The Leigh Page Award for Excellence in Graduate Student Teaching recognizes broad and impactful contributions to physics education at Yale, both within our department and the broader community. The winners for the 2023-2024 academic year are John Garmon, a graduate student in Robert Scholkopf’s lab, and Joseph Lap, a graduate student working with Ian Moult.
Garmon and Lap both present a long list of experiences in science education and served as mentors and support in the practice of teaching, as attested by the comments given in their award recommendations, summarized below.
Garmon’s student-centered approach to teaching and infectious enthusiasm for physics has been an inspiration to the students in his classroom. He has had extensive impact on Yale students over the past four years by adapting to individual student needs and backgrounds and inspiring students by relating his own research on quantum computation intro coursework. Beyond his work in the classroom, he has also served as role model, mentor and leader for fellow Teaching Fellows (TF) and undergraduate peer teachers.
Lap presents a strong track record as an approachable and effective TF in Yale physics courses, but also brings extensive experience teaching high school students and summer programs focused on math and science. He has developed an innovative curriculum that highlights the work of physicists from underrepresented backgrounds as well as curriculum that integrates data science into undergraduate physics coursework. These teaching materials have been distributed to campuses beyond Yale.
We thank John Garmon and Joseph Lap for their excellent teaching contributions to Yale Physics and the wider community and look forward to their continued contributions to science education.