Dr. Marie Lopez del Puerto, chair of physics at the University of St. Thomas in Minneapolis-St. Paul, received the American Physical Society’s 2023 Excellence in Physics Education Award.
She and her collaborators at The Partnership for Integrating Computation into Undergraduate Physics (PICUP) were recognized for “developing an active, inclusive, and supportive community of physics educators dedicated to integrating computation into their instruction; creating, reviewing, and disseminating instructional materials; and generating knowledge of computation in physics curricula and of effective practices.”
In particular, Lopez del Puerto has developed numerous educational resources, including work with St. Thomas students on implementation of completed code in various programming languages for PICUP exercise sets. She has planned and delivered over 20 half-day or full-day faculty development workshops at regional and national meetings of the American Physical Society and the American Association of Physics Teachers, as well as four weeklong workshops at the University of Wisconsin – River Falls.
Lopez del Puerto has organized PICUP conferences and given numerous presentations and invited talks. She most recently gave a plenary talk on “Computation in the Physics Curriculum,” at the 33rd International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP) Conference on Computational Physics, held the University of Texas at Austin from Aug. 1-4, 2022.
The award, presented annually, consists of a $5,000 stipend, a certificate citing the achievements of the individual or team, and an allowance for travel expenses of up to $2,000 to the APS April Meeting where the award is presented. The stipend is split equally among members of teams selected to receive the Award. The APS Forum on Education may consult with the nominator to determine which members will represent the team with invited talks at the April Meeting and receive travel reimbursements.
