In the course of my career I have taught a broad spectrum of courses for undergraduate and graduate physics majors as well as a large service course especially designated for non-physics undergraduates. Each category of students has its own needs and the teaching style must be adapted accordingly. I firmly believe that striving to be an excellent teacher is a solemn obligation and it is every bit as important as any other activity, be it research or service for one’s profession or institution. In my own case I derive enormous satisfaction from teaching physics and interacting with the students, who in no small measure entrust their future to me. Accordingly I invest a great deal of time and thought in preparing my lectures, homework assignments, and examinations, and in the classroom my lecture is often delivered with great enthusiasm and passion.

The most serious form of "Mentoring" arises in being a thesis advisor. I have been fortunate enough to have served in this capacity for a large number of students for the Ph.D. and M.Sc. degrees both in the U.S. and Israel. I have also interacted closely with a significant number of graduate students in Germany, and in some cases de facto was a co-advisor for a graduate degree. Some of these many individuals are now distinguished professors and have achieved wide recognition for their contributions to physics. Others are pursuing successful careers in different sectors in several countries including industry, military and industrial laboratories, secondary school teaching and policy, and government service. I am very proud of all of them and I appreciate the opportunity to have played a significant role in their development.

The cross-fertilization between teaching and research is also deserving of comment. I could cite a very large number of teaching topics that in the course of time became very serious research projects for me. Most recently, as a part of my graduate lectures on classical electrodynamics, the topic of the radiation reaction force and runaway solutions for a classical electron, has become a major, almost obsessive research issue for me, one that I am actively pursuing in collaboration with Heinz-Jürgen Schmidt of Universität Osnabrück, Germany. The important work on this topic by Lorentz, Dirac, and others notwithstanding, I am confident that considerable progress can yet be made to resolve long-standing troubling questions in this field.

My own Ph.D. advisor at the University of Chicago, Gregor Wentzel, was an outstanding role model and I am convinced that he shaped my attitudes and sense of responsibility concerning teaching, and of course on research. He was both a great theoretical physicist and a superb lecturer, a true master. In many conversations with me during my student days he bluntly declared his attitudes about the need for nothing short of excellence in teaching. I believe that he was highly influenced in this regard by his own Ph.D. advisor in Munich, the legendary Arnold Sommerfeld.

I am very pleased to have received a large number of teaching awards in the course of my career on the basis of written student evaluations, and an “uncountable” number of warm personal letters from students thanking me for my efforts on their behalf. The personal letters are especially meaningful to me, as someone has been sufficiently moved to find the time to take pen to paper and to express honest gratitude.

 Graduate courses:

Non-relativistic quantum mechanics

Relativistic quantum mechanics and introduction to field theory

Methods of mathematical physics

Statistical mechanics

Specialized topics in phase transitions and critical point phenomena

Liquid crystals

Quantum many-body methods and their applications

Classical electrodynamics

Advanced topics in electricity and magnetism

Undergraduate courses:

Electricity and magnetism

Introductory quantum mechanics

Introductory nuclear physics

Mathematical methods for physics majors

Algebra-based general physics (for non-physics majors)

Recitation instructor for dozens of courses (for both physics and non-physics majors)