The Changing Face of AAPT
By Lila Adair, president
Look around and what do you see surrounding you – new people, new faces, new colleagues, and new ideas. Change and progress are necessities so there is no stagnation. Organizations, much like organisms, must change and grow in order that they can continue to be productive, vital and viable. Well, AAPT is no different. Within the past three years we have seen vast change in administration from the Executive Board, to the staff at the national office, to the Executive Officer. Again there will be change as Warren Hein becomes AAPT’s 11th Executive Officer on September 1, 2008.
When I joined AAPT, Arnie Strassenberg was the Executive Officer. I never worked with Arnie, because I was only active in my local section; but I knew who he was. He was a man ahead of his time, who made many wise decisions to move AAPT forward. He even moved our office from Washington, D.C. to Stony Brook so he could teach and run AAPT at the same time. When he decided to go back into full time teaching, AAPT started looking for a new Executive Officer.
In 1982 Jack Wilson became the new Executive Officer and instantly moved AAPT into the computer age by purchasing our first major computer to conduct AAPT business. Jack also wanted to teach part time and moved the office back to the University of Maryland in 1982 and in 1986 purchased our first permanent home, the Dodge Building. Under Jack’s leadership AAPT ventured into many new areas. In 1983 we joined NSF and NSTA in our participation in the first Presidential Award for Mathematics and Science Teaching, and in 1985 saw the first NSF funded Physics Teaching Resource Agents (PTRA) summer program. PTRA has become well known across America and even internationally as one of NSF’s most successful programs that has helped make thousands of high school and middle schools teachers better prepared to step into their classrooms. In 1986 Jack sent a group of 15 AAPT members to the ICPE Conference on Physics Education in Tokyo at Sophia University, which was the inspiration for the three USA/Japan/China conferences that were to follow, propelling us onto the international scene. 1986 also marked AAPT’s first participation in the International Physics Olympiad in London and the Inter-American Conference in Oaxtepec, Mexico, in both of which we continue to participate. Jack helped develop the Committee on High School and College Interaction (CHIC) which made strong inroads into bringing different constituencies of our membership together for the overall good of physics education. Jack was also instrumental in 1983 in obtaining PASCO’s gracious sponsorship of our now 49-year-old Apparatus Competition, which is still a highlight of our summer meetings. Jack yearned to go back into teaching and resigned to take a position at RPI. He currently serves as President of the University of Massachusetts.
In 1990 Bernie Khoury became the new Executive Officer. During Bernie’s sixteen years of service, AAPT flourished and ventured into more new areas. As Jack had increased participation in the high school area, Bernie oversaw the development of the TYC21 project which linked Two-Year College physics professors across America. Several NSF grants provided in-depth studies of the introductory undergraduate physics program and progress was made in updating those programs. In 1992, due to extensive growth in our number of programs run from the national office, we hired our first Association Executive Officer Jack Hehn, and in 1993 moved into our spacious new office at the American Center for Physics, along with AIP, APS and AAPM. AAPT helped revitalize the visiting fellow program by hiring Charlie Holbrow, who was instrumental in providing several outstanding topical conferences; the first ever conferences for graduate TA’s and another for physics department heads of major Research Universities, yet again venturing out to a new constituency in our membership. Many new NSF funded programs began at AAPT: ComPADRE, PhysTEC, New Faculty Workshop, Department Chairs Workshop, SPIN-UP and others. Many old programs were expanded, and we continued our active participation in international relationships. Bernie worked with Barbara Lotze to provide the very popular Lotze Scholarship for undergraduate physic majors planning on becoming physics teachers. The Physics Education Research (PER) community grew within AAPT and began holding their own PERC meeting at the close of the national summer meetings. AAPT was quickly becoming known as the major voice of physics education in America. In January 2006, Bernie announced that he wished to retire, and the search was on once again for a new Executive Officer.
In September 2006 Toufic Hakim became the new Executive Officer. Toufic brought with him a reenergized excitement for physics education and a willingness to step out into areas previously untouched by AAPT. He reorganized the national office staff and introduced a new modern logo and new slogans. He sponsored the first Area Chair-Section Representative Retreat to examine ways to restructure AAPT to perform more efficiently and to involve more people. He introduced a new magazine, Interactions Across Physics Education, and produced new on-line meeting programs and our first formal published Annual Report. He worked closely with APS to develop the Doubling Initiative and several other projects. During 2007, through creative trial discount programs, AAPT saw an increase in membership and attendance at meetings. Young graduate students and college professors became a new focus for AAPT, and a symposium and special events were planned for national meetings to involve those people. AAPT was changing rapidly and moving in a new direction.
In March of 2008 Toufic left AAPT, and we were fortunate to hire Charlie Holbrow as our new Executive Officer. Charlie was willing to accept the position, with the understanding that he would stay only six months. His extensive physics teaching experience and his long standing involvement with AAPT made him the perfect person for the job. Charlie has been hard at work, assessing and reorganizing finances, redesigning our web presence, and exploring options in our publications, while still maintaining all of our outstanding programs and grants. Time does not stand still, and Charlie has been involved in several new ventures, like the NSF proposal to begin a PTRA-like middle school set of workshops and a Texas Instruments-AAPT workshop this summer in Edmonton to honor the teachers of students who were successful in our International Physics Olympiad and Physics Bowl programs. Work continues to bring more underrepresented communities into AAPT, and Charlie is making major inroads into marketing ventures and publicizing AAPT on the web and in other media. Charlie will be returning home to Cambridge in September, and we appreciate all of his outstanding work during this time of transition, but together we must plan for the future.
On September 1, 2008 Warren Hein will become AAPT’s next Executive Officer. He will be returning to AAPT from NSF where he has been on leave for the past year serving as a Program Officer in the Division of Undergraduate Education. Warren spent ten years as our Associate Executive Officer, before accepting his current appointment at NSF, so he is well prepared to assume his new position and to move AAPT into the future. As Associate Executive Officer, Warren oversaw management, budgeting and funding in the national office. He worked with members, officers, staff and leaders of sister societies to foster the dissemination of physics knowledge, particularly through teaching. He also oversaw grants, interfaced with AAPT committees and state and regional sections, and advised the Executive Officer.
Warren received his B.S. degree from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater in 1966 and his Ph.D. in Nuclear Physics from Iowa State University in 1970. Prior to joining the AAPT in 1997, Warren taught physics at Northern State University in Aberdeen, South Dakota, from 1970-1979, and South Dakota State University from 1979-1997. He also served as Department Head from 1985-1997. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
As we look toward the future, we must never forget the past. Only by remembering our past successes and mistakes can we see how best to advance into AAPT’s future. Our members can look ahead to innovative, exciting, and substantive ideas as we work together with our new Executive Officer. Thanks to Charlie and those who came before as we look forward to our future with Warren.
