Science education topic of Rustgi lecture

Published April 17, 2014 This content is archived.

Following on the themes addressed by President Barack Obama during his visit to UB last August, distinguished physicist and National Academy member Helen Quinn will  talk about changes in science education at the 20th annual Moti Lal Rustgi Memorial Lecture presented by the Department of Physics.

Quinn’s talk, titled “What is Changing in Science Education, and What does that Mean for You and your Children?” will take place at 5 p.m. April 25 in Woldman Theatre, 112 Norton Hall, North Campus.

Quinn will discuss recommendations for changes in STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) education in grades K-12 and for undergraduate college students that have been proposed by the National Academies, some of which currently are being implemented by New York and several other states.

The lecture, which is free and open to the public, will be of special interest to parents with school-age children, to teachers and administrators in the Buffalo Public Schools, and to everyone in Western New York concerned with educational issues.

A theoretical physicist, Quinn serves as chair of the National Research Council’s Board on Science Education. She holds numerous honors for her research contributions, including the prestigious Dirac and Klein medals, and most recently, the 2013 J.J. Sakurai Prize, with Roberto Peccei,.

Professor emerita in the Department of Particle Physics and Astrophysics at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Stanford University, she was inducted into the National Academy of Sciences in 2003.

For information, contact the physics department at (716) 645-2017 or at ubphysics@buffalo.edu.

The annual Rustgi lecture is held to honor Moti Lal Rustgi, professor of physics at UB from 1966-92.