Richard Philip Taylor - Materials Science Institute - University of ...

2.6 Teaching/education
• In addition to my three teaching awards (see section 2.2), in 2011 the UO website announced that I was
one of its “champion professors” (the students’ top 25 professors).
• I have gained a wide experience of different approaches to university-level physics education by
teaching in the UK, USA, Australia and New Zealand to over 7000 students.
• I have taught a wide spectrum of undergraduate and graduate courses, with class sizes up to 500
students. Recent physics courses I have taught include Electrostatics, Magnetism, Physics of Light and
Color, and General Physics. A recent evaluation by students gave me a rating of 9.7 out of 10 (where 5
is the UO average rating).
• My research has been the subject of undergraduate lectures at other universities e.g. “Art and Physics”
(Physics Department, Hong Kong University), “Complexity” (Philosophy Department, Xavier
University, USA), “Aesthetic Computing” (University of Florida, USA), “Math in The Art Curriculum”
(Mathematics Department, Connecticut College, USA), “Science and Art”(Art History and Physics
Departments at Boston College, USA) “Methods in Written Communication” (English Department,
University of Alaska, USA), “Computational Physics (Physics Department, Oregon State University,
USA) and “From Hamiltonians to Chaos” (School of Physics and Astronomy, Nottingham University,
UK).
• My research appears in college level educational DVDs “Chaos Theory” (by Steven Strogatz, Cornell
University) and “The Quantification of Style” (by Dan Rockmore, Dartmouth College) published by the
Teaching Company (USA).
• My work has been the subject of graduate-level and high school exam questions, demonstrating the
wide-spread impact of my research on education (e.g. Senior Secondary Assessment Board of South
Australia, November 2007).
• I hold a Courtesy Professor position in Psychology at UO. My teaching responsibilities have included
co-chairing the Complexity and Nonlinear Dynamics Focus Group, which included a research seminar
series for undergraduates and graduates from Psychology, Physics, Human Physiology, Computer
Science and the Teaching Effectiveness Program.
• I have held a Courtesy Professor position/affiliated membership of Art (2003-present) at UO and I am
an affiliated member of the Comparative Literature Faculty. I participated in a ‘Pathways’ scheme at
UO that unites Physics and Arts courses. I gave lectures at an international sketch class (Italy 2004)
organized by the UO Art Department and contributed to the associated art exhibitions (2005). I was
awarded a US$75k scholarship to develop courses to communicate science to arts students and have
also been invited to give an education talk “Teaching Across the Art-Science Divide” at the 15 th Annual
Cottrell Scholar Conference, July 2009, Tucson, USA.
• I helped to develop an educational PhD program at UO (“Interdisciplinary Materials Program to
Accelerate the Transition from Student to Scientist”) and served on the committee (2001-5 and 2008-9)
that administers the associated US$2,759,000 grant from the National Science Foundation.
• I have promoted education across society, including supervising exams taken by prison inmates (Eugene
Jail, 2008-9, BUS 318Z Parts 1-4, for Adams State College, Colorado).
• Recent research supervision (1995-2012) included 3 post-doctoral associates, 1 research associate, 15
Ph.D. students, 8 Masters students and 21 undergraduate students. This includes students majoring in
physics, mathematics, chemistry, computer science, psychology, human physiology and philosophy. I
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