CLS Biological Physics/PoLs Pedagogy Fellowship
The University of Chicago’s Center for Living Systems (CLS), an NSF Physics Frontier Center, is seeking a few (1-3) part-time Curriculum Fellows (advanced graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, or faculty members) to curate and potentially develop curricular materials for teaching Biological Physics/Physics of Living Systems within the undergraduate and graduate physics curriculum. These materials will be disseminated internationally for use by the Biological Physics/PoLs community.
As recommended by our recent Summit in Biological Physics Education, the CLS is launching a repository of such curricular resources, intended both for standalone biological physics courses and for incorporation into the core undergraduate physics curriculum. Our primary focus will be materials suitable for coursework beyond the standard Introductory Physics sequence. The Fellow(s) will curate and potentially develop those resources, beginning with class-tested contributions from our network of PoLS faculty. Individuals will work closely with both CLS leadership and national leaders in biological physics education to achieve the CLS goal of disseminating high-quality, open source, flexible materials. Specific responsibilities will include reviewing, editing, organizing/formatting, and potentially extending or supplementing submitted materials; communicating with authors; and potentially collaborating with other curricular repositories. Some administrative support will be provided by the CLS.
The scope of effort of the Fellow position is flexible. At this point we seek qualified and motivated individuals who may be interested to work anywhere from 30 to 300 hrs (in total). Compensation will be commensurate with the amount of work performed and the Fellow’s experience and expertise. Funding may be commensurate with a standard quarterly or semester TA position for a grad student, a month of summer salary for a postdoc or faculty member, or other models matching the Fellow’s effort; we do not anticipate funding more than 30% annual salary for any individual. Funding is available for the next five years of the Center. We hope to select 1-3 committed individuals for this project.
Eligibility for graduate students and postdocs includes: (1) endorsement from the trainee’s primary research advisor, (2) support of Catherine Crouch (CLS Affiliate leading pedagogy development) and CLS Director (Margaret Gardel) and, (3) successful completion of appropriate graduate coursework in Physics.
Faculty may be located at any higher academic institution, but have a primary appointment in a Physics Department and regularly teach advanced undergraduate and/or graduate courses involving biological physics. Demonstrated excellence in and a strong interest in biological physics curriculum and pedagogy is necessary.
Those interested should contact Catherine Crouch (ccrouch1@swarthmore.edu) or CLS Director (Margaret Gardel; gardel@uchicago.edu) directly to discuss this opportunity further.