Marta Dark McNeese
Spelman College
General Councillor
Biographical Summary
Marta Dark McNeese serves as a professor in the Physics Department at Spelman College. She received her B.S. in Physics with an Astronomy minor from the University of Virginia in 1992. Subsequently, she then attended MIT, receiving a Ph.D. in Physics in 1999. She worked as a Postdoctoral Associate in the Center for Bio-Molecular Science and Engineering at the Naval Research Laboratory for one year. In 2000, she accepted the position of Assistant Professor at Spelman College.
Dr. Dark’s research focus is laser interactions with biomaterials. She has contributed to research with various materials including the study of electro-optical effects on nematic liquid crystals, and the photoacoustic and photothermal effects in soft fibrocartilage tissues. She regularly participates in her Department’s activities to revise and reform the physics curriculum based on the modeling of real phenomena.
Dr. Dark has served on local and national committees, ranging from co-chair for the Chemical and Biological Physics section of the National Society of Black Physicists, to New York University’s “Physics in the Science Curriculum” Network Summer seminar. Currently, she is completing her term on APS Committee on Minorities. She has also served on the American Association of Physics Teachers Committee on Minorities.
Candidate's Statement
Because physics seeks to understand our universe, this field of science has been a source of intrigue and fascination since childhood. My research and teaching experiences have prepared me to be a translator of physics to the general public and to educate future physicists. I am deeply honored for the invitation to stand as a candidate for the position of General Councillor of the American Physical Society.
I believe there are three major challenges the physics community must address in the immediate future:
- We must convey the excitement of physical sciences to our youth, so that they will pursue careers in physics. It is crucial that we continue to attract the brightest minds to physics, so that the study of physics will continue to flourish. We must draw on our human resources from all backgrounds, encouraging women and members of underrepresented minorities to pursue physics as a profession.
- We must raise the level of quantitative literacy among the general public. In our scientifically and technologically advanced society, quantitative measures are presented daily, from sports statistics to probabilities of developing various cancers. In order to be a functional participant and educated citizen, the layperson must be quantitatively literate.
- The Society should continue to encourage the application of physics to solve the pressing problems of our day: climate change, energy, and modernizing/protecting infrastructure.
If asked to serve I will strive to help the APS find effective ways to meet its objectives.
