Introduction
The 19th Annual Fall Campuswide Workshop for Graduate Teaching Assistants, sponsored by the Office of Graduate Studies, is scheduled for Tuesday, August 18, 2009, in the Nebraska Union. The program will feature a variety of skills sessions, topical interest groups and a lunch buffet, compliments of the Office of Graduate Studies.
Session Descriptions
Schedule and Registration Form
PDF Schedule (single-page, printer-friendly PDF format)
Keynote
This year's keynote speaker is Dr. Christopher Sorensen, University Distinguished Professor of physics and chemistry at Kansas State University.
The world of physics fascinates Dr. Christopher Sorensen, University Distinguished Professor of physics and chemistry at Kansas State University. And so does student learning.
Named Outstanding Doctoral and Research Universities Professor of the Year in 2007 by the CASE/Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Dr. Sorensen was described by one student as deeply devoted to his craft: teaching physics. He has both a passion for his field and for his students. Over the course of his faculty career, Sorensen has created, developed and taught undergraduate courses for Kansas State's physics department, where he makes "physics come alive." He also created and teaches a summer experimental science and engineering workshop for teenage girls and supervises high school student research.
Dr. Sorensen has been recognized for his many teaching accomplishments. Besides being named U.S. Professor of the Year, he's received a Stamey Teaching Award (twice), the Commerce Bank Undergraduate Teaching Award, the Presidential Award for Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching and the Commerce Bank Distinguished Graduate Faculty Member Award.
His research focuses on light scattering, optics, water and aqueous solutions, phase transitions and critical phenomena, metastable liquids, nanoscale particles, combustion physics and aerosol physics. He has received numerous research grants, published more than 230 professional publications and holds six patents. He has received the David Sinclair Award of the American Association for Aerosol Research and, in 2008, he won a Higuchi-KU Endowment Research Achievement Award. Sorensen is a member of many professional societies, including the American Physical Society, the American Chemical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Dr. Sorensen is a native of Omaha, Neb., and received a bachelor's degree in physics at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He received both his master's and doctorate degrees in physics from the University of Colorado.
We're excited to welcome him "home" as this year's keynote speaker!
