Prize Recipient

Heather J. Lewandowski
University of Colorado, Boulder

"For systematic and scholarly transformation of advanced laboratories in physics, for building leading assessment tools of laboratories, and for national service advancing our advanced laboratory educational community."

Heather J. Lewandowski received her B.S. in physics from Michigan Technological University in 1997 and her Ph.D. in physics from the University of Colorado, Boulder in 2002. She was then a National Research Council Postdoctoral fellow at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Boulder. She is currently an associate professor and associate chair of physics at the University of Colorado, and a fellow of JILA. She leads two research programs, one in experimental molecular physics, and the other in physics education research. Her molecular physics research efforts focus on studying interactions and reactions of cold, chemically important molecules and ions. Her physics education research program studies ways to increase students’ proficiency in scientific practices such as using models and quantitative reasoning in experimental physics.  She has received several awards, including a National Science Foundation CAREER award, an Air Force Office of Scientific Research Young Investigator Award, an Alfred Sloan Fellowship, a Provost’s Faculty Achievement Award, and a Fulbright Distinguished Chair Fellowship. She is a member of the American Physical Society, the American Association of Physics Teachers, and is vice-president of the Advance Laboratory Physics Association.

2019 Selection Committee Members: Elizabeth A. George (Chair), Natasha Grace Holmes (Vice-Chair), Ashley Carter, Tim Gfroerer, MacKenzie Stetzer, Kurt Wick