From the 2015 Physics Alumni Newsletter
We’ve had two significant changes in the Physics Department over the past year. First, Professor Rick Matthews has returned to the Department after a seven year stint as Vice President for Information Systems. We are very happy to have him back. Last year he taught introductory physics but in an innovative way using a “flipped” classroom. The idea is to maximize student interactions and minimize lecture time For this purpose, one of the teaching labs (Olin 105) was renovated and turned into a new Studio Physics classroom which simultaneously serves as a classroom, a room where students can work together in small groups, and a teaching laboratory. The new classroom was so successful that similar initiatives were added to the new Wake Will Capital Campaign.
The second change is that our Staff Assistant Heather Chapman left after having a baby in March. Eric Chapman, our Instructional Resources Manager, and Heather are the proud parents of Boyd, who was born on March 11, 2015. We wish Heather and Eric all the best. A new Staff Assistant, Lesley Whitener, has joined us in the Physics Department this month, and her husband Paul works as a UNIX Systems Architect for Wake Forest’s Information Systems. Previously Lesley worked as a Purchasing Agent for a plastics company in Mocksville, NC.
The Randall Ledford Scholarship is available to help recruit a first-year student beginning in the fall of the 2016-2017 academic year. This is a four-year half-tuition scholarship awarded to a promising incoming physics major attending Wake Forest University. The award is worth a minimum of $91,000.