BYU physics professor receives national recognition

Robert Clark, a professor of physics and astronomy at Brigham Young University, recently received a prestigious national teaching award from the American Association of Physics Teachers.

Clark was awarded the Melba Newell Phillips Award at a conference in Miami Beach, Fla., in January. The award is given only occasionally to association leaders who display a unique life of creative leadership, dedicated service and exceptional contributions.

He is the ninth recipient of the award since its inception in 1981 and the first since 1999. The AAPT has more than 10,000 members worldwide.

Clark has been at BYU since 2000. Prior to coming to BYU, he was a professor at Texas A&M University for 24 years. Clark still works as a regents professor of physics at Texas A&M and has ongoing projects at the university.

He has also taught at the University of Texas at Austin and has worked as a scientist at Yale and Stanford Universities.

For more information, contact Clark at (801) 422-2805, or call the BYU Physics and Astronomy Department at (801) 422-4361.

Writer: Thomas Grover

More Information on This Article

Article Source/Further Information

News and Events

Image for Acoustics group studies the roar of SpaceX's Starship
Acoustics group studies the roar of SpaceX's Starship
Acoustics faculty and students measure the thunderous noise of the world’s most powerful rocket, exploring its impact on communities and the environment.
Image for Dr. Stephens’ Sabbatical to University of Arizona
Dr. Stephens’ Sabbatical to University of Arizona
Dr. Stephens participated in a research project at the University of Arizona focused on studying brown dwarfs using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).
Image for BYU Women Represent at CUWiP 2024
BYU Women Represent at CUWiP 2024
21 women student attend conference at Montana State University, where students engaged in keynote speeches, panels, and research presentations.
Image for Dr. John Colton’s Sabbatical to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory
Dr. John Colton’s Sabbatical to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory
Dr. John Colton embarked on a six-month sabbatical at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Colorado to explore the use of terahertz radiation in probing the chiral properties of hybrid perovskite materials, a research area previously unfamiliar to him.
Image for Nathan Powers, Updated labs and AAPT lab committee work
Nathan Powers, Updated labs and AAPT lab committee work
Dr. Powers initiated the effort to update BYU’s physics undergraduate lab curriculum in 2015. The revamped curriculum, aimed at teaching students how to construct knowledge from experiments.
Image for New Weather Station
New Weather Station
A group of undergraduate students braved the heat and heights of the ESC roof to install a new weather station. The station is up and running, and will hopefully record data for years to come.
Image for Study analyzes distant Kuiper Belt object with NASA's Hubble data
Study analyzes distant Kuiper Belt object with NASA's Hubble data
Using data from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, a new study suggests that an object previously thought to be a binary system may be a rare triple system of orbiting bodies.
Image for BYU’s Rising Astronomers Take Center Stage at the Winter AAS Conference
BYU’s Rising Astronomers Take Center Stage at the Winter AAS Conference
In early January 2025, a group of 16 students from Brigham Young University’s Physics & Astronomy Department showcased their research at the prestigious American Astronomical Society (AAS) in National Harbor, Maryland.