2005 - Ryan Beams - Ph.D. student at University of Rochester
2004 - Ben Noonan - Ph.D. student at Hebrew Union College
2001 - Nathaniel Wentzel - Graduate student, research assistant, Lehigh University
1998 - Neil Steiner - Ph.D. candidate
1993 - David Daniels - Director of Risk Analysis, Digital Sandbox, Inc.
1989 - Jeff Rylander - Instruction Supervisor for Science
1988 - Jon Scott - High School Physics Teacher
1980 - Doug Wiens - Professor, Washington University in St. Louis
1969 - John Dunlop - Physician, Bioethicist
1962 - John Munro - Oak Ridge National Laboratory
1956 - Richard Holt - Retired
Ryan Beams
Graduation Year: 2005
Major(s): Physics
Current position: Ph.D. student at the University of Rochester
Please describe your life journey since you graduated from Wheaton College.
Currently I am a second year graduate student at the University of Rochester studying nano-optics. My first year consisted difficult, but doable, course work. Following my first year I joined a research group and began my Ph.D. research on quantum dots using low temperature microscopy and spectroscopy. The second year was less focused and more stretching as I was taking classes, researching, and working as a teaching assistant. All of these were important, but it was impossible to fully commit to any of the tasks. Currently I am researching and enjoying the summer. Outside of work my wife and I are involved in a local church, we spend time with friends, and are exploring the city Rochester.
In what way has your Wheaton education in physics or engineering prepared you for your current (or past) job?
Despite not having taken as many physics courses as students from larger universities, I found that I was very well prepared for graduate school. In my first year I was able to apply skill acquired at Wheaton and the method of thinking to new subject matters with great success. I feel that the small class size and close contact with the professors created a strong foundation in physics and problem solving techniques as well as relationships that would have been difficult to form at a university. Undergraduate physics should primarily provide a skill set that can be applied to various situations in graduate school or the work place and accomplishes this effectively.
Do you have any words for young students considering a physics or engineering major?
Physics is a challenging major, but well worth the struggles. Regardless of your final career path the problem solving skill and work ethic developed by majoring in physics will serve you well anywhere you go.
Ben Noonan
Graduation Year: 2004
Major(s): Physics
Current position: Ph.D. student, Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion (Cincinnati, OH) in Hebrew Bible and Ancient Near Eastern Studies
Please describe your life journey since you graduated from Wheaton College.
While majoring in physics as an undergrad, I also took both Greek and Hebrew because of my own interest in these languages. I had toyed around with minoring in Ancient Languages, but the requirements were such that I would have to stay a whole extra year just to do this minor. My junior year, I learned about Wheaton’s accelerated M.A. program, which allows you to start taking M.A. classes your senior year and hence be able to finish your M.A. with only one year of courses after undergrad graduation. The accelerated M.A. program seemed like a good way for me to be able to pursue both of my interests—both physics and biblical studies/ancient languages. I applied and was accepted to the program. So, after I graduated from Wheaton in May 2004 with a B.S. in Physics, I stayed in Wheaton for another year to finish my M.A. in May 2005 in Biblical and Theological Studies with a concentration in Biblical Exegesis.
As I continued my graduate studies, my interest in biblical languages and biblical studies grew. While my interest in physics remained and I still enjoy physics very much, I decided that (for the time being at least) my interests were such that I wanted to pursue the field of Old Testament studies more, and I felt the Lord leading me to doctoral studies. After talking with various professors and getting their advice, I began looking at Ph.D. programs in Old Testament. I applied to several different schools, and when it came time to make the decision as to where I would do doctoral work, I chose Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati, OH. Several of my Old Testament professors at Wheaton had actually graduated from Hebrew Union years ago, and they were able to tell me many positive things about the school. Hebrew Union has a solid program that emphasizes ability in ancient languages of the ancient Near East (such as Akkadian, Sumerian, Ugaritic, Aramaic, and, of course, Hebrew) to provide a proper context for understanding the Old Testament.
Now it is the spring of 2007, and I am in my second year of courses at Hebrew Union. Next year will be my final year of coursework, after which I will spend about a year studying for comprehensive exams, and after that I will be able to begin my dissertation. My career goal now is to teach Old Testament, Hebrew, and the like at a Christian college or seminary—I hope to be able to return to Wheaton and teach there in order to give back to the school and shape the lives of others, as I know how much of a impact my experience at Wheaton has had on my life in so many ways. While my current career direction does not relate to physics, I am glad that I majored in physics at Wheaton. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and it has prepared me for what I am doing now in many ways.
In what way has your Wheaton education in physics or engineering prepared you for your current (or past) job?
My Wheaton education in physics has prepared me for my current studies in many ways. My training in physics taught me about problem solving and how to think about various theories and concepts. While problem solving is obviously different in the humanities than in the natural sciences, there is still much overlap, I think. When you approach an idea or concept, it helps to approach it in both a methodological and creative manner. Physics taught me both, as there is both the need for method and the need for creativity in solving physics problems. The methodological side has helped me in language study, which is also very methodological. On the creative side, physics has helped me in learning to “think outside the box” when attempting to solve a problem, enabling me to be creative in my scholarship. There is something fun and exciting in finding the balance between the two, and physics has given me an appreciation for this that I can apply to any theory or concept that I approach in my current studies.
While often said, it must not be forgotten that physics is practical in many ways. Thus, one of the reasons that I appreciate my education in physics is that I also have the skills to approach a situation and figure out why something works the way it does. The practicality of physics is something I can use on a regular basis and something that anybody can use, regardless of what their future career may end up being.
Lastly, physics has encouraged and instilled in me a love for the sciences that I will never lose. For this, I am very glad that I chose to major in physics at Wheaton. Whereas many of my colleagues have only majored in the humanities over the course of their education experience, I have a unique background in both the natural sciences and the humanities. Both are wonderful and complementary fields that God has given us the abilities and gifts to study, which we should be very thankful for. It is good for everyone to be as well-rounded in terms of their educational experience as they can, and I feel that majoring in physics has been a very important part of a well-rounded education through which, in the midst of my Old Testament studies, I can appreciate the sciences and physics in particular.
Please describe the relationship of your Christian faith with your scientific training or career path.
My Christian faith provides a framework for understanding the world as God’s intentional and purposeful creation. God has graciously given us both the abilities and opportunities to use our intellect to discover, explore, and investigate different aspects of his creation. By studying physics, we can make use of these gifts within this framework, and we can also see various elements of God’s character that are reflected by his creation, such as his power, majesty, beauty, and love.
Do you have any words for young students considering a physics or engineering major?
I would highly encourage those who have an interest in physics to pursue that interest. Without repeating myself too much, I would just reiterate the ways that I described above in which physics has impacted my life and given me very practical skills that I am able to use on a regular basis. Physics provides a good basis for problem solving, creativity, and methodology. Thus, it helps you learn how to think and approach different concepts and ideas. The study of physics is also very practical and can be applied to a wide variety of everyday things. Lastly, physics enables one to study a thrilling and fascinating aspect of God’s creation. While physics can be a difficult and challenging field, be encouraged—it is also very exciting and rewarding.
Nathaniel Wentzel
Graduation Year: 2001
Major(s): Physics
Current position: Graduate student, research assistant, Lehigh University
Please describe your life journey since you graduated from Wheaton College.
I began graduate school at Georgia Tech a few months after graduating form Wheaton. After a year I left from Georgia Tech with an MS to attend my second choice of graduate school, Lehigh University. That was probably the best decision that I ever made, because my reasons for picking Georgia Tech ignored some very important points in selecting a graduate school, such as whether any of the research would interest me. God graciously left the door open at Lehigh and provided me with both interesting research and an adviser who I enjoy. Along with that, taking most of the first year graduate curriculum twice certainly did not hurt my education!
Currently, I do theoretical and computational research studying statistical physics, specifically phase transitions of proteins in solution. I also sing in a symphonic chorus and serve at my church, to relax and remain sane. My future plan is to do postdoctoral research for a few years and, hopefully, to go on to teach at a liberal arts college.
In what way has your Wheaton education in physics or engineering prepared you for your current (or past) job?
Wheaton provided me with an excellent foundation in physics, for a liberal arts college. Going into graduate school, that foundation helped me to build more advanced knowledge in physics.
More importantly, though, studying physics at Wheaton provided me with an opportunity to learn things that many science students miss in their education. I was introduced to economics and sociology, two disciplines where physics has the potential to make interesting contributions. Both formally and informally, I was trained to pay attention to science as part of the academic and industrial world. Most scientists I meet have no understanding of even basic philosophy and sociology of science, subjects that I learned at Wheaton without even taking classes in those areas. Many scientists I meet also spend a great amount of energy putting up walls between sciences and other academic disciplines, something I have no desire to do. Because of Wheaton, I have seen the richness of thought that can come when people from diverse disciplines inspire each other and work together.
Please describe the relationship of your Christian faith with your scientific training or career path.
Being a Christian in physics has not been difficult for me. Non-Christians who I meet in physics are generally respectful of my faith. As long as I listen to them they usually open their ears to hear me share with them why I believe in Christ and what God has done for me. As cliché as it sounds, science is an excellent mission field; it is often an enjoyable one.
I do struggle at times with relating science and my own Christian faith, and I know, from my Wheaton professors and from every other Christian I meet in science, that I am not alone. My Wheaton professors were excellent role models in shaping my faith as a scientist, allowing me to see that it is okay for me to ask questions and to change my mind because of the answers. Since Wheaton, I have sometimes felt lonely as a Christian in the academic world, but I have always been able go to my Wheaton classmates and professors or to other Christians in science to find encouragement.
Do you have any words for young students considering a physics or engineering major?
When I was finishing high school I was torn between planning to go into full time ministry and being a scientist. I asked my pastor what he thought, and he told me “You’ve wanted to be a scientist for years. That should mean something to you.” Those words came back to me several times when I thought I should change my major, and I am glad that I heeded them. A few years later, still unsettled about my choice, I asked a distinguished scientist and Christian how he knew that God wanted him to be a scientist. He looked at me a little funny, like it was an odd question, and said “For the same reason as anyone else, probably. I thought that I would enjoy it and I figured that I could do it. If I had been wrong, God would have set me straight.” That put me at ease about my choice. When I was at Georgia Tech, desperately trying and failing to find reasons to stay there, my sister told me “You really do have trouble just doing what God wants, don’t you?” She was right. In front of me stood a clear change that I needed to make in my plans but I was treating it like I would treat a trick question. Through all of this, I learned that choosing the right thing to do was really much easier than I often make it.
If you are interested in Physics or Engineering then chances are you will be a good fit. If you are not a good fit, or if you fit better somewhere else, then you will probably know soon enough to change course. If you are interested but unsure about what is best for you then be open to changing to something better that could come along, but never let being unsure stop you from trying.
Neil Steiner
Graduation Year: 1998
Major(s): Liberal Arts / Engineering
Current position: Ph.D. Candidate
Please describe your life journey since you graduated from Wheaton College.
After obtaining BA and BSEE degrees as a 3/2 student at Wheaton and Illinois Institute of Technology, I began working as a test engineer for Raytheon Systems Company in Dallas. I was fortunate to work in a group that was both fun and productive, developing test software and hardware for the circuit boards manufactured at our location. The work was challenging and enjoyable, but within two years as a result of corporate reorganizing, my colleagues and I were asked to move to Arizona or to Massachusetts.
I instead decided that it was time to consider grad school, and I looked into information about a researcher that I had read about during my last year at Wheaton. At that time I had been amazed to find out that somebody was actually working on the kinds of ideas that I was musing about. This person turned out to be a professor at Virginia Tech, and in the hopes of studying under him, I applied to the school. I consider myself very blessed to have been accepted as a grad student, having obtained this particular professor as my academic advisor, and being offered a research assistantship for the duration of my master's studies.
My time as a master's student gave me an opportunity to really focus on my interests, and to begin forging connections with other researchers, culminating in an internship with Xilinx in Colorado. My department then graciously offered me a fellowship for three years of doctoral studies, giving me the opportunity to pursue the research of my choosing. Along the way I developed additional connections with researchers in my field, and interned with Los Alamos National Lab in New Mexico, and Xilinx in California. I am now a few months away from completing a Ph.D. in electrical engineering, and am rather pleased to be the first to demonstrate a proof-of-concept autonomous computing system , a system that can change its own hardware while in operation.
In what way has your Wheaton education in physics or engineering prepared you for your current (or past) job?
My Wheaton education made it clear that I had completely inadequate studying skills, and that I simply could not survive academically. High school was easy for me so I coasted through it, but it took me a few years to realize that coasting wouldn't get me through a science or engineering program in college. After burning out and dropping out, and taking some time to regroup, I returned to Wheaton and IIT on a part-time basis, forced myself to develop the studying skills that I lacked, and eventually completed both degrees. As a result, I will probably always associate Wheaton with academic failure, and with all of the remedial effort that I had to expend in order to recover from that failure. Suffice it to say that I have learned my lesson, and that grad school has been a real pleasure by comparison.
Please describe the relationship of your Christian faith with your scientific training or career path.
A question with very interesting spiritual overtones came up in the course of my research on hardware-software interaction . The fundamental nature of computer hardware is purely physical, but the fundamental nature of software, a form of information, is very poorly understood. Science is presently divided over whether information is physical or non-physical. If it is purely physical, and thus a form of matter or energy, then it should be possible to derive relationships that govern its interaction with physical computer hardware. But if it is non-physical, we presently lack the conceptual framework to explain the interaction between something physical and something non-physical. By analogy, are our minds nothing more than our physical brains, or do they involve some interaction between our brains and something non-physical, perhaps spiritual? It is actually very difficult to ask these questions in a manner that can be addressed by modern science, in part because they deal with the frontiers of our understanding, and in part because science frequently chooses to dispense with anything that it cannot apprehend.
Christian scientists must acknowledge the realities of the physical realm as well as the spiritual realm, and in some ways that may give us a more complex field to deal with. Even if science convincingly shows that information can be purely physical in nature, if we believe that God created us and the physical universe, then we must acknowledge that our own design originated outside the physical realm, and thus that information can flow from the spiritual realm to the physical realm. If we further believe that God hears our prayers, then we know that information can also flow from the physical realm to the spiritual realm. As a researcher, I can point to a strong duality between hardware and information in computers, and as a Christian I strongly suspect that a similar duality exists between our physical and spiritual sides. The interesting thing is that there is a correct answer, however difficult it may be to uncover, and that God is not afraid of the answer or of our questions. "It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, but the glory of kings is to search out a matter." (Proverbs 25:2)
Do you have any words for young students considering a physics or engineering major?
Science and engineering are fields that are both fascinating and rewarding, especially for those who want to uncover the mysteries of this universe, or work on topics that nobody has ever looked at before. There are many ways to enjoy the world around us without majoring in science or engineering, but for anybody who wants a deeper first-hand understanding (scientists), or who likes getting their hands dirty whether literally or figuratively (engineers), these are great fields to study. Furthermore there are still vast frontiers in our fundamental knowledge (science) and application of that knowledge (engineering) waiting to be explored. I personally have found wonderful colleagues who share my inquisitiveness and with whom I have truly enjoyed working. Anybody up to the challenge should take their undergraduate years seriously, while keeping in mind the fact that those years will pay off very nicely for a long time. On a personal level I would encourage you to come and join us; you have no idea how fascinating these fields are.
David Daniels
Graduation Year: 1993
Major(s): Physics, Mathematics
Current position: Director of Risk Analysis, Digital Sandbox, Inc.
Please describe your life journey since you graduated from Wheaton College.
I pursued a master’s degree in physics (experimental high energy particle) at the University of Oxford on a Fulbright Scholarship immediately following graduation from Wheaton. I performed a detector study/supersymmetry search with first results from the ZEUS detector at HERA in Hamburg, Germany in 2004. Completing my master’s in a year, I returned to the States to begin my doctorate, also in experimental HEP, at Harvard. I worked on the NOMAD neutrino oscillation experiment at CERN, writing my thesis on a search for the transition νμ to ντ through a kinematic reconstruction of one of the tau lepton decay paths. I received the Ph.D. degree in 2000, and continued for another year as a post-doc at Brandeis University, where I helped develop a calibration apparatus and method for the muon detection system of the ATLAS detector.
After a year of post-doc, I decided to pursue opportunities outside of physics. A careful search turned up four distinct career options for me at that point: physics teaching/research, computer programming, investment banking, and management consulting. Briefly considering and rejecting the first three in turn, I turned to management/strategy consulting, joining the Boston Consulting Group for three years. My time there was exhilarating, and I learned a tremendous amount. This was both one of the most challenging period of my professional life as well as one of the most high-growth. I learned how to think like a business leader, which was a radical departure from my academic training. My physics education enabled me to bring an analytical discipline and facility with complicated models that some of my fellow consultants lacked.
Upon leaving BCG, I turned to the government sector, where I worked for another 3 years for Booz Allen Hamilton in a consultative role for the Defense Advanced Projects Research Agency (DARPA). I was able to help propose, evaluate, and manage projects across a broad spectrum of leading-edge applied research, and I learned more about electronics than I ever cared to know. This introduced me both to technology management and to the world of public policy.
Since last June, I have been with my current employer, a niche software and consulting firm specializing in evaluating, analyzing and managing terrorism risk for government homeland security customers. I lead the company’s efforts toward developing and deploying novel analytical techniques for measuring risk. In this role, I have been exposed to senior levels of political leadership at the federal, state and local levels. In this position, it is my ability to bring both analytical rigor and the flexibility to respond to changing data and political demands that has been most useful.
I would say that my physics education has been extremely valuable in each of the positions I have had, not because of the facts and equations I learned and derivations I performed, but because of the way it taught me to evaluate new technical concepts quickly and rigorously. I learned how to distinguish good science from poor and to clearly point out the difference to the non-technician.
In addition, and not least significantly, having a physics background in a non-physics environment engenders instant credibility. In the role of business consultant, I once encountered the employee of a client research organization who did not know my background, who refused to share some technical data I had asked for. Rather than escalating the issue to his supervisors, I tried to reason with the individual because I understood his predicament. I listened to his concerns and tried to address them one by one. Finally, in desperation, he posited that since the data was of a technical nature it was probably too complicated for me to understand. I answered, “I have a Ph.D. in physics. Try me!” He gave me his data without further objection.
In what way has your Wheaton education in physics or engineering prepared you for your current (or past) job?
My physics education (at Wheaton and elsewhere) has provided a solid foundation upon which to build the other skills that have been important in my career so far. I think there is no better training for critical technical thought than a physics education. I believe that had I pursued a career in medicine or in certain fields of law, I would have been very well positioned with my physics background.
Unfortunately, although I had a fine education and experience at Wheaton, and I got good grades in all of my physics courses, I did feel somewhat unprepared for the academic rigors of graduate school, both in my master’s program and in my doctoral program. I feel that I merely survived the coursework, and had to make up for it in the lab. Part of my experience may have stemmed from the fact that I stepped into very different didactic traditions in the UK and at Harvard than I was accustomed to. Another part was that, due to limited enrollment, several courses were not offered during my time at Wheaton. I never took Thermodynamics, Optics, or Solid State physics at Wheaton, so I had to play catch-up in grad school. (It sounds like some of the course changes I read about in Da Watt may go some way toward correcting this for future students.)
Please describe the relationship of your Christian faith with your scientific training or career path.
For most of my career, I have been in environments that were very hostile to the Christian faith. My challenge has been to be a shining beacon in those environments, not by proclaiming my faith loudly, but by pursuing professional excellence without hiding my faith. I have felt many times that my statement for Christ’s kingdom was that one could be an excellent physicist and still side with orthodox Christian belief. (Apparently, in our post-modern, post-Darwinian world, this is seen as a contradiction.) I have had people tell me they were impressed by that combination in me, and I have been challenged by others for the same reason. Most often, though, I think when my colleagues find out I am a believer, it gives them pause to think. My hard-charging, in-your-face, tell-it-like-it-is style is probably a bit incongruous with most Christian stereotypes. I’ve actually had people say, “But, you’re so smart! How can you believe that stuff?” (Well, it’s like this...)
Do you have any words for young students considering a physics or engineering major?
Two things.
First, there’s no way around it, physics is really, really hard. But, it has to be to attract the brightest students to the toughest challenges. Remember that most people in this world do not have the mental horsepower to excel at physics. If you put your best effort into it you may succeed (you might, you might not), and if you do you will have a claim on intellectual achievement few others have. From this position, you will have the opportunity to shine Christ’s light like few others can. However, along the way you will be discouraged, tempted, and attacked. Sometimes the attacks will be overt, people will ridicule your faith. But, probably more common are the insinuations that you are not “good enough.” These are just two different tactics from the same adversary. He wants you to quit, and he doesn’t care how he achieves his objective. He doesn’t want you to excel at physics and remain steadfast in your faith, too. Giving up either is just fine with him.
Second – and I realize I’m making a complete pi turn here – don’t be afraid to leave physics. (See if Dr. DeSoto prints THIS one!) We don’t all have to be physicists. Can you imagine a world where we all became physicists? (OK, that’s enough of THAT.) I have observed that with the more science education one receives, the more insecure one feels about leaving the field. I’ve seen this with physicists, biologists, chemists. I think the longer you study a subject the more certain you feel in your own knowledge and competence. The prospect of leaving this relative security can be daunting. But, if at some point you feel that a career in physics isn’t for you, don’t feel bad about that. Your education will stand you in good stead whatever you do, and you will no doubt succeed. I know a lot of people who have left promising careers in physics who are going on to do great and exciting things with their lives. The smartest student in my class at Harvard left grad school after 1 year to pursue a better opportunity, and by all accounts he’s having a great time. In fact, after graduation, I knew more of my doctoral classmates who left physics than who stayed in it, and it wasn’t because these poor people couldn’t find positions! I also know (all too many) physicists who stay in the field long after their excitement for it wanes. You don’t want to get into that death spiral. It usually hits toward the end of grad school. I mention it now in the hope that when the time comes you will remember.
When I left Wheaton with my degree in hand, I thought I knew exactly how my career would unfold. I was set upon a career in experimental high energy physics research, and the only question in my mind was whether I would do it at Fermilab, SLAC or CERN. Fortunately for me, a few years later I realized that, although I could have doggedly pursued that vision, there were other places my physics training could take me. Where I am now a physics background is rare, and therefore I think it carries more weight than in traditional scientific circles.
Jeff Rylander
Graduation Year: 1989
Major(s): Physics
Current position: Instructional Supervisor for Science – Glenbrook South High School
Please describe your life journey since you graduated from Wheaton College.
After finishing my student teaching in December of 1989, I taught middle school science at Wheaton Christian Grammar School for the spring semester of 1990. This was a great opportunity and confirmed my desire to work with students. After my wife graduated from Wheaton College in May 1990, we moved to Dallas, Texas, where I assumed a position teaching physics at Trinity Christian Academy from 1990-1992. We moved back to Illinois and I taught physics at Maine East High School in Park Ridge, Illinois, from 1992-2004. Most recently I have assumed a new role as Instructional Supervisor for Science at Lake Zurich High School in Lake Zurich, Illinois from 2004-2006 and now at Glenbrook South High School from 2006 to the present.
In what way has your Wheaton education in physics or engineering prepared you for your current (or past) job?
Academically, I felt very prepared to tackle the rigors of teaching physics and felt very prepared to handle the classroom as well. Perhaps the most important experiences I had at Wheaton were opportunities to think deeply about how to integrate my faith and the science I studied and would eventually teach.
Please describe the relationship of your Christian faith with your scientific training or career path.
While teaching at two private Christian schools, I began class with short devotionals, stories of scientists who were believers, and would often pray in class. This was modeled for me by several of the professors at Wheaton and was something that I so appreciated. While teaching in the public schools, I continue to look for opportunities to let my faith come alive in the perspective that I bring to studying the world around us.
Do you have any words for young students considering a physics or engineering major?
Take advantage of opportunities to explore the world of physics/engineering through internships or research programs at Fermilab/Argonne or other laboratories. These have provided a rich background for me that has strongly shaped my passion for learning by doing along with providing a great set of experiences.
Jon Scott
Graduation Year: 1988
Major(s): Physics
Current position: High School Physics Teacher
Please describe your life journey since you graduated from Wheaton College.
Well, actually, graduating was a bit of a challenge in and of itself. I planned to participate in the 3-2 Engineering program while I was at Wheaton. During my Junior year, I had applied and was accepted to the University of Illinois and Iowa State in ceramic engineering. When it got close to the point in time that I needed to make a decision, I decided to stay at Wheaton and complete a major in Physics. Because I was in the 3-2 program, I got off of the Physics track. I needed to take 2 physics courses to graduate, but they were not offered my Senior year. I took my last 2 physics courses at the University of Illinois at Chicago and graduated a semester late.
My first job was with Electronic Data Systems (EDS) in their Systems Engineering Design training program. I had taken some programming classes at Wheaton, so I thought I might like it. As I worked with the people I could not project myself forward and see myself working in that environment 10-20 years later. I had heard that Illinois was giving grants to those who wanted to become science teachers. I had taken a few Education courses at Wheaton and my dad was a teacher, so I thought I would give it a try. I enrolled at Northern Illinois University in a Masters degree program in Education. I became certified to teach Physics after a great student teaching experience at Naperville North High School.
My first teaching position was at Wheaton Central High School (now Wheaton Warrenville South High School). I taught the lowest level science and math classes while I was there and decided to apply to some other schools. I was hired at St. Charles High School to teach Physics and Physical Science courses. I really enjoyed working there because I was able to work closely with two other Christians. While I was there, I learned a great deal about teaching physics from my colleagues. I remained in that position for only two years before my wife and I decided to flee the suburbs and relocate to central Illinois.
After some doubt about wanting to stay in the field of education, I realized that God wanted me in the classroom. I enrolled in the doctoral program in Curriculum and Instruction at Illinois State University during my 8 th year of teaching. Four children and one dissertation later, I graduated in 2005 with a doctorate in Education with an emphasis on Instructional Design and Instructional Technology.
I continue to teach physics at the high school level and I am currently completing my 16th year.
In what way has your Wheaton education in physics or engineering prepared you for your current (or past) job?
The liberal arts approach at Wheaton prepared me to be multidimensional. I have so many experiences that I can bring into my instruction. My courses at Wheaton prepared me to teach Physics because they gave me a very strong core of understanding. One needs to have a firm grasp of any subject in order to teach, but I find that many who think about entering the field of teaching Physics have a very weak grasp of basic physics principles and concepts. I am very grateful to the Physics Department at Wheaton for providing a solid foundation for me to build upon in my teaching career. Of course, when I was at Wheaton, I did not plan to go into the teaching field. However, I was well prepared for the career once God led me there.
Please describe the relationship of your Christian faith with your scientific training or career path.
It is impossible to separate my Christian faith from my career path because they both describe who I am. As I mentioned earlier, after college, God led me into the field of Education. I had some knowledge of the field, as my Dad was a teacher at the time. I had other aspirations in college, but God was patient with me. He allowed me to work in another field long enough to realize that the gifts God had given me were not best used in that field. I completed the necessary requirements to begin teaching and got my first position. At the same time, I joined a Navigators Bible study. Once again, this was no coincidence; God knew exactly what He was doing. Even though education was in my family, I had no idea what awaited inside the walls of public education in the form of spiritual battles. God put me in that Navigator group so that I would be fervent in reading and memorizing His Word. I know of no other way that I could have made it through that first year other than the grace of God and having His Word in my mind. My career in education after that was a series of events orchestrated by God to convince me that I was where He wanted me to be. I can look back now and see in retrospect that God provided me many experiences that have brought me to where I am in my career.
Do you have any words for young students considering a physics or engineering major?
Physics can be a difficult subject to learn, but I think that there is nothing more rewarding. I am still learning, perhaps even more than during my four years at Wheaton. The more I learn, the more I realize I don’t know. The long hours of study and wrestling with the concepts and problems are well worth it. God allows us glimpses into this incredible universe that He created, and the view is absolutely breathtaking!
Doug Wiens
Graduation Year: 1980
Major(s): Physics
Current position: Professor, Dept. of Earth & Planetary Sciences, Washington University in St. Louis
Please describe your life journey since you graduated from Wheaton College.
After Wheaton I went to graduate school to study geophysics at Northwestern University, receiving an MS degree in 1982 and a PhD in 1985. Another highly significant event was that I married Debra Bock (Wheaton class of 1982) in 1982.
I accepted an assistant professor position at Washington University in late 1984, and have been there ever since, being promoted to Associate Professor in 1990 and full professor in 1996. We have two children, Andrew (born 1990) and Julia (born 1992). I spent much of 2005 as a visiting fellow in the Research School of Earth Sciences at Australian National University in Canberra, Australia, and the whole family enjoyed living in Australia for a while. I was elected a fellow of the American Geophysical Union in 2006.
Although my PhD work was entirely analysis of existing data, I became interested in instrumentation and fieldwork during the early 1990s. I’ve carried out field work in Tonga, Fiji, the Mariana Islands, Chile, Cameroon, and Antarctica. This work usually involves installing and operating seismographs in remote regions, or even deploying ocean bottom seismographs from a ship.
In what way has your Wheaton education in physics or engineering prepared you for your current (or past) job?
My Wheaton physics background provided a good quantitative basis for graduate work in geophysics. I had relatively little trouble with the classes, and found that my background was an asset relative to many of the other students. I had also taken a few geology classes at Wheaton and this combination of physics and geology background was ideal. Good computer, writing, and speaking skills that I had developed while at Wheaton were also essential.
I still use the basic principals of physics every day in my lectures and in my research so I feel the education was highly relevant.
Please describe the relationship of your Christian faith with your scientific training or career path.
My Christian faith has been an important part of my life and I think may be a basis for much of the curiosity I have about the natural world. Faith has provided an important stability to my life in good times and in bad. I am intrigued by the relationship of faith and science and bring it in to my classes obliquely from time to time, such as in my current class “Ideas and Controversies in the Geosciences”, which explores the history of the geosciences and the development of many important ideas such as uniformitarianism and the great age of the universe.
Do you have any words for young students considering a physics or engineering major?
I think it is an exceptionally interesting and exciting field, and it was certainly the right choice for me. I am always glad to be in a field where I can wake up in the morning and be interested in what I am going to be studying or teaching about that day. I urge students who are gifted in math and physics to develop their talents and pursue a career in this area.
John Dunlop
Graduation Year: 1969
Major(s): Physics
Current position: Physician, Bioethicist
Please describe your life journey since you graduated from Wheaton College.
MD Johns Hopkins 1973
Internal Medicine residencies at Hopkins 1973-75.
Boarded in Internal Medicine 1976 and Geriatrics 1987
BA in Bioethics Trinity International University 2003
I have been in private practice since 1976 in Zion, Illinois.
Dorothy (Wheaton '72) and I married in 1975 and have had two sons.
We were involved in planting Lakeland EV Free Church in 1979 and that has been a major commitment over the years.
In more recent years I have been serving on the adjunct faculty at Trinity and doing writing and speaking on end of life issues. My goal is to help the Church help believers come to the end of life with a passion for God’s glory.
In what way has your Wheaton education in physics or engineering prepared you for your current (or past) job?
My years at Wheaton in Physics helped me learn how to think analytically and provided a good scientific basis for medicine. Wheaton helped me to think Biblically about issues and provided a good foundation for Christian studies.
Please describe the relationship of your Christian faith with your scientific training or career path.
The marvels of the human body teach the providence of an all wise God. The spectrum of disease teaches the depths of Adam’s fall.
Do you have any words for young students considering a physics or engineering major?
It closes few doors.
John Munro
Graduation Year: 1962
Major(s): Physics, Mathematics
Current position: Employed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory since June 1972
Please describe your life journey since you graduated from Wheaton College.
I graduated with a BS in physics and mathematics in 1962. I have been employed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory since June 1972. I have worked on a wide variety of projects from environmental modeling (transport of toxic heavy metals in the environment, global carbon cycling), plasma physics (transport phenomena in Tokomak plasmas, simulation modeling of a heavy ion beam transport diagnostic instrument, simulation modeling of neutral beam injection, plasma equilibrium and stability calculations), software engineering (verification and validation of control system software for commercial nuclear power plants), and currently working on control system software for the Spallation Neutron Source.
Along the way I have written proposals to get funding to develop RF identification technology and wireless monitoring systems for residents in nursing homes, environmental monitoring of hazardous vapors and gases from transportation accidents. I have been involved with use of supercomputers and was probably the first person in the southeast to set up a web site with the new world wide web application developed by a researcher at CERN, Tim Berners-Lee. l have written proposals to apply nanotechnology to gene therapy in cells and to physical methods for rapid identification of cells. I tried to get the laboratory in the late 1980's to acquire a Connection Machine for doing text and natural language processing.
So you see the broad range of interests represented in my efforts over the years. That kind of inquisitiveness got a lot of stimulation during my student years at Wheaton, both from faculty and from my fellow physics majors. All the faculty in the physics department left an indelible mark on me in some way.
I am at the age when I could retire if I wanted, but am still having fun with my training in physics. I plan to continue on for a while.
This past summer I learned that I had developed Type I diabetes, so a new interest now is simulating the glucose-insulin relationship in the body. This is an nteresting problem involving physics, chemistry, and biology. I found a simulation program (AIDA) on the Internet which I am investigating for a start, but am convinced I can do much better using my simulation modeling experience to develop my own program. Students at Wheaton might find the AIDA simulation software something interesting to investigate. There is extensive documentation (e.g., the equations used in the model) to go with it accessible on the Internet.
So this is my introduction. I am very glad to read that the physics course sequence and content are being revised. That is a big job, but should be rewarding. I can remember reading the Feynman Lectures in Physics when those volumes first appeared. I could not put them down I was so fascinated by the ay Feynman approached each topic. Yet he felt that he did not achieve for the Caltech undergraduates what he had set out to do. But graduate students everywhere found digesting them to be immensely profitable.
Richard L. Holt
Graduation Year: 1956
Major(s): Physics
Current position: Retired
Please describe your life journey since you graduated from Wheaton College.
My degree in Physics was a tremendous help to me in so many areas that it is hard to choose the one place where the long hours of study at Wheaton proved to be the most helped by my education as a Physicist. I worked in many areas of electronics, computers, all kinds of guided missile systems, development of technical plans for complex systems, and even working with dolphins in the water, determining such things as how they could detect objects in the water from great distances. We developed communications systems used between ships and submarines for Navy application using the dolphin clicks and whistles incorporated into computer generated messages.
I had the wonderful opportunity to be a part of the nation’s manned space flight program from its very inception, responsible for all the support systems on the ground located all over the world. I had responsibility for all the radars, telemetry systems, command and communications systems. I managed the huge Mission Control Center in Houston, responsible for its operation and maintenance and upgrades of everything from its huge computer systems to room layouts and display systems. Read my web site. You can then choose the type of thing you would like to do, and as a Physicist, you can do it.
But I didn’t step into the NASA job without a lot of prior experience and preparation. Going into the Army may seem like a drag for many today, but the Army gave me a tremendous technical education that I hadn’t gotten in college. I learned all about every piece of communications gear the military used. I learned about systems that I had never even heard about before coming into the Army. I learned about guided missile systems, from the radars and command and control systems to the missile handling systems and the volatile fuel requirements of missiles. The Army did all that for me for nothing – no cost to me.
Then I went to work for the Navy as a civilian physicist and got into jobs that you might not normally thing are assigned to someone with a physics degree. But I was flexible and when asked to do something, I didn’t question why, or whether or not I could do it, I just did it! I did well and got very high rewards for my efforts. There is a joke in the Dolphin portion of my web site that a friend sent me. While I am feeding a fish to a dolphin, the animal says to me in essence, your folks must be proud of you after your 12 years of education to be feeding me my fish for my meal. What did my being a dolphin feeder have to do with physics? Little, but it was part of the job I had to be responsible for determining how the dolphin’s systems worked. I didn’t question it. I just did it.
I learned to ask questions. If I didn’t understand something, I asked someone that did. And I pursued the question until I felt comfortable with it. If an electronic piece of equipment that I had not used, I learned all about it. I learned that while a student at Wheaton. At NASA I was in over my head lots of times. But I never stopped learning. Then I went to JPL where there were really a lot of big brains. Well, I fit right in, I found out! I was a physics major from Wheaton College, and the reputation of Wheaton was known. I had some terrific jobs at JPL upgrading its Space Flight Operations Facility (SFOF) that is still in use in controlling out space flights. I was in charge of upgrading the entire deep space network communications system that is still in use.
All my jobs were fun, and I enjoyed solving puzzles.
In what way has your Wheaton education in physics or engineering prepared you for your current (or past) job?
Physics taught me not to fear the unknown. I learned how to study. I was willing to tackle any technical subject. If I didn’t know enough about it to start, I was willing to learn. I would always take a physics major over anyone else in the days I was hiring thousands to work for my organizations. Those that major in physics are different. You can assign them any job and they will dig into it and accomplish it. Many others won’t.
In the early days of manned space flight, we didn’t know much about putting a man into space. We didn’t have orbital mechanics developed to the point where we could readily figure out if we could rendezvous in space. We didn’t know what would happen to a man if we put him outside a spacecraft in outer space and if he could survive. But on the team of people that started that program which now is routine, we had a whole lot of physicists. Aeronautical engineers had their place. But the bulk of our crew in Houston were physicists. Why? Because they thought in broad terms and weren’t afraid to challenge the unknown.
I had a boss once at TRW Space Systems Division in California that would only hire physicists. He was one himself. But he knew that if he gave a job to someone that had been through physics training in college, that person could accomplish the task assigned to him.
Please describe the relationship of your Christian faith with your scientific training or career path.
Science and Christianity go hand-in-hand. I have never had any problems in relating God to the physics of this world and in the universe. I have a friend, Dr. Hugh Ross, an Astrophysicist, that spends his entire life relating all the reasons we, as Christians and scientists, can vouch for the truth in the Bible and find the answers for this belief in the Scriptures, no matter what the subject. Right now one of Hugh’s best sellers addresses creation as a science.
I have never had any problems in standing up for my beliefs, and in fact, I have a statement in my resume/web site that addresses that issue, entitled My Faith in which I state very clearly how I feel and in Whom I believe. I have never had to hide that fact, although I don’t believe in shoving it into someone’s face unless they are interested. Live the life in which you put your trust. People will ask you why you are different. Then you can relate your belief in God and in Christ’s saving grace. I have faulted Wheaton College in the past for being “holier-than-thou” in attitude. Don’t do that! It won’t take your fellow workers long to realize that you are different. Do your job well. Be thorough. Don’t complain. And when asked, be ready to give an answer as to why you are different. Make your Purpose in life to please God and it will come through.
Do you have any words for young students considering a physics or engineering major?
When I was wondering if I should major in physics, the chair of the department in those days settled my fears that the subjects of physics were over my head. I had no intention in getting into the world of theoretical physics. It was not in keeping with my personality. And yet, I had this tremendous need to learn about the physics of the universe. I loved the growing field of electronics, and even though computers had not yet been invented, I created a very simple computer in the basement of Blanchard that answered some very basic questions when asked. We had no TV. We had no computers.
Dr. Martin convinced me that there was a need for what he described as applied physicists. Those who can take the laws of physics and use them for many purposes. You didn’t need to be a “way-out” type, only practical in your use of the many laws. That’s what I did. I became what I now call a “Systems Engineer”, building sometimes complex pieces and then fitting those pieces together to accomplish some meaningful task. We invented the computer of today. We designed display systems to use in space flight that no one else had. We had no TV, so we came up with other means of getting information from the computer to the user through unique display systems.
Over the many years of my career I have had the opportunity to hire thousands of young people to work in my organizations. I always looked for bright young minds especially those that majored in physics. Why? Because they were able to think very broadly when sometimes those in engineering disciplines were narrow in their thinking. By your very nature and the many subjects you take, a physics student can take a broad subject, if required, learn about it and be able to accomplish the task assigned him or her. Physicists do not fear digging into the unknown.
I encourage you to stick to physics. You can always branch out into other special interest areas as you go into your career. What you think may be what you want today may change. Be flexible. Be responsive to the needs of those you work for. Study hard. There is no substitute for hours in the facts of physics. Good luck!