Dr. Catherine Mader of the Hope College physics faculty has been appointed to a three-year term on the Committee on Careers and Professional Development of the American Physical Society (APS).
The committee coordinates activities and programs which provide information and advice about physics careers and the professional development of physicists. The committee also advises the APS leadership in matters relating to professional development of physicists and future physicists. Mader's term will begin in January and continue through the end of 2011.
Mader is a professor of physics and chairperson of the department at Hope, where she has been a member of the faculty since 1993. During a sabbatical during the 2007-08 school year, she served as an education projects consultant with the Education and Diversity Group of the APS in Washington, D.C. Since her return to Hope this fall, she has continued to work on a variety of projects on behalf of the APS.
Her research emphasis is in the area of heavy ion reaction theory and she is also engaged in several curriculum-development projects. She regularly involves Hope students in her research program.
Mader has received support for her research from external agencies including the National Science Foundation and Research Corporation, and has had multiple articles published in research journals and presented her work at numerous professional meetings.
She joined the Hope faculty as a visiting assistant professor, and became an assistant professor in 1994, an associate professor in 1999 and a full professor earlier this year. She was acting chair of the department during 2004-05 and has been chair since 2005.
Mader completed her B.Sc. and M.Sc. in engineering physics from Colorado School of Mines in 1987 and 1989 respectively, and her doctorate in physics at Michigan State University in 1993.
Founded in 1899, the American Physical Society seeks to advance and share the knowledge of physics. In addition to holding scientific meetings, the society publishes scholarly journals; is active in public and governmental affairs and the international physics community; and conducts extensive programs in education, public outreach and media relations. The society has some 46,000 members.