Stephen P. Pappas Formerly: Postdoctoral Scholar    CLEO Collaboration    CMS Collaboration

Note on Teaching:

Teaching is the critical junction between scientists' research and public understanding: neither can exist without teaching. We often hear that teaching without research is uninformed, but it is equally true that research without teaching is sterile. Teaching helps us clarify our understanding of research and helps others place it into perspective, keeping it directed and focused. Unless we can successfully teach a subject in physics we do not truly understand it. One of the greatest physicists of the past century once put it this way:

Upon being unable to prepare a freshman lecture explaining Fermi-Dirac statistics, Richard Feynman once said: ``You know, I couldn't do it. I couldn't reduce it to the freshman level. That means we really don't understand it.''

Every scientist has a fundamental responsibility to teach. Particularly today with increasing amounts of pseudo-science being peddled outside academia (alas, sometimes in academia as well) it is important for practicing scientists to do everything they can to educate people. If we don't teach, we have no right to complain when the public does not support science or research or when they reject science in favor of superstition or worse.

If we don't teach, who will?

If we don't teach, the fault for the resulting ignorance falls on no one but ourselves.