As the senior marshal who walks at the head of formal processions of the Lawrence University faculty, David M. Cook puts into practice some of what he knows about keeping things in proper order -- a natural extension, perhaps, of his long-time interest in and teaching of computational physics. The founder of Lawrence's Computational Physics Laboratory, Cook was an early advocate of the use of computers in teaching and doing physics. His textbook, Computation and Problem Solving in Undergraduate Physics, is scheduled for publication in 2003, as is a re-issue of his 1975 work, The Theory of the Electromagnetic Field.
In the past two years, with the support of a grant from the National Science Foundation, he has brought a total of 50 physics faculty members from around the country to Lawrence for week-long workshops on "Using Computers in Intermediate and Advanced Undergraduate Physics" and has presented talks on the Lawrence approach to incorporating computation in the undergraduate physics curriculum at several national meetings of the American Association of Physics Teachers.
Cook, who is an active church musician and organist, includes musical acoustics and the physics of musical instruments among his research and teaching interests. Holder of the Philetus E. Sawyer endowed professorship in science, he joined the Lawrence faculty in 1965 and has spent his entire professional career at the college. Over the years, he has taught virtually all courses in the typical undergraduate physics curriculum, supervised nearly 50 senior-level independent studies, and collaborated in about two dozen full-time summer-long student projects. With John Brandenberger, the Alice G. Chapman Professor of Physics, he has played a key role in the on-going and increasingly successful efforts to position Lawrence's Department of Physics as one of the premier small physics departments in the country and a model for other institutions.