Prize Recipient

Wendy K. Adams
Colorado School of Mines

"for the systematic development, dissemination, and evaluation of the physics education tool, PhET Interactive Simulations project, used world-wide by millions of students and their teachers."

Wendy Adams, a native Coloradoan, is a research associate professor of physics at the Colorado School of Mines. She earned her B.S. in physics from the University of Northern Colorado in 1994, and her Ph.D. in physics education research from the University of Colorado Boulder in 2007 in under the guidance of Carl Wieman. Adams’s research focuses on formative assessment and curriculum design. She is the author of the widely used CLASS, which measures students’ perceptions of physics and how to learn physics. She has done extensive work on problem solving evaluation; developed the interface design guidelines for the PhET Interactive Simulations; and has recently developed the Perceptions of Teaching as a Profession (PTaP) instrument. Adams also designed and developed several curricula including the Explore Sound project - K-14 materials for acoustics. Adams is an active member of the American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT) and the American Physical Society. Currently she is the chair of the Committee for Teacher Preparation at Mines and is leading a partnership with APS, AAPT, ACS (American Chemical Society), MAA (Mathematical Association of America), and others to create a joint campaign to recruit physics, chemistry, and math teachers.

2018 Selection Committee Members: Ken Heller (Chair), Mats Selen (Vice Chair), Howard Matis ('17 recipient), Dawn Meredith, Dave Pritchard, Toni Sauncy