2025 National Board of Directors Election Candidate for Vice-President

Toby DittrichWilliam A. (TOBY) Dittrich

Physics Professor (Retired), Portland Community College, Portland Oregon
tdittric@pcc.edu; toby.dittrich@gmail.com

Education

1964-68 - Western Washington University, BS Physics
1969-73 - University of Colorado, Boulder, PhD Candidate, MS Physics
1972 - Fulbright Scholar, University of Bristol England
1978-79 - Energy Training, Oak Ridge Associated Universities, Oak Ridge TN
1981-82 - University of Washington, MS Aeronautical/Astronautical Engineering
1985 - Airman Flight School, University of Oklahoma, CFI, MEI, II. Flight Instructor>/p>

Employment

1975-89 - Adjunct Instructor of Physics: Western Washington University, Pacific Lutheran University, Highline Community College, Everett Community College, Seattle Central Community College.
1989-2024 - Physics, Portland Community College, Portland Oregon

Publications

  • US Patent 4,151,989 Collapsible Basketball Rim, 08/14/1984
  • US Patent 4,465,277 Basketball Training Device, 05/01/1985
  • US Patent 7,562,288 Instant Note Capture System – Voice to Text, 07/14/2009
  • US Patent 7,657,221  Virtual Oral Recitation System, Apparatus & Method, 02/02/2010
  • Measuring the Specific Heat of Metals by Cooling, TPT, 48(8):531-533, Nov 2010
  • Mechanical Parametric Oscillations and Waves, TPT, 51(3):163-165, March 2013
  • Drop Tower Physics, TPT, 52, 415–417 (2014), https://doi.org/10.1119/1.4895358
  • Law of Entropy Increase- A Lab Experiment, TPT, 54(6):348-350, September 2016
  • Introducing Voice Recognition into Higher Education. June 2018, https://doi.org/10.4995/HEAD18.2018.8080
  • Drop Tower Physics II, TPT, 60,605–607(2022) https://doi.org/10.1119/5.0098169
  • Energy Loss and Jerk on the Loop-the-Loop, AJP 89, 583–588 (2021), https://doi.org/10.1119/10.0003877
  • Modern Eddington Experiment (MEE2024), https://baas.aas.org/pub/2024i3n002/release/2
  • Modern Eddington Experiment (MEE2024) Results and Conclusions, https://baas.aas.org/pub/2024n9i040/release/1

Leadership Experience

  • US Marine Corps Officer Training School, Camp Upshur Virginia June-Sept 1963&1964
  • Owner and Operator, www.seatbelt.com , Oldest Traffic Safety Website on the Web 1995
  • Interim Director, Juneau Icefield Research Program 1998-2000
  • Chair of Physics Dept. Portland Community College 2000-2005
  • Interim Executive Officer, Pacific Northwest Association for College Physics 2008-2010
  • President, Northwest Educational Software Inc 2008 - 2012

Member

CSSA, TYC, PTRA, ALpha (introduced the new lab - Modern Eddington Experiment), Meeting Planning Committees over 10+ years of AAPT Service Oregon AAPT Section Representative 2022 – Present

Candidate Statement

I (William A.) have been fortunate to have spent most of my life being deeply associated with physics. This began in an on-campus grade school where my father (William J.) taught physics at Western Washington University for 42 years and was an AAPT member. To remove confusion from our names, I was always called Toby. We have been AAPT members for over 76 years combined. If you would like to know more about me, I was the May Member Spotlight (https://www.aapt.org/Membership/spotlight_May2025.cfm).

I think being a candidate for the Presidential four-year chain of service to AAPT is a tremendous honor and I take this challenge very seriously. The main reason is that normally this position would be very challenging because the duties are numerous and well defined on the AAPT website (just Google AAPT Vice President duties and responsibilities). I am fully capable of addressing these important tasks, but today there is more, much, much more, to deal with. It so happens that the four-year duty cycle for the elected Vice President exactly corresponds with the term of the US President. It exactly coincides with the likely four-year disastrous war on science! To fight back with 4000 unified voices, AAPT needs a focused and highly motivated leadership team, and I am ready to take part in that team effort with the Officers and staff of AAPT, the AAPT Board of Directors, and you as one of the four thousand active members.

In addition to the normal duties of the position, I have a few initiatives that I would work with the Board to accomplish. These initiatives are described here, and I believe would significantly improve AAPT’s relationship to members:
1) There are about 4000 AAPT members, and 3556 members are registered to Communities. This is very good, but only 894 members are involved in the Communities groups. I intend to produce more recruitment for Community involvement.
2) I believe the heart of AAPT lies with the Section Representatives Committee and member engagement in your local AAPT section. While there are 47 Sections, the SR Committee has only 51 members. I would strive to engage the SR Committee in the tasks of meeting the goal #1 above, but also in dealing with the decline in AAPT membership by recruiting new members in the Sections and hence in AAPT. My section, ORAAPT has set a goal of finding 3 new members a year, and if every Section did such, we would have 150 new AAPT members each year. And,
3) With the war on science going on nationally, there is also the elimination of DEI funding in science grants, colleges, and science organizations. As we work towards accomplishment of goals 1 and 2 above, I would encourage an intense and silent DEI effort to be continued. While great improvements have been made recently - more can be done, particularly in speakers for meetings.

Finally, the most important work ahead for the next four years will be done by the Advocacy Community as we all work together to vigorously attack the continuation of the demise in science, STEM education, scientific research, and continued progress in DEI. We all must continue the excellence in teaching and research by finding innovative ways to deal with less. For example, how are the major schools going to deal with lab instruction and teaching assistants when physics graduate admissions have plunged to as much as 25% (example MIT Fall 25)? I have been a leader in the resistance to the war on science, and as AAPT Vice President I will continue to promote everything we can do to end this war, restore funding, and maintain the world recognition of America as the leader in global science. Your vote would be greatly appreciated and returned by my continued and intensified ACTION!