Wolfgang W. Bauer (born April 5, 1959) is a University Distinguished Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at
Michigan State University
Michigan State University (Michigan State, MSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the fi ...
. He is also an author, with co-author
Gary Westfall, of the introductory calculus-based physics textbook "University Physics", published by
McGraw-Hill
McGraw Hill is an American educational publishing company and one of the "big three" educational publishers that publishes educational content, software, and services for pre-K through postgraduate education. The company also publishes referenc ...
in 2013 (2nd edition).
Research
Wolfgang Bauer obtained his Ph.D. in theoretical nuclear physics from the
University of Giessen
University of Giessen, official name Justus Liebig University Giessen (german: Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen), is a large public research university in Giessen, Hesse, Germany. It is named after its most famous faculty member, Justus von L ...
in 1987. After a post-doctoral fellowship at the
California Institute of Technology
The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech or CIT)The university itself only spells its short form as "Caltech"; the institution considers other spellings such a"Cal Tech" and "CalTech" incorrect. The institute is also occasional ...
, he joined the faculty at Michigan State University in 1988. He has worked on a large variety of topics in computational physics, from high-temperature superconductivity to supernova explosions, but has been especially interested in relativistic nuclear collisions. Since 2010 he has concentrated on renewable energy resources (solar arrays, anaerobic digester) and energy conservation measures.
Nuclear physics
Prof. Bauer has a dual appointment at the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory, where he works on nuclear physics topics. He is best known for his work on phase transitions of nuclear matter in heavy ion collisions,
and transport theory of heavy ion collisions, in particular as applied to interferometry, particle production, collective flow, and isospin degrees of freedom.
LON-CAPA and Textbook
Prof. Bauer has taught physics and astronomy classes on the undergraduate and graduate level since 1988. He is particularly interested in the introductory physics curriculum for engineering and science majors. For decades he has collaborated closely with his MSU colleagues Walter Benenson and
Gary Westfall. They obtained NSF funding to develop novel teaching and laboratory techniques, and authored multimedia physics CDs for their students at MSU's Lyman Briggs School. Based on this work they co-authored cliXX Physik, a complete physics textbook on CD-rom. In 1992, they became early adopters of the Internet for teaching and learning by developing the first version of their online homework system. In subsequent years, they were instrumental in creating the LearningOnline Network with CAPA (
LON-CAPA
LON-CAPA (Learning Online Network with Computer-Assisted Personalized Approach) is an e-learning platform, also known as a Course Management System (CMS) or Learning Management System ( LMS). It possesses the standard features of many learning pla ...
), which is now used at more than 70 universities and colleges in the United States and around the world. Since 2008, Bauer and Westfall have been part of a team of instructors, engineers, and physicists, who investigate the use of peer-assisted learning in the introductory physics curriculum. This project has received funding from the NSF STEM Talent Expansion Program, and its best practices have been incorporated into their textbook "University Physics", which was published in 2010 by
McGraw-Hill
McGraw Hill is an American educational publishing company and one of the "big three" educational publishers that publishes educational content, software, and services for pre-K through postgraduate education. The company also publishes referenc ...
, and which has also been translated into Chinese, Korean, Portuguese, and Spanish languages. The second edition was published in 2013, and an e-book in 2015.
Other research topics
Prof. Bauer has worked on nonlinear dynamics and chaos, where he is best known for he work on billiards systems and their decays and for his work on buckyball fragmentation. He also worked in bio-medical physics and holds a US patent on cell-by-cell cancer detection.
In recent years, he has focused much of his research and teaching on issues concerning energy, including fossil fuel resources, ways to use energy more efficiently, and, in particular, alternative and carbon-neutral energy resources. He has been a member of the group designing the
energy transition
The energy transition is the process of downshifting fossil fuels and re-developing whole systems to operate on low carbon energy sources. More generally, an energy transition is a significant structural change in an energy system regarding ...
plan for Michigan State University.
Administrative positions
* Head of Nuclear Theory Group, National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory (1997-1998)
* Associate Chair and Undergraduate Program Director, Department of Physics and Astronomy, MSU (1998-2001)
* Chairperson, Department of Physics and Astronomy, MSU (2001-2013)
* Founding Director of the Institute for Cyber-Enabled Research (2009-2013)
* Senior Consultant, Office of the Executive Vice President, MSU (2013-2018)
* Associate Vice President for Administration, MSU (2018-2020)
* President, MSU Foundation (2019)
Honors
Professor Bauer was awarded the National Science Foundation Presidential Faculty Fellow Award in 1992 and the Alexander-von-Humboldt Foundation Distinguished Senior U.S. Scientist Award (Humboldt-Forschungspreis für Naturwissenschafler aus den USA,
Humboldt Prize
The Humboldt Prize, the Humboldt-Forschungspreis in German, also known as the Humboldt Research Award, is an award given by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation of Germany to internationally renowned scientists and scholars who work outside of G ...
) in 1999. He was elected Fellow of the
American Physical Society
The American Physical Society (APS) is a not-for-profit membership organization of professionals in physics and related disciplines, comprising nearly fifty divisions, sections, and other units. Its mission is the advancement and diffusion of k ...
in 2003. Also in 2003, Professor Bauer received the ComputerWorld 21st Century Achievement Award for Education and Academia for his work on LON-CAPA, "Judged best IT application in the world in Education and Academia". In 2007 he was named University Distinguished Professor at Michigan State University.
In 2012 he was named Outstanding Referee by the American Physical Society.
Publications
Scientific publications
* https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=oQQOzjUAAAAJ&view_op=list_works
Textbooks
*
** Korean translation:
** Spanish translation:
*
*
References
External links
Bauer's home page at MSUNational Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory home pageHome page of the Physics Department at MSUThe LearningOnline Network with CAPA project
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bauer, Wolfgang
Living people
German emigrants to the United States
21st-century American physicists
Michigan State University faculty
Fellows of the American Physical Society
1959 births