Published: May 26, 2021

Faculty Spotlight

Michael Bennett: Research Associate, JILA PFC Director Educational Outreach and Research听鈥� Informal Physics Education and PISEC Program

Mike Bennett joined JILA in 2016 and currently leads the JILA Physics Frontier Center听(PFC)'s outreach initiative as the Director of Educational Outreach and Research as well as Quantum Systems through Entangled Science and Engineering听(Q-SEnSE)'s Director of Education. Bennett is also the Director of the outreach program, where he oversees the implentation of PISEC's partnership-based informal STEM education initiatives, collaborating with both CU organizations and local K-12 educators to support PISEC's current efforts and to develop new opportunities for both volunteers and student participants. Bennett鈥檚 research focus is on physics education within an informal setting, such as after-school programs. His work is helping to contribute to understanding and improving informal physics educational programs.

Collaborating with undergraduate, graduate and professional researchers, Bennett leads the PISEC program to promote more effective learning in the field of physics education.

Research interests and current work

Bennett鈥檚 focus is on informal physics education, studying individual participants in PISEC as well as the program itself and supporting institutions. He is also an active member of CU Boulder鈥檚 Physics Education Research (PER) group. Bennett鈥檚 work helps push the forefront of studying the education of physics. According to Bennett: 鈥淭here is a lot of work on what happens in the classroom and not a lot of work on the informal space. So, a lot of what we鈥檙e doing is mapping and adapting, in some sense, a lot of those thoughts and frameworks onto this environment.鈥�

Education

Bennett received his bachelor鈥檚 degree in physics from Westmont College, California. He then earned his Ph.D. in experimental nuclear astrophysics from Michigan State University's National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory.

Quotable and notable

Bennett has been an active member within the PER community for a long time. He has sat on the organizing committee board for the annual PER conference, and edited their conference proceedings. Additionally, he has been a convening member of the JILA Excellence in Diversity and Inclusivity (JEDI) committee, and has been an instrumental part of the committee since its inception.

鈥淲hen I was in graduate school, I was supported by another Physics Frontier Center. So, JILA is the second PFC I鈥檝e worked with. I鈥檝e always been impressed by how central the broader impacts are to JILA鈥檚 culture. It鈥檚 something that is really baked in. So as the JILA Director of Education and Public Engagement, that makes my job a lot easier and more fun.鈥�