Happy 90th Birthday to Prof. Al Bartlett!
For more than 10 years I have been an active member of the American Association of Physics Teachers. This provided me an opportunity to meet, work with and learn from amazing physics educators from all over the world. Some of them are high school teachers, while others teach at colleges and universities. I have to say that we also do not have a lack of very knowledgeable and inspirational physics educators here in British Columbia. Our BCAPT web site: www.bcapt.ca can attest to that. These people have a tremendous impact on lives of their students and on their colleagues (this is the main reason why I cherish my memberships in BCAPT and AAPT organizations so much). Some of these physics teachers impact the lives of hundreds of physics students and colleagues over their careers, yet very few of us have had an impact comparable to the impact of Prof. Emeritus, Al Bartlett. Prof. Al Bartlett have had an extraordinary career in physics education. He is a physics educator with a mission – he wants to help people all over the world to use critical thinking to understand our impact on the environment. In addition to being active in physics research for decades, Prof. Bartlett over his long career has been actively involved in the American Association of Physics Teachers (being its president, member of the Executive Board and an active member), wrote physics textbooks, inspired physics educators and students. Prof. Bartlett has presented his famous lecture on the population growth all over the world thousands of times. We were very fortunate to host prof. Bartlett at UBC a few years ago when he and his daughter Carol traveled by train all across Canada (he also presented to Ontario Section of AAPT). His lecture was attended by faculty members, students and staff from all over campus, including Professors David Suzuki and William Reese. We were very fortunate to host professor Bartlett here.
On March 21, 2013 Prof. Emeritus, Al Bartlett from the University of Colorado turns 90! I know a lot of people will celebrate Prof. Bartlett’s birthday, but here I would like to add my best wishes to a very distinguished person. Dear Prof. Bartlett, happy 90th birthday! You are an inspiration to many of us!!! We hope to see you back here at UBC soon! With the warmest wishes, respectfully, Marina.