David Wittman at UC Davis

CPAPC

The California Professoriate for Access to Physics Careers has been formed to increase the number of underrepresented minorities (URM, including women) in physics and astronomy. Faculty from almost every CSU and UC campus have joined. The idea is to provide long-term mentoring for promising URM students at CSU campuses, so that by their senior year they lack neither knowledge of how to go about applying to PhD programs, nor personal connections at PhD-granting institutions.

See my page with advice for students considering graduate physics programs.

Graduate Admissions Boot Camp

I am the founding organizer of the annual Northern California Graduate Physics Admissions Bootcamp for aspiring students from across California. The camps have been generously funded by the UC Davis Office of Graduate Studies (and, more recently, the National Science Foundation) and are very highly rated by the students they serve. Click on the heading above for more info.

More Outreach

Blog

My blog, The World in a Grain of Sand, approaches science-related topics with a "beginner's mind." Posts range from learning activities I've done with kids to occasional college physics/astronomy topics.

School Visits

I served for two years as Scientist in Residence at Peregrine School, and I'm happy to visit other schools to talk about physics and/or astronomy; just hit the contact button. I documented my activities as Scientist in Residence on my blog and before that, I wrote up a few activities here.

YouTube

My YouTube channel provides 5-minute summaries of astronomy and physics topics and has been watched by thousands around the world.

Science In the River City (SIRC)

This is a great teacher development program, which I've just started to work with. Check out the resources used in my March 27, 2012 workshop and in later workshops on my blog.