George Watson is Senior Associate Dean in the College of Arts & Sciences and Unidel Professor of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Delaware. He joined the faculty in 1987 after a completing a postdoctoral position at AT&T Bell Laboratories, with a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Delaware. Among his personal teaching interests are web-based delivery of instructional materials for development of science and technology literacy among non-science majors and curriculum reform of engineering physics courses. His research interests are in condensed matter experimental physics and includes laser spectroscopy of materials with photonic band structure.
George was the 1998 Delaware Professor of the Year, awarded by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. He was the principal investigator on the grant from NSF’s program on Institution-Wide Reform of Undergraduate Education that led to the creation of the Institute for Transforming Undergraduate Education, which promotes faculty development and course redesign around active learning strategies and effective use of instructional technology. ITUE has become an international resource for training in problem-based learning in the undergraduate setting. Currently George is the principal investigator on an ALO/USAID project to reform science and math education in Perú.
