Chandralekha Singh Becomes President of AAPT
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
College Park, Maryland, February 24, 2020—During the 2020 Winter Meeting in Orlando, Florida, the presidential gavel was presented to Dr. Chandralekha Singh. She will serve as President of the American Association of Physics Teachers for the coming year. Singh, Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy and Founding Director of the Discipline-based Science Education Research Center at the University of Pittsburgh, has previously served on the AAPT Board of Directors as President-elect and Vice President.
Regarding her service to AAPT, Singh said, "This position comes with the opportunity to lead an organization that I revere and work with dedicated and enthusiastic colleagues who share my passion for enhancing the understanding and appreciation of physics through teaching."
One of Singh’s goals will be to bring pre-college and college physics educators closer together. “We will continue to build strong partnerships between pre-college and college physics educators and take advantage of the great opportunity that AAPT provides to interact with and learn from each other to improve the learning of our students.”
Singh will also focus on expanding professional development activities for physics educators that focus on making physics classrooms inclusive and equitable. “These activities can help physics instructors improve students’ sense of belonging and create a low anxiety learning environment in which all students can contribute to physics related discussions without fear of being wrong.”
A past member and chair of the AAPT Committee on Graduate Education in Physics, Committee on Women in Physics, and the committee on International Physics Education, Singh has also served as the Chair of the APS Forum on Education. She was the chair of the editorial board of Physical Review Special Topics Physics Education Research (2010-2013). She has co-organized two physics education research conferences (2006 and 2007) and was the co-chair of the 2010 Gordon Conference on Physics Research and Education. She was a co-organizer/member of the steering committee of the first and third conferences on Graduate Education in Physics (2008 and 2017) and chaired the second conference on Graduate Education in Physics (2013). She co-led the US team to the International Conference on Women in Physics in Birmingham UK in 2017.
Singh, an active member of APS and AAPT, has been recognized with the Homer L. Dodge Citation for Distinguished Service to AAPT (2012), as AAPT Fellow (2014) and as APS Fellow (2011). She is also a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2017).
About AAPT
The AAPT is the premier national organization and authority on physics and physical science education with members worldwide. Our mission is to advance the greater good through physics education. We provide our members with many opportunities for professional development, communication, and student enrichment. We serve the larger community through a variety of programs and publications. AAPT was founded in 1930 and is headquartered in the American Center for Physics in College Park, Maryland.
For more information: Contact David Wolfe, Director of Communications, dwolfe@aapt.org, (301) 209-3322, (301) 209-0845 (Fax)