Meghan DiBacco Awarded AAPT's Doc Brown Futures Award

AAPT has announced that the 2026 recipient of the Doc Brown Futures Award is Meghan DiBacco. The Doc Brown Futures Award recognizes early-career members who demonstrate excellence in their contributions to AAPT and physics education and exhibit the potential to serve in an AAPT leadership role. The award will be presented during the 2026 Winter Meeting.

"It is an honor to be selected for this award. The physics community has helped me grow and supported me in my early career as an educator. I look forward to becoming more involved to help the next group of early career educators,” said DiBacco.

A member of AAPT since 2019, she earned both her B.S. and M.S. in Geophysics at the University of Houston, where she is also a teachHOUSTON alumna. DiBacco currently serves as an AP Physics 1 & 2 Teacher, AP Physics 1 Team Lead, and AP Physics 1 District Course Co-Lead at Jordan High School, Katy Independent School District, Katy, Texas.

From the very start of her teaching career, DiBacco became an active and engaged member of AAPT. She was introduced through the Texas Section of AAPT, and she quickly immersed herself in the community. She presented at meetings, joined the High School Committee, and worked with the PTRA Program. She also works in other areas of physics as a Leader for Quantum for All and a presenter at the Conference for Advancement in Science Teaching (CAST), the largest science education conference in Texas.

Even though DiBacco is in her eighth year as a high school physics teacher, she has accomplished a great deal with her students, her school, and in her involvement in physics education. She served as a district curriculum writer for AP Physics 1 and the new quantum TEKS for Academic Physics and presented the new TEKS to Academic Physics teachers in the district.

For her students, she has not only created differentiated, hybrid teaching materials for physics labs and lessons, but she has also created and implemented differentiated 5E inquiry instruction for AP/GT Physics I and Academic Physics. She presented some of this work at the Spring 2021 Texas Section AAPT/APS/SPS Virtual Conference. Her presentation, “Demonstration and Instruction in a Hybrid Classroom,” was part of a special session on Physics Teaching in the Era of the Pandemic. 

DiBacco has twice been awarded the Katy ISD Outstanding Educator Award, chosen by a student excellence awardee. She has also been awarded the Cinco Ranch High School PTSA Lifetime Membership award. She served as faculty sponsor for the nationally recognized FIRST Robotics Competition Team 624 CRyptonite at Cinco Ranch High School for 6 years, managing over 60 students and adult mentors. The robotics team has won numerous local, regional, state, and even national honors. In 2019, DiBacco became a STEP UP ambassador, and she has been actively involved as an ambassador within her school, district, and beyond. She presented a STEP UP Physics Together workshop at the Texas Section AAPT/APS/SPS meeting in the Spring of 2021. She presented a different STEP UP workshop at the Spring 2022 TSAAPT/APS/SPS meeting. Both workshops were virtual workshops with a large number of participants. She also presented a STEP UP workshop at the Western Regional Noyce Conference in Portland, OR, in 2020.

DiBacco has been part of the Quantum for All project since its beginning in 2021. She began as a member of the Instructional Leader Support Team and has contributed to the development of instructional materials for the project. She presented during the 2021 Summer Institute. She hosted one of the 2022 QfA Summer Institutes at the Katy ISD Robert R. Shaw Center for STEAM. She was one of the co-presenters for the teacher portion of the Institute and helped support the participants as they presented to students. She continued to develop and refine instructional materials for the project, expanding her role and presenting at the 2023 and 2024 Summer Institutes. 

For the TSAAPT, she has been active by attending the twice-annual meetings, presenting oral presentations, and leading workshops. She was recently voted as the Council Member at Large for High Schools, a three-year term, and represented high school (and K-8) interests on the Council of the TSAAPT. She also represents the TSAAPT at the Science Teachers Association of Texas (CAST) meetings and conference. Within AAPT, DiBacco serves on the AAPT Physics Bowl Advisory Committee, the AAPT Early Career Task Force, the AAPT Committee on High School Physics, and is a PTRA.

It is not just Meghan’s ability to run a vibrant high school physics program, to conduct excellent workshops and give excellent talks, to help run the TSAAPT, to make major contributions to the PTRA Texas and national programs, and to motivate students and faculty in physics, it is just as much about her intense interest in physics and physics education that qualifies her for this award.

About the Award
Robert William Brown (Distinguished University and Institute Professor in the physics department at Case Western Reserve University) has had a rewarding five-decade career in teaching, research, and entrepreneurship. An Inaugural Fellow of the AAPT, Doc Brown is associated with a number of educational innovations, including an early use of a fiberoptics electronic educational environment (1980s), of an early use of undergraduate teaching assistants (1990s), of published PER work on both “post-exam syndrome” and its treatment, and “cycling” or structured revisiting of classroom material. His teaching led to the writing of a thousand-page MRI textbook, which has been called the "daily companion of the MRI scientist.” Doc Brown has received five regional national teaching honors on his innovations in undergraduate and graduate teaching, and in 2004 received the AAPT Excellence in Undergraduate Physics Teaching National Award. A partnership with his wife, Janet Gans Brown has taken them to highlight the importance of AAPT in a shared life and their gratitude by this endowment.

About AAPT
AAPT is the premier international organization for physics educators, physicists, and industrial scientists—with members worldwide. Dedicated to enhancing the understanding and appreciation of physics through teaching, AAPT provides awards, publications, and programs that encourage practical application of physics principles, support continuing professional development, and reward excellence in physics education. AAPT was founded in 1930 and is headquartered in the American Center for Physics in College Park, Maryland.

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