PROMOTION APPLICTION FOR DR. DAVID GARRISON TO THE RANK OF FULL PROFESSOR OF PHYSICS SUBMITTED 2017 PROMOTION FOR DR. DAVID GARRISON 1. STATEMENT 2. SUMMARY 2.1. TEACHING AND EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITIES AT UHCL 2.1.1. Coursework 2.1.2. Teaching 2.1.2.1. Teaching Evaluation Summary 2.1.2.2. Written Comments 2.1.3. Other Educational Activities 2.1.3.1. Faculty Advisor 2.1.3.2. Individual Instruction 2.1.3.3. Organized Mentoring 2.1.4. Program Development 2.1.4.1. New Program Development 2.1.4.2. Program Marketing 2.1.4.3. Student Enrollment 2.2. RESEARCH AND SCHOLARLY ACTIVITIES 2.2.1. Research Interests 2.2.2. Publications and Talks 2.2.3. Proposals and Funding 2.2.4. Other Scholarly Activities 2.2.5. Honors 2.2.6. Research Development 2.3. PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES AND SERVICES 2.3.1. Service to the Profession 2.3.1.1. Membership 2.3.2. Service to the University 2.3.2.1. University Level 2.3.2.2. School Level 2.3.2.3. Division Level 2.3.2.4. Student Advising 2.3.3. Service to the Community 3. CURRICULUM VITAE 4. ANNUAL REPORTS 4.1. 2002 Annual Report 4.2. 2003 Annual Report 4.3. 2004 Annual Report 4.4. 2005 Annual Report 4.5. 2006 Annual Report 4.6. 2007 Annual Report 4.7. 2008 Annual Report 4.8. 2009 Annual Report 4.9. 2010 Annual Report 4.10. 2011 Annual Report 4.11. 2012 Annual Report 4.12. 2013 Annual Report 4.13. 2014 Annual Report 4.14. 2015 Annual Report 4.15. 2016 Annual Report 5. CORRESPONDENCE: 3RD YEAR REVIEW 6. CORRESPONDENCE: TENURE REVIEW 7. CORRESPONDENCE: PROMOTION TO FULL PROFESSOR 8. Publications 9. Letters 1. STATEMENT My career in Physics began in 1993 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. I was fortunate to be advised and mentored by three Nobel Prize winners: Phillip Sharp (1993 Biology), Clifford Shull (1994 Physics) and Wolfgang Ketterle (2001 Physics). During my time at MIT, I participated in several research projects in many different aspects of physics research. I worked with several professors including: Prof’s David Pritchard, John King, Clifford Will, Michael Ogilvie and Jacqueline Hewitt. After MIT, I attended graduate school at The Pennsylvania State University where I worked with Dr.’s Jorge Pullin and Pablo Laguna in The Center for Gravitational Physics and Geometry. While there, I also had the privilege to work with several distinguished researchers (such as Prof’s Gabriella Gonzalez and Lee Samuel Finn) on a variety of projects. My primary work was in the area of numerical relativity, a field that combines computational physics with Einstein’s general theory of relativity in order to simulate astrophysical events. I was originally hired as a Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Houston Clear Lake (UHCL), in the fall of 2002. During the negotiation of my contract with UHCL, I was told that my position would be reviewed during the first year and that a tenure-track position may become available. I was given the option to apply the visiting year toward my probationary period if the position became tenure-track. After joining the faculty of UHCL, I was led to believe that the Physical Sciences program was unfocused and lacking in students who were qualified to assist in research efforts such as mine. I was also led to believe that the university wanted to rebuild not only the Physical Sciences program but also establish a Physics program. Because of this, I have devoted a large amount of my time to date developing both programs’ curricula and infrastructures so that these issues could be resolved. My mission was to give students a solid foundation in physics and to increase the enrollment of the program. In the spring of 2003, changing my position to tenure-track became a high priority within the school; however, a statewide hiring freeze made this impossible for several months. During the summer of 2003, the hiring freeze was lifted and my position was converted to tenure-track assistant professor. I received one year of credit as promised by the administration. In the Spring of 2008, I was promoted to Associate Professor with Tenure. Since then, I have continued to develop as an instructor and researcher while working in service to my program, the university and our community. My efforts have resulted in a complete Physics program, which now offers a Bachelors, Masters and Collaborative PhD in Physics. I have also served in several leadership positions in the school and university including the SCE Dean search committee, the UHCL Presidential search committee and the Faculty Senate as President. This report will detail my efforts to establish a physics program while developing my research program. These two programs were designed to meet the needs of the local community and involve students in cutting-edge physics research. In the process of building these programs, I have committed myself to excellence in teaching, research and service. I feel that these areas are all part of any successful career in physics. I believe that excellence in teaching must involve not only solid teaching evaluations, but also a strong record of individualized instruction and curriculum/program development. Within a few weeks of coming to UHCL, I began work on developing a Physics program, which has been one of the most successful in the state of Texas. The idea was to develop a degree plan that prepares students for work in Physics research, while maintaining the Physical Science program’s support of Space Science. This was made possible by a web- based survey program, which I developed and sent out to the local community using an email distribution list of interested parties. The data that was collected from the surveys was used to justify the formation of a new masters degree in physics in 2004. The new Physics Program not only prepares students to do physics research, it also prepares them for PhD work in Physics and Astronomy while enhancing the skills of practicing engineers. The biggest difference between the Physics program I developed and the old Physical Sciences program is the requirement that all students complete a set of core physics courses and do an independent research project before graduating. Because of these requirements, not only are all students in the new program qualified to participate in research, they are also required to have this experience. In the physics community, research experiences are an invaluable part of the educational process. This Physics Program requires that the other faculty and I developed several new undergraduate and graduate courses. I developed the following courses: • Mathematical Methods in Physics 1 and 2 (Including an Online version of Mathematical Methods in Physics 1) • Methods in Computational Physics • Classical Mechanics • Electrodynamics 1 and 2 • Fundamentals of Space-time • Using Mathematica to Solve Physics Problems • Research Seminar • General Relativity I also facilitated the development of: • Laboratory for Modern Astronomy • Graduate Astronomy • Modern Physics • Quantum Mechanics 1 and 2 • Statistical Mechanics • Plasma Physics • Mathematical Methods for Physics and Engineering 1 and 2 • Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics • Mechanics of Materials • Fluids and Heat Transfer In addition to developing this program, I also devoted a significant amount of effort in promoting it. I attended several academic fairs, hosted public talks on campus and developed new ways to promote the program through posters, fliers, websites and articles. In order to serve the local community better, I conducted an electronic survey about once every two years (2002, 2003, 2004, 2006 and 2009). The first two surveys lead to the approval of the Physics Master’s Degree. The third, in 2004, helped me establish the Professional Physics Sub-Plan in Technical Management. The 2006 survey, led to the development of a Collaborative PhD Physics Program with the University of Houston Central Campus (UH) and later the BS in Physics. In 2010, we discontinued the general needs assessment surveys and started a Physics Advisory Board. The board’s advise lead to the development of our Engineering Physics sub-plan. In 2012, I developed a proposal for planning authority to convert our Collaborative Physics PhD program into a full Joint PhD program. The data supporting this proposal came from a 2012 survey of UHCL Physics alumni, current graduate students and potential graduate students. These developments were only possible because of the success of the Physics Master’s degree program. In 2004, I developed a strategic plan for the development of the Physics program as part of our biennial planning process. Aspects of the plan include the development of the Professional Physics MS, for training technical managers; developing the steps to web- enhance the core physics courses in order to make them more accessible to our students; a plan to develop more undergraduate leveling courses; and the development of a Physics PhD, which could be implemented on our campus. Although many people thought this plan was overly ambitious, every element of this plan was accomplished before I was granted tenure in 2008. In 2013, I performed a thorough strategic analysis of the physics program including an Environmental Analysis, 5 Forces Analysis and Core Capabilities Analysis. I found that the program should focus on countering misperceptions about the difficultly of introductory level physics courses and lack of physics career options by utilizing the latest Physics Education Research (PER) and working harder with our career services office to get our students professional employment. In 2014, the AIP officially recognized our Masters program as the 7th out of 25 highest producing Masters-level Physics Departments in the US for years 2010, 2011 and 2012.