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.

I can be reached at:
	Department of Physics and Astronomy
	Phillips Hall  CB #3255
	University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
	Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3255  USA
You may send me e-mail at mcneil@physics.unc.edu

Last update: August 2, 2024