Gordon Research Conference 

The Complex Intersection of Biology and Physics      

June 8 – 13, 2014   

Chairs: Mel Sabella & Matthew J. Lang

Vice Chairs: Duncan Brown & Dean A. Zollman

Location: Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, MA

Application Deadline: Applications for this meeting must be submitted by May 11, 2014.    2014 Conference Flyer

The fields of biological physics and the physics education of biology and other health-science students have experienced tremendous growth in recent years. New findings, applications, and technologies in biological and medical physics are having far reaching consequences that affect and influence the science community, the education of future scientists and health-care workers, and the general population. As a result, leaders in Physics Education Research have begun to focus their attention on the specific needs of students in the biological sciences, the different ways physicists and biologists view the nature of science and the interactions of scientists in these disciplines.

This conference is an opportunity for:

  • Biophysicists and medical physicists to discuss discoveries, technologies, and experiments that excite students and emphasize the physics content in ways that help physicists use them in their teaching at all levels;
  • Teachers of physics to discuss the development of new laboratories and curricula by infusing them with biologically- and medically-related topics;
  • Physics education researchers and teachers of physics to reflect on: the type of content that is appropriate and motivational for biology and health-science majors, the types of skills that are important for this population and how these skills differ from engineers and physicists, and the types of resources that exist for teaching at the interface of physics and biology (e.g. textbooks, labs, assessment tools, etc.).

Confirmed speakers include: Edward Redish, Catherine Crouch, Todd Cooke, Ross Nehm, Jose Helim Aranda-Espinoza, Phil Nelson, David Weitz, Steven A. Wasserman, Ashley R. Carter, Barbara Hughey, Jane Kondev, Wonmuk Hwang, Edit Yerushalmi, and Wolfgang Losert.

Link to Gordon Research Conferences website