 Director of Carl Wieman Science Education Initiative, University of British Columbia
Carl Wieman, who won the Nobel Prize in Physics with Eric Cornell in 2001, is highly involved with efforts to improve science education. He joined the University of British Columbia in 2007 and is heading an endowed science education initiative at the university. He also retains a partial appointment at the University of Colorado at Boulder to head the science education project he founded there.
Wieman earned his bachelor science from MIT in 1973 and his Ph.D. from Stanford University in 1977. A member of the National Academy of Sciences, Wieman currently serves as chair of the NAS Board on Science Education.
He is a proponent of using innovation in teaching physics, such as the learning process where teachers repeatedly ask multiple-choice concept questions during class and students respond on the spot with wireless devices. Wieman also has studied student beliefs on physics and researched problem-solving skills in pursuit of more effective science education.
He was awarded the Lorentz Medal in 1998 and has been widely recognized for his leadership in teaching physics. He received the National Science Foundation's Distinguished Teaching Scholar Award in 2001 and was named the Carnegie Foundation's U.S. Professor of the Year in 2004. He also was awarded the American Association of Physics Teachers' Oersted Medal in 2007, which recognizes notable contributions to the teaching of physics.
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