$400,000 Grant Supports Expansion of Lawrence "Signature" Programs in Physics
APPLETON, WIS. -- Amid a backdrop of national enrollment declines in physics majors and the elimination of physics departments at some institutions, Lawrence University's physics program is thriving. And its success in bucking that national trend continues to draw recognition.
Lawrence has been awarded a $400,000 grant from the Los Angeles-based W. M. Keck Foundation to expand its physics program and assist in the revitalization of undergraduate physics education nationally. This is the third grant the Lawrence physics department has received from the Keck Foundation since 1988, totaling $850,000.
In the mid-1980s, Lawrence launched an innovative physics initiative designed around two "signature programs." Under the direction of professors John Brandenberger and David Cook, Lawrence constructed two high-tech laboratory facilities -- a "laser palace" and a "computational physics laboratory" -- equipped with more than $500,000 worth of research-grade hardware.
The two programs focus on contemporary topics while generating specialty courses that emphasize student-faculty interaction and student learning.
The latest Keck grant will support the addition of a third signature program to the curriculum in surface physics under the direction of associate professor Jeffrey Collett. A specialist in condensed matter physics, Collett will develop a signature program that focuses on the effects of surfaces or "boundaries" on the properties of various materials, including semiconductor interfaces, thin magnetic films and liquid crystals, among others.
"Our new surface physics signature program represents a major attempt to bring condensed matter physics into the mainstream of undergraduate physics," said Collett, who joined the Lawrence faculty in 1995. "Exposure to advanced techniques in experimental condensed matter physics will enrich the education of physics majors while also helping train the next generation of condensed matter physicists.
"Our goal is to develop a model program many small physics departments can emulate."
In addition to establishing a third signature program, the grant Keck grant also will support an expansion of Lawrence's existing programs in laser and computational physics. Through a revision in the physics curriculum, virtually all Lawrence students, not just physics majors, will encounter a signature program earlier and more often during their college career.
"Signature programs are showcase-teaching endeavors that lend distinctiveness to a department and serve as powerful catalysts for change," said Brandenberger, a laser physicist and former head of the physics branch of the Council on Undergraduate Research as well as a fellow of the American Physical Society. "This grant will allow us to promote signature programs as generators of departmental vitality and improvement, not only at Lawrence, but at institutions around the country. We want to export, as it were, the concept of signature programs, emphasizing their importance in the teaching and learning of science."
To that end, members of Lawrence's physics department will be actively engaged in presentations at peer institutions as well as at major scientific conferences on the use of signature programs in departmental development and undergraduate instruction.
Cook, the recipient of a $175,000 grant from the National Science Foundation in 2000 to compile Lawrence's extensive instructional and reference materials in computational physics into a textbook for use at other institutions, says the Lawrence physics department has yet to tap its full potential.
"The addition of a third signature program will raise physics at Lawrence to a new level," said Cook. "We're poised to become one of the country's premier small physics departments."
The $400,000 Keck grant is only the most recent accolade for Lawrence's physics program. Last year, Lawrence was highlighted in two publications, Physics Today magazine, and the book, "Academic Excellence," which examined the role of physical science research at the undergraduate level.
Physics Today hailed Lawrence as "an undergraduate physics success story." It cited the breadth of the curriculum, the dedication and expertise of the department's faculty, an aggressive recruitment and outreach program and extensive student opportunities for advanced projects among the reasons for the program's success.
Lawrence was one of four institutions whose physics department was featured as a "model program" in the book "Academic Excellence." Published by Research Corporation, an Arizona-based foundation that supports advancements in science, the book profiles select institutions with national reputations that have achieved significant measures of distinction. Through a series of essays, the book examines the history, philosophy and benefits behind the inclusion of research in the undergraduate curriculum.
In 1998, Lawrence was one of only two liberal arts colleges showcased as a "case study" at the national "Physics Revitalization Conference: Building Undergraduate Physics Programs for the 21st Century" in Washington, D.C. The conference was co-sponsored by Project Kaleidoscope, a national alliance committed to strengthening undergraduate science.
More than half of Lawrence's physics majors go on to graduate programs in physics and related fields, a figure that places Lawrence in the upper tier among other undergraduate institutions.
The W. M. Keck Foundation is one of the nation's largest philanthropic organizations. It was established in 1954 by the late William Myron Keck, founder of The Superior Oil Company and focuses its grantmaking primarily on the areas of medical research, science and engineering. The Foundation also maintains a program for liberal arts colleges and a Southern California Grant Program that provides support in the areas of civic and community services, health care and hospitals, precollegiate education and the arts.