Distinguished Professor Carl E. Wieman of the University of Colorado at Boulder has been appointed one of 13 Visiting Scholars for 1999-2000 by the Phi Beta Kappa Society.
Each of the Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholars will travel to about eight other U.S. colleges and universities during the academic year, spending two days on each campus. During each visit the scholar is expected to meet with undergraduates in informal settings, to participate in classroom lectures and seminars and to make one major address open to the entire academic community.
The Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholars program began in 1956 and is intended to enrich the intellectual atmosphere of other academic institutions and to enable undergraduates to meet and talk with distinguished scholars in diverse disciplines. Other Visiting Scholars for 1999-2000 were appointed from schools including the University of Chicago, Columbia University, Dartmouth and Princeton.
The Phi Beta Kappa Society of Washington, D.C., is the nation's oldest academic honor society, established in 1776.
Wieman also was recently appointed to a committee preparing an overview of the field of physics for the National Research Council, which includes recommendations on physics education and the future of physics. Other NRC committee members include professors from Harvard, Yale and UCLA.
Wieman has taught undergraduate and graduate students at CU-Boulder since 1984. He also is a fellow of JILA, a joint institute of CU-Boulder and the National Institute of Standards and Technology, a member of the National Academy of Sciences and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Among his awards are the King Faisal International Prize for Science, the Arthur L. Schawlow Prize in Laser Science and the Richtmyer Lecture Award from the American Association of Physics Teachers.
The physics department is part of CU-Boulder's College of Arts and Sciences.