Claude Meyers, a recently retired physics teacher from Greece Arcadia High School, is the recipient of the University of Rochester Laboratory for Laser Energetics’ 2004 William D. Ryan Inspirational Teacher Award. The $1,000 award is given to a teacher for motivating participants of the Laboratory for Laser Energetics’ (LLE) Summer High School Research Program to study in the areas of science, mathematics, or technology. Meyers was nominated by David Bowen, a participant in LLE’s 2001 Summer Program.
For the past 14 years, LLE has run a summer research program for high school juniors. These exceptional students have been inspired in the areas of science and technology by their parents and by outstanding teachers. The alumni of this program were asked to nominate those teachers who have inspired them.
“Even among the four or five teachers I would consider great, Mr. Meyers is still far above the greatest,” says Bowen. “The reason for much of Mr. Meyers’s student acclaim was his strong traditionalism. Every day in class, he would speak of nothing but physics. He impressed me as someone who was easily capable of being a college professor, or even a serious, doctorate-carrying researcher.” According to Bowen, Meyers once told another teacher that he had gone to Arcadia to “preach the gospel of physics.” He also talks about Meyers’ dedication to the students and how he spent long hours before school preparing experiments, most of which Meyers built himself.
For more information on the award or the High School Research Program, contact Riccardo Betti, professor of mechanical engineering, at (585)-275-5479.