Porter W. Johnson

Professor of Physics

BS: Case Institute of Technology
PhD: Princeton University
Office:    BCPS Department
Room 296 Life Sciences Building
Phone: (312) 567-5745       Fax:  (312) 567-3494
e-mail: Porter.Johnson@iit.edu

MY DAILY SCHEDULE

Professional Interests

I have an avid interest in The Physics of Baseball and have spoken frequently to groups of students and high school teachers on this subject. In addition, I have appeared frequently on radio and television programs, and have provided background information for newspapers.

From 1993 - 2006,  I was the co-director of the SMILE [Science and Mathematics Initiative for Learning Enhancement] program at IIT, working with Ken Schug [Professor of Chemistry], Ben Stark [Professor of Biology], and Earl Zwicker [Professor Emeritus of Physics]. The SMILE program  operated from 1986 to 2006.  Its mission has been to encourage teachers to bring interactive experiences into the classroom to enhance student understanding and appreciation of mathematics and science. There wais an academic year program in which elementary and high school teachers attend bi-weekly meetings, as well as an intensive summer program

In Summer 2000 I became co-director of the SMART [Science and Mathematics through Application of Relevant Technology] program, in which teachers learn to develop interactive web-based lessons in mathematics and science.  This program has operated during the academic year as well as the summer.

I served as Interim Chair for the 2000-2001 academic year for the Department of Mathematics and Science Education:

Department of Mathematics and Science Education
South Tower, Room 4007
3424 S State Street
Chicago, IL 60616
(312) 567-3661
Contact: Norman G. Lederman, MSED Chair.
My recent research interests in high energy theoretical physics  involve dynamical mass generation in formally massless quantum field theories. In particular, I  made a number of studies of fermion mass generation in Quantum Electrodynamics in three and four dimensions. The interest lies in QED in its own right, as well as in other theories for which the effective coupling strength varies quite slowly with changing momentum scale.  Over the years I have collaborated continually with Professor David Atkinson, who recently retired from the Institute for Theoretical Physics of the State University of Groningen [Rijksuniversiteit te Groningen], in the Netherlands.

By clicking on the appropriate item, you will go to these documents:

MY DAILY SCHEDULE

SMILE:

SMART

Professional

Course Information

Personal / Hobbies


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