Professor Finkelstein is well known in the CU-Boulder community as a physics education researcher who studies the conditions that stimulate students’ interest in physics and support (or inhibit) their understanding of this challenging subject. One of the principal investigators and directors of the Physics Education Research Group, Professor Finkelstein has published more than 75 peer-reviewed articles since coming to CU-Boulder in 2003. He serves on four national boards in physics education, including the Physics Education Research Leadership Organizing Council and the Executive Board of the American Physical Society’s Forum on Education. His previous honors include the Outstanding Graduate Faculty Advising Award (2010), the Boulder Faculty Assembly Excellence in Teaching Award (2007), first place in the National Science Foundation (NSF)/Science Magazine’s International Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge (2007), an NSF CAREER Award (2005), and a current NSF award to build a Center for STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) Learning at CU. A winner of CU’s Diversity and Excellence Award, Professor Finkelstein annually leads a delegation of students to the National Association of Black and Hispanic Physicists conference.
