Research and Practice
October 12-14, 2007 Roosevelt University, Chicago
Lillian C. McDermott
Lillian Christie McDermott is a Professor of Physics and Director of the Physics Education
Group at the University of Washington. She received her B.A. from Vassar College and a Ph.D. in experimental
nuclear physics from Columbia University in 1959. A Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of
Science and the American Physical Society, Professor McDermott has been a Councillor of the APS and a member of
the APS Executive Board. Among her awards are the American Association of Physics Teachers highest award,
the Oersted Medal (2001), the AAPT Millikan Lecture Award (1990), and the Council of Scientific Society
Presidents Education Research Achievement Award (2000).
For more than two decades, Prof. McDermott has worked to establish research on the learning and teaching of physics as a field for scholarly inquiry by physicists. Under her leadership, the Physics Education Group conducts a coordinated program of research, curriculum development, and instruction. Graduate students in the group may earn the Ph.D. in physics by doing research in physics education. The instructional materials developed by Professor McDermott and her group are used nationally in undergraduate courses (Tutorials in Introductory Physics, Prentice Hall, 1998, 2002) and in special physics courses for the preparation of K-12 teachers (Physics by Inquiry, Wiley, 1996). In addition, the group is actively engaged in faculty development through TA preparation seminars and professional development workshops for college and university faculty.
W. James Lewis
W. James "Jim" Lewis is a professor in the Department of Mathematics and Director of the Center
for Science, Mathematics, and Computer Education at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Previously, he served as chair
of the Department of Mathematics for 15 years, during which time the department won the University of Nebraska's 1998
University-wide Departmental Teaching Award and a 1998 Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and
Engineering Mentoring.
Lewis is an award winning teacher and an elected member of UNL's Academy of Distinguished Teachers. He also has received awards from the UNL Chancellor's Commission on the Status of Women and the Lincoln-Lancaster County Women's Commission for his support of opportunities for women in the mathematical sciences. He was a co-PI for the Nebraska Math and Science Initiative, Nebraska's NSF-funded SSI and for Math Matters, a NSF grant to revise the mathematics education of future elementary school teachers at UNL. Currently, he is lead PI for Math in the Middle Institute Partnership, an NSF-funded Math Science Partnership.
Lewis has served as Chair of the AMS Committee on Education and as Chair of the MAA Coordinating Council on Education. Currently, he is a member of the National Research Council's Committee on Teacher Preparation Programs in the United States. He was chair of the Steering Committee that produced the CBMS report, The Mathematical Education of Teachers, and co-chair of the NRC Committee that produced Educating Teachers of Science, Mathematics, and Technology: New Practices for the New Millennium. He received his Ph.D. in mathematics from Louisiana State University.