Catherine Crouch
I'm an associate professor in the Department of Physics at Swarthmore College. I joined the department in September of 2003 and was awarded tenure in February of 2009.
Current and Upcoming Courses
Fall 2011:
- Physics 112 (junior seminar in electricity and magnetism)
- Physics/Astronomy 5 (first-year course in modern physics: "Spacetime, Cosmology, and Quanta")
- Physics 81-82: Advanced Laboratory
Spring 2012:
- Physics 4L: Electricity, magnetism, and optics with biomedical applications
Contact Information
Professional Background
Here you can review my publications, invited talks, conference presentations on materials science and introductory physics for the life sciences, professional information, and curriculum vitae.
Experimental Research
In my research laboratory, we study light emission from individual tiny semiconductor particles known as nanocrystals. The time dependence of the light emission gives us information about the dynamics of the electrons in a single nanoparticle and in its surroundings. (read more...)
Research Experience
Prior to joining the Swarthmore faculty, I studied micro- and nanoscale materials from a couple of other angles. For my doctoral work, I studied the interactions between a pair of "quantum dots", or tiny regions to which electrons are confined, by measuring the flow of current through the pair. As a postdoctoral fellow, I investigated ways to fabricate micro- and nanoscale structures on semiconductors and metals using laser ablation, and measured the novel optical and electrical properties of these materials. (read more...)
Physics Education Research
As a postdoctoral fellow, I was involved in a variety of projects to assess the effectiveness of physics instruction, and to develop more effective ways of teaching introductory physics at the college level. I have remained involved in these areas though devoting much less time to them than to my experimental physics research. (read more...)
Introductory Physics for Life Sciences
In addition to teaching the usual physics undergraduate curriculum, I have launched a new introductory physics course at Swarthmore especially designed for life science students, Physics 4L. (read more ...)
I have also contributed six chapters to a new introductory physics textbook by Eric Mazur that will be published by Addison-Wesley in 2012.
Recent Sabbatical Projects
During my recent sabbatical (2010-11), I worked on two projects:
I continued to work on curriculum development for reformed courses in introductory physics for the life sciences, in collaboration with many outstanding colleagues both at Swarthmore and at other institutions. For a brief overview of the goals of such courses, see the editorial that several collaborators and I wrote for the American Physical Society's newsletter. I am happy to share the materials I have developed.
I have joined the research group of Prof. Tobias Baumgart (University of Pennsylvania) to study the role of the physical shape (curvature) of cell membranes in important cellular processes. We are studying how certain proteins spanning the membrane localize preferentially in regions of higher curvature, and examining the role of electrostatics vs hydrophobic interactions in binding.