CCS was honored to showcase 50 individuals and activities during our 50th Anniversary in 2017-2018 to share our rich history. Take a look at the amazing people responsible for making our unconventional College possible!   

My Years in CCS

I started teaching in CCS in the fall 1985, when David Cannell in the Physics Department asked me if I'd like to teach there and rebuild the CCS physics program.  At that time there were only two CCS physics students.  I developed the curriculum of the first two years of required CCS physics classes, and over the years I expanded and refined them. During my years in CCS, I recruited and advised countless students, many of whom went on to prestigious graduate schools in physics or related fields.  It was very difficult to recruit outstanding students because of the competition with top schools in the nation, but the program grew to over seventy students by the time I left, graduating about twelve to fifteen students per year.  My teaching was focused on presenting the fundamental principles of physics clearly and rigorously.  Each course was accompanied by a weekly two hour long problem-solving seminar, where the students would present and defend solutions to the problems assigned for the week.  At times it amazed me to see that some students who started out having difficulties caught up with the pace and level of the class over time and were able to present their solutions clearly and to answer questions that I put to them.  At other times I actually learned   from the students because they presented solutions which were highly innovative and elegant, solutions that I hadn't thought of.  Teaching the CCS students presented me with a great opportunity to learn physics in greater depth because I would have to answer their insightful questions and to prepare classes really well. 

Teaching the CCS students presented me with a great opportunity to learn physics in greater depth.

After the first two years of classes, the students started research with a faculty member in the physics department, and many would write a senior thesis based on their research.  Many would even publish articles in scientific journals. 

Regarding advising, I advised the students from the time they started through their senior year, and it was always a source of joy and a reward for me to see how well they would do in the upper division classes in the Physics Department or even in graduate level classes.  In that sense CCS is truly a graduate school for undergraduates.  At the end of the four years I was able to see how they would get offers from the top graduate schools in the nation and even abroad I keep in touch with some of them who have become professors and excel in physics or related fields.

During all my years in CCS I spent a great deal of time phoning high school  students to tell them about the program and to see if they would be interested.  It was part of the recruiting effort to try to attract top physics students.  Later when these students graduated  and I met their parents on graduation day, to my surprise some parents told me that I had done a very good job as a salesman and they were very glad that I had called their sons and daughters to induce them to participate in this wonderful program.  When they praised my skills as a salesman, I responded that my father had been a salesman and that apparently some of his skill had rubbed off on me.

In June 2010 I retired, and since then I've been teaching a special topics class one quarter per year. When I retired I was honored that the Physics Department and CCS established an undergraduate summer research fellowship in my name.  The scholarship has provided funding for one Physics student every summer since 2013. It's my hope that with time it may be able to fund more than one student. 

Ever since I started in CCS, David Cannell was a mentor to me, believing in me and supporting me.  His support was invaluable to me, and I will always be grateful to him.