Teaching
In sophomore year of college, I volunteered in an afterschool science club at a city school. I have been involved in teaching ever since.
Courses
Optics 262, Electromagnetic Theory, is a junior-level undergraduate class aimed at Optics/Optical Engineering majors, for whom it is required. The most optics-specific emphasis in the class is electric field polarization and manipulation by polarizers and waveplates. I have taught OPT 262 every year I have been at UR.
Optics 223, Quantum Theory, is a junior-level undergraduate class aimed at Optics/Optical Engineering majors, for whom it is required. It is currently taught in the spring. After many years of hoping to teach it, I first taught it from 2000-2004. At present I am teaching it every second cycle, in even-numbered spring years.
OPT 476 (graduate) / OPT 276 (undergraduate) is an elective course in Biomedical Optics. The course is a mixture of journal club discussions and deeper dives on selected topics, changing with the year. It is one of several full-semester courses in biomedical optics currently offered by faculty from Optics, Biomedical Engineering, and the Center for Visual Science. I taught it every second year from 2002-2019, and starting in 2024 will be teaching it again in odd-numbered spring years.
Over the years I have also taught several undergraduate laboratory classes in the Optics Teaching Labs: OPT 197 (now 201), 199 (now 203), and 256 (now 456 for graduate students). These range from the first semester of lab classes in sophomore year to the former capstone class for optics seniors, prior to the introduction of Senior Design and Senior Thesis into the curriculum. I haven’t taught a lab class for several years.