Laurie E. McNeil

Photo courtesy of Steve Exum and Endeavors magazine

I am the Bernard Gray Distinguished Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. During 2004-2009 I served as Chair of the Physics and Astronomy Department, and I formerly was the department's Assistant Chair for Advancement. I also served as Interim Chair of the Curriculum in Applied and Materials Sciences (which has now become the Department of Applied Physical Sciences) during academic year 2007/08, and earlier held the post of the Curriculum's Director of Graduate Studies. From October 2000 to April 2003 I served as Chair of the revision of the general education curriculum for all undergraduates in the University. That curriculum was implementated beginning with students entering in Fall 2006. A subsequent revision of the curriculum has now been implemented. During Fall 2004 I held a Chapman Family Faculty Fellowship, and produced a plan for the transformation of introductory physics teaching at UNC. We have implemented that plan in the calculus-based sequence with the assistance of a grant from NSF. With additional support from NSF we have completed a similar transformation of the introductory sequence for life sciences majors; you may wish to read our account of the transformed course. As a result of those changes (inter alia) in 2020 my department was given an Award for Improving Undergraduate Physics Education by the Committee on Education of the American Physical Society. In 2007-09 I served as a WOWS (Working on Women in Science) Scholar to enhance the representation and success of women in the sciences at UNC-CH. I was also instrumental in establishing UNC-BEST (UNC Baccalaureate Education in Science and Teaching), a joint program between the College of Arts & Sciences and the School of Education to prepare science majors to become high school science teachers.

I have been on the faculty of The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill since 1984. I am a condensed matter/materials physicist, specializing in optical spectroscopy of semiconductors and insulators. I have been elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society. During the period 1996-1999 I had the honor of holding a Bowman and Gordon Gray Professorship, for "excellence in inspirational teaching of undergraduate students." I was selected for the permanent Bernard Gray Distinguished Professorship from among those UNC-CH faculty members who have held a Bowman and Gordon Gray Term Professorship. A feature on me was included in an article about the BGG Professorships that appeared in the Fall 2010 issue of the Arts & Sciences Magazine. During 2019-2023 I served as a Sigma Xi Distinguished Lecturer, giving talks about women in science and the physics of music to Sigma Xi chapters at colleges and universities across the country.

• Honors and Awards

  In November 2000 I visited Tufts University as the Kathryn A. McCarthy Lecturer in Physics. I was the first recipient of this lectureship, which honors a pioneering female physicist who also served as Provost of Tufts. In 2007 I was similarly honored as the inaugural presenter of the Dorothy K. Daspit Lecture at the H. Sophie Newcomb Memorial College Institute at Tulane University. In April 2004 I was one of three people invited by the AAAS to speak at a conference in Buenos Aires (Argentina) as part of their Lecture Series on Women in Science and Engineering. In 2009 I received the Mary Turner Lane Award from the UNC-CH Association of Women Faculty and Professionals for outstanding contributions to the lives of women at Carolina. In 2010 I was similarly honored with a University Award for the Advancement of Women. In 2011 I was recognized by the UNC-CH College of Arts & Sciences with the William F. Little Distinguished Service Award. This award is in memory of Bill Little, former Chair of the UNC Chemistry Department and tireless servant of the university. In 2019 I received the George B. Pegram Award for "Excellence in Physics Education in the Southeast," awarded by the Southeastern Section of the American Physical Society. In 2021 APS named me a Five Sigma Physicist for having "exhibited outstanding advocacy work in addressing science policy issues." The American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT) has named me the 2025 recipient of the J.D. Jackson Award for Excellence in Graduate Education.
  
  

If you want to see what I look like in other settings, click here. An article appeared in the Winter 2003 issue of Endeavors magazine (published by the UNC-CH Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Graduate Studies) in which I was quoted extensively on the subject of women in science. In March 2002 I was a member of the U.S. delegation to the IUPAP Conference on Women in Physics, and a few pictures from that conference can be seen here.


• Background

  If you want to learn about my professional training and experience, please consult my C.V.

• Teaching

  In Fall 2024 I will teach my First-Year Seminar The Interplay of Music and Physics with Prof. Brent Wissick of the Music Department. We have been teaching this course together since 1999.

  
  
• Research

  My recent research activities at UNC-CH are focused on optical studies of materials.

  • Brillouin scattering studies of hydrogels. Dr. Britta Gorman (now at Applied Physics Lab) was the lead researcher on this project.
  • Vibrational spectroscopy of metal-organic framework (MOF) compounds for decontamination of chemical warfare agents, with Prof. Yue Wu. Dr. Brandon Yost (now also at Applied Physics Lab, after a postdoc at Savannah River National Lab) was the lead researcher on this work.

  
  To read more about these and other topics, consult this list of selected recent publications.
  If you want a complete list of my publications, consult this pdf file.

• Professional Activities

  In addition to my university duties, I am active in the American Physical Society (APS). I served four years in the Chair line of the APS Forum on Education, and currently represent that unit (along with two others) on the APS Council of Representatives and serve on the APS Board of Directors. I lead the National Advisory Board of the Faculty Teaching Institute (formerly known as the New Faculty Workshop), which helps new physics & astronomy faculty members become better teachers. A few years ago I served as co-Chair of the Joint Task Force on Undergraduate Physics Programs (J-TUPP), a joint effort of APS and the American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT) focused on career preparation for undergraduate physics majors (you may wish to read the report of the task force). I also recently completed a seven-year term as a member of the Operations Resource Group of the Statistical Research Center of the American Institute of Physics (AIP). I am a Deputy Editor at the Journal of Applied Physics (published by AIP Publishing). I have served as Chair of the Southeastern Section of the APS (SESAPS) and have been a member of the APS Physics Policy Committee. I served on the Executive Committee of the Division of Condensed Matter Physics from 2001-2004, and had the same role in SESAPS in 1994-97. I was a member of the National Task Force on Undergraduate Physics, which was a joint effort of the APS, the AAPT, and the AIP that produced the SPIN-UP report in 2003. I was the Chair of APS's Committee on the Status of Women in Physics in 1997. I participate in the APS/AAPT Site Visit project to study ways to improve the climate for women in physics departments. Together with Marc Sher (College of William and Mary), I have conducted a survey of dual-science-career couples and the difficulties they face in finding two jobs in the same place. The report of that survey also includes suggested solutions to the problem. A summary appeared in the February 1999 issue of APS News, and we published an article in the July 1999 issue of Physics Today.

	Department of Physics and Astronomy
	Phillips Hall  CB #3255
	University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
	Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3255  USA