Contact:  Rick Peterson, Manager of News Services, 920/832-6590
For Immediate Release
March 29, 2000

Lawrence University Leadership in Computational Physics Instruction
Earns $177,000 Grant from National Science Foundation 


     APPLETON, WIS. -- A 15-year-long Lawrence University initiative
designed to develop skills in the use of sophisticated computational techniques
for problem solving in physics has been rewarded with a $177,026 grant
from the National Science Foundation. 
     The grant will support the conversion of Lawrence's accumulated
instructional and reference materials in computational physics into
publishable form and made available for use at other institutions.  The
materials consist of a library of more than 65 documents specifically
developed by David Cook, professor of physics and the Philetus E. Sawyer
Professor of Science.  More than a dozen physics majors collaborated
with Cook in writing and developing the curricular materials. 
     With the support of the NSF grant and in collaboration with
commercial publisher Brooks-Cole, Cook will begin converting Lawrence's
well-tested educational resources into a flexible group of modules that
can be readily assembled into a variety of specific texts. Physics
faculty at other institutions will be able to customize the
instructional materials to fit their curriculum or available computer
hardware and software. Beginning in the summer of 2001, Lawrence will
host a series of workshops for physics faculty from around the country
to unveil the instructional materials.
     "Despite the importance of computation to nearly every area of
modern physics, very few undergraduate physics programs make extensive
use of computing at the intermediate and advanced levels," said Cook.
"Many, if not most, physics programs teach computing skills at the
introductory level, but then fail to expand upon that instruction in
either advanced courses or student research applications.  Lawrence's
physics program has been an exception to that approach.  We've led the
way in integrating computers into all aspects of our physics
curriculum."
     Starting in the mid-1980s, Cook and his physics department
colleagues embarked on a major reform of the curriculum with a goal of
enhancing the scientific careers of Lawrence physics majors by
incorporating a broad exposure to computational approaches to problems
in physics.
     With support of grants from the W.M. Keck Foundation, the National
Science Foundation, and other sources, the department faculty created
the Lawrence Computational Physics Laboratory, embedded computer-based
demonstrations and exercises in many of its upper-level course offerings
and encouraged the independent use of computers by its students in other
courses and in senior-level independent studies. As a result of that
initiative, Lawrence students today use computers in both theoretical
contexts as well as laboratory applications and regularly employ
sophisticated computing techniques for data analysis, image processing,
and data acquisition. 
     Since 1987, Lawrence's physics education initiative has received
nearly $2 million in grants from national foundations, private
businesses and other sources and its success has been hailed repeatedly
as a national model for other colleges and universities to emulate.  In
October 1998, Lawrence was showcased as a "case study" on undergraduate
physics education at the national "Physics Revitalization Conference:
Building Undergraduate Physics Programs for the 21st Century" in
Arlington, Va.