Dean Zollman
University Distinguished Professor & Head
Department of Physics

Dr. Dean Zollman is University Distinguished Professor, Distinguished University Teaching Scholar, and Head of the Department of Physics at Kansas State University.  During 2006-07 he is on-leave at Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich and IPN in Kiel where he is conducting research on teaching of medical applications of physics and on teaching of quantum physics.  

He has focused his scholarly activities on research and development in physics education since 1972. He h received three major awards – the National Science Foundations Director’s Award for Distinguished Teacher Scholars (2004), the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching Doctoral University Professor of the Year (1996), and American Association of Physics Teachers’ Robert A. Millikan Medal (1995).  His present research concentrates on investigating the mental models and operations that students develop as they learn physics and how students transfer knowledge in the learning process.  He also applies cutting edge technology to the teaching physics and to providing instructional and pedagogical materials to physics teachers, particularly those teachers whose background does not include a significant amount of physics. He has twice been a Fulbright Fellow in Germany. In 1989 he worked at Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich on development of measurement techniques for digital video. In 1998 he visited the Institute for Science Education at the University in Kiel where he investigated student understanding of quantum physics. Dr. Zollman is co-author of six videodiscs for physics teaching, the  Physics InfoMall database and one textbook.  Professor Zollman leads the Visual Quantum Mechanics project which develops materials for teaching quantum physics to three different groups of students -- non-science students, science and engineering students, and students interested in biology and medicine. The materials for non-science students are published by Ztek. Professor Zollman led the project which has resulted from KSU's Recognition Award for Integrating Research and Education from the National Science Foundation.  His present instructional and research projects include Modern Miracle Medical Machines, Physics Pathway, research on student learning.and the transfer of learning by elementary school teachers.

 Dr. Zollman earned his PhD in Theoretical Nuclear Physics from the University of Maryland – College Park (1970) and his MS (1965) and BS (1964) from Indiana University – Bloomington.