Keynote Speaker 2018_ Sunday

On the Joys of Teaching Experimental Optics

50 years ago I was greatly impacted while serving as an optics graduate teaching assistant at Michigan State, and that experience (much more than formal research) led directly to a postdoc at Los Alamos doing optical plasma measurements. I will highlight several subsequent challenging optics-lab teaching experiments that have been personally satisfying and fun, while it has sometimes been tricky to find experiments that creatively engage and challenge a very diverse group of students. We will reflect on some uses of light interference: stroboscopic real-time holographic interferometry, imaging sound in gas-filled resonators, and an interferometric Faraday effect study.

 

Richard W. Peterson

University Professor of Physics – Emeritus

Bethel University, St. Paul, MN 55112

Dick Peterson received a B.S. in physics at the U. of Wisconsin, River Falls and his Ph.D. in physics at Michigan State followed by a postdoc in optical plasma diagnostics at Los Alamos. Since coming to Bethel University, he has worked with dozens of students in developing new methods for fast interferometric and holographic measurements. He received the American Physical Society’s (APS) prize for outstanding research at an undergraduate school and was elected a Fellow of the APS in 2005. He was elected to serve (2003-2007) in the Presidential track of the American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT). In 2010 the Optical Society of America (OSA) recognized him as a Senior Member for professional service in optics and photonics, and he has served as a Traveling Lecturer for the OSA. He especially enjoys the development of new apparatus for interactive physics demonstrations and laboratories – including those of presentations in S. Korea, China, Latvia, and Kenya. In 2010-2012 he served as a Program Director within NSF’s Division of Undergraduate Education (DUE) and received the 2017 APS Jonathan F. Reichert Award for contributions to advanced undergraduate teaching laboratories.