Committee Member Biosketches

Susan Singer (Committee Chair) is the Laurence McKinley Gould Professor of Natural Sciences in the Biology Department at Carleton College, where she has been since 1986. From 2000 to 2003 she directed the Perlman Center for Learning and Teaching. She chaired the Biology Department from 1995 to 1998 and was a National Science Foundation program officer for developmental mechanisms from 1999 to 2001. In her research, she investigates the evolution, genetics, and development of flowering in legumes with an interest in prairie legumes as a biofuel source; many of her undergraduate students participate in this research. She is actively engaged in efforts to improve undergraduate science education and received the Excellence in Teaching award from the American Society of Plant Biology in 2004. She helped to develop and teaches in Carleton's Triad Program, a first-term experience that brings students together to explore a thematic question across disciplinary boundaries, as well as a problem solving introductory biology course to bridge the high school to college learning experience. She is a board member of the iPlant Cyberinfrastructure Collaborative and chairs their Education, Outreach, and Teaching Advisory Committee. She is a member of the Project Kaleidoscope Board of Directors. At the National Research Council, she was a member of the Committee on Undergraduate Science Education and the Steering Committee on Criteria and Benchmarks for Increased Learning from Undergraduate STEM Instruction and chaired the Committee on High School Science Laboratories: Role and Vision which authored America's Lab Report; currently she serves on the Board on Science Education and was a science consultant to the NRC Science Learning Kindergarten to Eighth Grade study which authored Taking Science to School . She has B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees, all from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Melvin George is president emeritus and professor of mathematics emeritus at the University of Missouri and the president emeritus at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota. He has served in a number of administrative positions in higher education. Dr. George is very active in issues of science, mathematics, engineering, and technology education, primarily at the postsecondary level, and was the chair of a National Science Foundation Committee that produced the report, “Shaping the Future: New Expectations for Undergraduate Education in Science, Mathematics, Engineering, and Technology.” He has been involved in a number of education related activities at the NRC including membership on the Mathematical Sciences Education Board (MSEB), and on the advisory boards for the Center for Education and DBASSE. He received a PhD in mathematics from Princeton.

Kenneth Heller is a professor of physics at the University of Minnesota. His research in high energy particle physics focuses on the properties of neutrino oscillations. He has conducted studies of quark dynamics from strong interactions of hadrons, quark confinement from magnetic moments of baryons and their weak decay properties, and muons from high energy interactions. He is also actively involved in research in physics education and served as the president of the American Association of Physics Teachers in 2006. He leads a physics education research group that is investigating better ways to teach problem solving through the use of cooperative groups, context rich problems and expert strategies. As part of this work he is developing techniques to assess problem solving in physics. He received his B.A. from the University of California and his Ph.D. in physics from the University of Washington in Seattle.

David Mogk is a professor of geology at Montana State University. His research interests in geology include the evolution of ancient (>2.5 billion year old) continental crust in SW Montana, petrologic processes in the mid-crust, spectroscopy of mineral surfaces and the search for life in extreme environments (Yellowstone hot springs to Lake Vostok ice core) as co-PI of the Image and Chemical Analysis Laboratory at Montana State University. He is actively involved in education research and innovation. He has recently worked on the development of the Digital Library for Earth System Education (DLESE) and the National Science Digital Library (NSDL) supported by NSF. Dr. Mogk has served as Program Director in the Division of Undergraduate Education at NSF (1995-96) and is past Chair of the Education Committee and Education Division of the Geological Society of America. He received the American Geophysical Union Excellence in Geophysical Education Award (2000). He is currently co-PI on numerous NSF-sponsored projects related to geoscience education and is a member of the EarthScope Science and Education Advisory Board. He received his BS from the University of Michigan and his MS and PhD from the University of Washington.

William B. Wood is a distinguished professor of MCD biology at the University of Colorado, Boulder, where he moved in 1975 after 12 years on the biology faculty at Caltech.  Dr. Wood received his Ph.D. from Stanford University in 1963. In 1972, he became one of the youngest members of the National Academy of Sciences in recognition of his pioneering research on the formation of complex viruses that infect bacteria. His recent research interests include genetic control and molecular biology of axis formation, pattern formation, and sex determination in development of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, as well as science education.  In 2002 he was awarded a Humboldt Research Prize to recognize a lifetime of scientific achievements in understanding the genetic control of early development.  In Boulder, he served multiple tenures as chair and associate chair of his department. Currently, he serves as Editor in Chief of the journal CBE-Life Sciences Education, as Chair of the NRC Committee on Summer Institute on Undergraduate Biology Education, and as a member of the NRC Board on Science Education (BOSE).  Previous Academy appointments include the Committee on Programs for Advanced Study of Mathematics and Science in American High Schools, the Committee on Developmental Toxicology, and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Predoctoral Fellowships Panel on Genetics and Molecular Biology. In 2004 he was designated a National Associate, in recognition of extraordinary service to the National Academies and the National Research Council.