Robert J. Kolenkow is an American
physicist and teacher. He is best known for being the coauthor, along with
Daniel Kleppner, of a popular undergraduate physics textbook, ''
An Introduction to Mechanics''.
Kolenkow did his undergraduate work at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, graduating in 1955. For a time, he was an associate professor of physics at MIT. His departure in 1971 generated some controversy on campus; he was regarded as an excellent teacher by his students, however, the administration was viewed as being more concerned about research than education when making its
tenure decisions.
Kolenkow became a professor at
Carleton College
Carleton College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Northfield, Minnesota. Founded in 1866, it had 2,105 undergraduate students and 269 faculty members in fall 2016. The 200-acre main campus is between Northfield and the 800-acre Cowling ...
in
Northfield, Minnesota. He also co-authored a textbook on
physical geography which was favorably reviewed.
Books
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*
External links
* Column concerning Kolenkow's denial of tenure.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kolenkow, Robert J.
Year of birth missing (living people)
Living people
Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni
Massachusetts Institute of Technology School of Science faculty
21st-century American physicists
American textbook writers