Lecturer Position in Physics

Wake Forest University

Wake Forest University invites applications for a lecturer position in physics at the junior or senior level to begin in the fall semester of 2010. Applicants should have completed a Ph.D. in physics and have experience teaching introductory physics. The initial appointment will be for two years, with future appointments renewable at the end of each appointment term.

The successful candidate will be responsible for teaching lower-level physics courses and laboratories for science and non-science majors. Responsibilities will also include undergraduate advising and developing and teaching a first-year seminar course. Interests in one or more of the following would strengthen a candidate’s application: an interest in teaching introductory astronomy, familiarity with new teaching methods and technologies, and interest in grant writing for educational purposes.

Applicants should submit a cover letter, a CV including details of all teaching experience, a one-page statement of their teaching philosophy, and the names of three references to the Physics Lecturer Search Committee, Department of Physics, P.O. Box 7507, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC 27109-7507. Application materials can also be sent electronically in the form of a single PDF document to wfuphysrecruit@lists.wfu.edu. Review of applications will begin January 5, 2010 and will continue until the position is filled.

Wake Forest University is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer.

Wake Forest University

Wake Forest University is a highly ranked, private university with about 4500 undergraduates, 750 graduate students, and 1700 students in the professional schools of medicine, law, divinity and business. Wake Forest University ranks 28th among national universities-doctoral in the new edition of US News & World Report's guide, "America's Best Colleges." The annual guide gives Wake Forest high marks for its small classes, low student-faculty ratio, high graduation and retention rates, financial resources and alumni giving.

Wake Forest University also ranks 19th on a list published in Forbes magazine. This ranking is based on student satisfaction and post-graduation success measurements.

The university is a leader in the use of technology in higher education.  It was the first university to issue two laptop computers to each undergraduate -- one when they enter the university, replaced by a second at the beginning of the third year. Faculty receive a laptop computer every second year (currently a Lenovo Thinkpad T400, 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo with 2GB of RAM). Forbes.com reported that The Princeton Review ranked Wake Forest University second in its October, 2003 report on "America's Most Connected Campuses," a detailed survey of Internet use in higher education.

The Department of Physics

The Physics Department offers BA, BS, MS and PhD degrees. The department currently has about 20 graduate students and graduates about 10-15 physics majors per year. The majority of our undergraduates participate in research. The department currently has fifteen regular faculty members, two visiting assistant professors, five research faculty, and several postdoctoral associates. Support staff include an Instructional Resource Manager, a laser/optical specialist, an academic computing specialist, an administrative coordinator, a secretary, a business manager, and a part-time machinist. The department has excellent facilities in Olin Physical Laboratory and the nearby Center for Nanotechnology and Molecular Materials, which recently launched two nanotechnology startup companies.

The faculty in the Physics Department are a major contributor to and users of the WFU DEAC cluster, a high performance computing environment that is centrally maintained by the University. This resource, currently possessing 1180 computing cores and 35 TB of data disk space, is managed by two full-time system administrators, who provide hardware design and maintenance as well as software support and training to the users.

The faculty in Physics do research in three general areas:

• Condensed Matter Physics
• Gravitation, Field Theory, Particle Physics, and Astrophysics
• Biophysics

For more information, please visit:

• An online campus tour
• The Department of Physics home page
• Wake Forest University
• City of Winston-Salem