Chad Orzel is a professor of physics and science author, noted for his books ''How to Teach Quantum Physics to Your Dog'', which has been translated into 9 languages, and ''How to Teach Relativity to Your Dog''. Chad as a

science communicator Science communication is the practice of informing, educating, raising awareness of science-related topics, and increasing the sense of wonder about scientific discoveries and arguments. Science communicators and audiences are ambiguously def ...

is a regular contributor on

Forbes.com ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also re ...

, on his personal website, and, through October 2017, on ScienceBlogs.com, while continuing his work as an associate professor at

Union College Union College is a private liberal arts college in Schenectady, New York. Founded in 1795, it was the first institution of higher learning chartered by the New York State Board of Regents, and second in the state of New York, after Columbia Co ...

Background

Chad was born and raised in central

New York state New York, officially the State of New York, is a state in the Northeastern United States. It is often called New York State to distinguish it from its largest city, New York City. With a total area of , New York is the 27th-largest U.S. stat ...

, near

Binghamton Binghamton () is a city in the U.S. state of New York, and serves as the county seat of Broome County. Surrounded by rolling hills, it lies in the state's Southern Tier region near the Pennsylvania border, in a bowl-shaped valley at the conflue ...

. After attending

Williams College Williams College is a Private college, private liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Williamstown, Massachusetts. It was established as a men's college in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim Williams, a col ...

, he spent two years as a post-doctoral researcher at

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

, studying quantum mechanical effects in Bose-Einstein Condensates.''Contemporary Authors'' vol. 339, 2013. (available online as part of Gale's Literature Resource Center

/ref> He received his Ph.D. in Chemical Physics studying laser cooling at the National Institute of Standards and Technology from the

University of Maryland, College Park The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the University System of Mary ...

under

Nobel Laureate The Nobel Prizes ( sv, Nobelpriset, no, Nobelprisen) are awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Swedish Academy, the Karolinska Institutet, and the Norwegian Nobel Committee to individuals and organizations who make out ...

William Daniel Phillips William Daniel Phillips (born November 5, 1948) is an American physicist. He shared the Nobel Prize in Physics, in 1997, with Steven Chu and Claude Cohen-Tannoudji. Biography Phillips was born to William Cornelius Phillips of Juniata, Pennsylva ...

. He is an associate professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at

Schenectady, NY Schenectady () is a city in Schenectady County, New York, United States, of which it is the county seat. As of the 2020 census, the city's population of 67,047 made it the state's ninth-largest city by population. The city is in eastern New Y ...

where he specializes in

atomic, molecular, and optical physics Atomic, molecular, and optical physics (AMO) is the study of matter-matter and light-matter interactions; at the scale of one or a few atoms and energy scales around several electron volts. The three areas are closely interrelated. AMO theory in ...

. Chad maintained a blog a
Uncertain Principles
and has made web based presentations including a number of TED ED Talks. He was named a Fellow of the American Physical Society in 2021.

Writing career

In addition to teaching and doing research at Union, he maintained the physics-oriented blog ''Uncertain Principles'' as part of the ScienceBlogs project. (He now blogs a
his own site
) He published his first book, ''How to Teach Quantum Physics to Your Dog'' (also called ''How to Teach Physics to Your Dog'') in 2009. The book and its sequel ''How to Teach Relativity to Your Dog'' explain scientific concepts using a fictionalized version of Orzel's dog as an

audience surrogate A narrative technique (known for literary fictional narratives as a literary technique, literary device, or fictional device) is any of several specific methods the creator of a narrative uses to convey what they want —in other words, a stra ...

. The writing of Orzel comes from his passion for science and as responsibility as a scientist as referenced in Physics Central where he talks about his path to writing. "Along the way, Orzel became passionate not only about doing physics research but also about sharing his excitement about science with the public. In fact, Orzel views telling the world about the results of his experiments as one of the primary responsibilities of a scientist." His latest publication out in 2018 ''"Breakfast with Einstein. (The Exotic Physics of everyday Objects)''" takes a walk through a typical life and looks at all the physics that is going on around us. He is currently working on another book entitled ''"A Brief History of Timekeeping"''.

Personal life

He lives in Niskayuna, New York with his wife, Kate Nepveu, their two children. Emmy, the dog which was the sound board of exploring physics in his popular books ''"How to Teach Quantum Physics to Your Dog"'' and ''"How to Teach Relativity to Your Dog"'' has passed away but he introduces a new addition to the family by way of his blog in an entry entitled ''"Meet Charlie"'', another rescue dog.

Publications

* ''How to Teach Quantum Physics to Your Dog'' (Scribner, 2009) * ''How to Teach Relativity to Your Dog'' (Basic Books, 2012) * ''Eureka! Discovering Your Inner Scientist'' (Basic Books, 2014) * ''Breakfast with Einstein: The Exotic Physics of Everyday Objects'' (BenBella Books, 2018) * "Scientific Failure as a Public Good: Illustrating the Process of Science and Its Contrast with Pseudoscience" () in ''Pseudoscience: The Conspiracy Against Science,'' edited by Allison B. Kaufman and

James C. Kaufman James C. Kaufman is an American psychologist known for his research on creativity. He is a Professor of Educational Psychology at the University of Connecticut in Storrs, Connecticut. Previously, he taught at the California State University, Sa ...

(MIT Press, 2018) * ''A Brief History of Timekeeping'' (BenBella Books, 2022)

References

External links

Union College web pageBlog, ''Uncertain Principles''
*TED Ed Talks
Particles and waves: The central mystery of quantum mechanics
',
What is the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle?
',
Schrödinger's cat: A thought experiment in quantum mechanics
',
Einstein's brilliant mistake: Entangled states
'
Forbes.comScienceBlogs.comChadOrzel.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Orzel, Chad Living people 21st-century American physicists University of Maryland, College Park alumni Quantum physicists Science bloggers Year of birth missing (living people) Fellows of the American Physical Society