Speaker: Monica Plisch
TITLE: "The role of the American Physical Society in improving education and promoting diversity."ABSTRACT: The American Physical Society is the largest professional society for physicists with 46,000 members, and it has facilitated the work of physicists by organizing meetings and publishing journals. Increasingly, APS has taken leadership on education and diversity issues, and has developed programs that address perceived needs in the physics community. For example, the Physics Teacher Education Coalition (PhysTEC) project has been working to address the dramatic shortage of qualified teachers of physics and physical science. The Committee on the Status of Women in Physics (CSWP) has organized professional skills development workshops, departmental reviews, a gender equity conference, and meeting childcare grants. As the role of the APS continues to evolve, you are invited to take part in the conversation.
BIOGRAPHY: Dr. Monica Plisch is Assistant Director of Education for the American Physical Society (APS) in College Park, Maryland. She spends most of her time on the Physics Teacher Education Coalition (PhysTEC) project, and leads a coalition of more than 115 institutions committed to improving the education of future physics teachers. Before coming to the APS, Dr. Plisch served as Director of Education Programs at the Center for Nanoscale Systems at Cornell University, where she developed programs and curriculum on nanotechnology for high school teachers and undergraduate students. Dr. Plisch completed her doctoral studies in physics (nanomagnetics) at Cornell University, and received her undergraduate degree in engineering physics from the University of Illinois.