaps benefit from our research
My main research interest these days is theoretical neuroscience, using concepts and techniques from theoretical physics to understand how brains work. I am especially interested in three questions: how do noses process odors, how do songbirds learn to produce intricate precise songs, and what are the patterns of how neurons connect to one another in a brain and how do these patterns help to explain how brains process information.
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Professors at universities typically carry out a mix of teaching, research, and travel. A PhD was essential to learn how to do independent research and to learn how to learn on my own. www.adoptaphysicist.org - 3 -

ADOPT-A-PHYSICIST CLASS GROUPS
Class Name: AP Physics
Group 3
Kelvin Chu
Employer : College or University : University of Vermont (UVM)
Biography I grew up in a family of scientists and I've always loved science and learning about science. Early on in my life, I decided that I loved biology and I loved physics. Now I do both, as a biophysicist at the University of Vermont.
My work looks at the physics of proteins, which are molecules in your cells that are responsible for doing work, such as communication, transportation and recognition. We use X-rays and computers to see how these proteins move. My students and I are interested in two proteins - myoglobin, which is a protein in your muscles, and hemoglobin, which is a protein in your blood.
We use X-rays to take pictures of these proteins, and computers to figure out how the proteins move. Part of what we do is to look at the movies of these proteins to decide how proteins work. I teach and do research at the University of Vermont.
My research is on biophysics and structural biology.
I teach both physics classes and general-interest science education and policy classes, especially those involving examining the use and implications of alternative energy in contemporary science.
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I've always wanted to be a college professor. This work is typical for someone with my education. The converse, however, is not true: there are very few college professors compared with the number of people with PhDs in Physics.
Group 4
Louis Littman
Employer : Freelance / Self-Employed : Self-employed
Biography : I am a psychiatrist in private practice and also a clinical assistant professor at the University of Pennsylvania. My academic career took many twists and turns. As an undergraduate I changed my major each year (I switched to physics after falling in love with the book "In search of Schroedinger's Cat") and graduated with a degree in biology and a minor in physics. I went to graduate school in pharmacology and specialized in neuropsychopharmacology (the study of how chemicals affect the brain and the mind). I then went to medical school.
I consider myself "a hidden physicist". Although I no longer use the equations of quantum mechanics or general relativity on a daily basis, my physics training taught me a philosophy of how to think about the world in ways that I use in my clinical practice.
In addition to work, I also am involved with my family (I am married and have a 7 year old son), karate, science fiction, and D&D.
I currently have a private psychiatric practice where I specialize in mood and anxiety disorders and attention deficit disorder. About 40% of my patients are
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ADOPT-A-PHYSICIST CLASS GROUPS
Class Name: AP Physics college students. I try to help people not just with medications but also by teaching them to see the world through different "lenses"(from the small cellular level to the larger societal level), something that I learned in my physics training
(looking at the universe from a quantum to cosmological level).
I also work part-time on the volunteer faculty at U. Penn Medical School (I have been at the school as a student & faculty member for 20 years). In the past, I have done research on bipolar disorder and on the neurotransmitter glutamate. My wife and I are currently writing a book about bipolar disorder.
Most clinical psychiatrists have an MD degree rather than combined MD-PhD degrees. Many with combined MD-PhD degrees stay in research. I loved research but I love working directly with people more. As a child, I always wanted to be a science teacher so the various science majors that I studied in college (physics, chemistry, biology, psychology, and engineering) were great preparation for that goal. In college I decided to be a professor, so I pursued a PhD in a field that allowed me to combine all of my interests. When I eventually went to medical school, I was armed with a way of thinking as a scientist that has made me a better physician. Now, with my combined degree (and a white-board in my office), I am able to educate my patients about their conditions and how to use that knowledge to improve their lives. www.adoptaphysicist.org - 5 -