John S. Rigden, Ph.D., adjunct professor of physics in Arts & Sciences, received the 2005 Robert A. Millikan Award from the American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT). The award is given to a teacher who has made notable and creative contributions to the teaching of physics.
The recipient of the Millikan medal gives the Robert A. Millikan Lecture at the AAPT’s summer meeting. Rigden presented a talk titled “The Mystique of Physics: Relumine the Enlightenment” during this year’s meeting, which was held Aug. 6-10 in Salt Lake City, Utah. To read his talk, go online to aapt.org/events/sm2005/millikanlecture.cfm.
Rigden, former director of physics programs for the American Institute of Physics, has served on numerous committees of the AAPT, the American Physical Society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the National Academy of Sciences.
One other WUSTL physicist has received the award since it was established in 1962. Alexander Calandra, Ph.D., professor emeritus of physics, won it in 1979 and delivered a talk titled “The Art of Teaching Physics.”
Millikan (1868-1953) was the California Institute of Technology’s first Nobel Prize-winner. He was awarded the physics prize in 1923 for isolating the electron and measuring its charge.