Teaching

I teach physics at UC San Diego, where I have been on the faculty since 2004.

Courses

My regular teaching includes quantum mechanics at the upper-division undergraduate level (PHYS 130B), along with courses in astrophysics, cosmology, and observational technique. Course websites, syllabi, problem sets, and grading policies are distributed through Canvas and the campus course listings; enrolled students should look there first, since those materials are kept current and anything posted here would not be.

How I teach

Physics is not a body of facts to be transmitted; it is a set of habits for finding out whether you are fooling yourself. I try to teach the habits. That means fewer worked examples that come out clean and more attention to estimation, to dimensional analysis, to limiting cases, and to the question of what a result would look like if it were wrong. Feynman’s standard — that you do not understand something until you can explain it plainly — is the one I grade against, and it is harder to meet than it sounds.

Office hours and advising

Office hours for the current term are posted on the course Canvas site. Students who want to talk about research rather than coursework should read the group page first and then write to me; that page explains what I look for and what the group is currently working on.

Outside the classroom

I serve on the boards of several organizations concerned with science and mathematics education, including Math for America San Diego, the National Museum of Mathematics, the Arthur C. Clarke Center for Human Imagination, and the San Diego Air & Space Museum.