Richard N. Steinberg
Spencer Postdoctoral Fellow
Physics Department
University of Maryland
Richard N. Steinberg received his B.S. degree in physics and mathematics from Binghamton University in 1986. He then went to Yale University where he earned a M.S. degree in physics, a Ph.D. in applied physics and a secondary teaching certificate from the Yale Teacher Preparation Program. His doctoral research was in experimental solid state physics. After graduation, Richard joined the Physics Education Group at the University of Washington as a postdoctoral research associate. His activities involved research in physics education, teaching (underprepared minorities, pre-engineers, physicists, teachers), and curriculum and software development. His research interests included investigations of student understanding of physics (electronics, electricity and magnetism, physical optics, modern physics); research as a guide to curriculum development (teacher classes curriculum, introductory physics tutorials); and research as a guide to instructional software development. Richard joined the Physics Education Research Group at the University of Maryland in 1995, and has been there since. His interests now also include evaluating the effectiveness of technological teaching tools; research into the assessment of student understanding; investigations of student learning strategies and attitudes towards doing physics; research into student understanding of the role of mathematics in physics; and research into student understanding of quantum mechanics. Richard has won a Spencer postdoctoral fellowship from the National Academy of Education for 1998-2000. With this award he is conducting research into the role of instructional technology in student understanding of science.