Rebecca Lindell, PhD

Founder, Tiliadal STEM Education: Solutions for Higher Education

Rebecca has over 25-years of experience in the fields of Physics and Astronomy Education Research. She completed her doctorate work in Physics and Astronomy from the University of Nebraska Lincoln, where she studied under the direction of Prof. Bob Fuller (Physics) and Prof. John Creswell (Education). After completing her graduate work, Rebecca joined the Department of Physics at Kansas State University as their Director of Instructional Support before leaving there to work as an assistant professor of physics at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. Rebecca eventually had to go on disability from her faculty position at SIUE. She is best known for her research on college students’ understanding of lunar phases and the development of the Lunar Phases Concept Inventory, as well as her further work into the development of research-based conceptual learning assessment instruments to measure students’ conceptual understanding. In addition to her research, Rebecca is an award-winning curriculum developer who has received national and international recognition for her innovative astronomy and physics instructional materials and methods. In addition to her part-time research and consulting business, Rebecca currently enjoys advocating for other disabled physicist concerning their accessibility issues.

Liam McDermott

I am a 3rd year graduate student at Rutgers University, working with Dr. Geraldine L. Cochran, and examining the identity development and political agency of neurodivergent/Neuroqueer physicists. I have extensive experience developing physics and physics education communities, teaching multiple years of physics education learning communities at Iowa State, developing Iowa State's physics outreach program, engaging with underserved communities through the ISU-4U program, helping organize Iowa State's Society of Women in Physics and Astronomy, and chairing the Equity and Inclusion Journal Club through Rutgers's Minorities in Physics and Astronomy organization. I have also taught 3rd and 4th grade science and middle school physical science. I am incredibly excited and honored for this opportunity to help organize PERC 2023 and strengthen our PER Community of Practice!

Jason Morphew

Jason Morphew is an Assistant Professor at Purdue University in the School of Engineering Education and the Department of Curriculum and Instruction. He is also affiliated with the Center for Advancing the Teaching and Learning of STEM and the INSPIRE Research Institute for Pre-College Engineering at Purdue University. His research multidisciplinary, spanning the learning sciences, educational technology, discipline-based education, and cognitive psychology. He has contributed to research in several areas important to learning, including embodied cognition, metacognition, self-regulated learning, and learning technologies. Dr. Morphew’s research focuses on self-regulated and co-regulated learning in STEM contexts with a focus on educational technology. In particular, his research focuses on the development, implementation, and evaluation of adaptive and embodied learning technology.

Mary Urquhart

Dr. Mary Urquhart is a planetary scientist by training with a Ph.D. in Astrophysical, Planetary, and Atmospheric Sciences from the University of Colorado at Boulder and postdoctoral experience at NASA Ames Research Center and NASA JPL. She is an associate professor and head of the Department of Science/Mathematics Education in the School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics at the University of Texas of Dallas (UT Dallas), and an affiliate associate professor of physics. She also serves as director of the UTeach Dallas secondary STEM teacher preparation program and the physics and Earth/space science content specialist for the UT Dallas Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) program in Science Education. In 2022-2023, Mary is the immediate past president of the national UTeach STEM Educators Association (USEA) and is active in USEA communities of practice. She is also the 4-year college representative on board of the Texas Section of AAPT as well as a Texas Space Grant representative. Her current scholarly and creative is in instructional design for conceptual change, teacher education and professional development, and assessment. She serves on multiple multidisciplinary research teams involving educators, physicists, computer scientists, animation experts, and geoscientists.

Lyle Barbato

I've been building physics education websites for 20 years, with PER-Central, PhysPort, and Periscope being noteworthy PER-related collections. It is now time for a PER-Central refresh and I am volunteering as a PERC 2023 organizer to see if/how PER-Central can provide tools to build a stronger PER community of practice. I have also competed nationally in Bridge, have a number of Golf trophies, and I'm known for my Avoyelles Parish, Louisiana genealogy research.