User:Jjfarkle

I was born in 1940, and grew up in upstate New York. I demonstrated an early interest in things natural, but by high school had gotten more interested in physics and mathematics. I earned a BS and a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Notre Dame, focusing on surface science. Subsequently I spent two years working on ion damage to surfaces using LEED, as a post-doc for Harrison Farnsworth at Brown. Then I worked in industry for a few years before returning to academia at Saint Mary's College in South Bend, Indiana.

For many years my professional interests were in surface science: the oxidation of metals in which oxygen was soluble, hydrogen embrittlement in nickel based super alloys, and the formation of high temperature contacts on electronic grade silicon carbide. I established one of the few modern surface science laboratories in an entirely undergraduate institution, and the only one at a women's college.

For the past 10 or 12 years I have worked to improve the quality of science education in K-12 grades, primarily by working to change the attitudes and beliefs teachers have about science and science learning. I have visions of changing science education in the entire state of Indiana.

My private passions are soccer, stamp collecting, and for a while dressage. My greatest craziness was crossing the Isthmus of Panama on foot with two friends in 1961.