Helen Quinn: Biographical Sketch

Helen Quinn is Professor and Chair of the Department of Particle Physics and Astrophysics at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, and Co-chair of Stanford University’s K12 Initiative. Dr. Quinn is a theoretical physicist who was inducted into the National Academy of Sciences in 2003and holds numerous honors, including the prestigious Dirac and Klein medals, for her research contributions. She served on the panel for “Taking Science to School” and chaired the panel that reviewed NASA’s K12 activities. She has had a long term engagement in education issues and has worked at the local, state, and national level on them. Her interests range from science curriculum and standards to the preparation and continuing education of science teachers. She was an active contributor to the California State Science Standards development. Dr. Quinn served as a member on the National Research Council (NRC)'s Committee on Physics of the Universe and on the High Energy Physics 2010 panel, and is currently a member of the Particle Astrophysics group for the Astrophysics 2010 Panel. She is a member and former President of the American Physical Society. She received her Ph.D. in physics from Stanford University in 1967.