Winter 2025 Newsletter

From the GPER Chair

By: Natasha Holmes, GPER Chair

Well it has been quite a year. I don’t know about you, but I feel somewhat relieved to be coming out the other side of 2025. It has been an intense year for the GPER community and I’m not going to dwell on the intensity. Instead, I’m going to get us thinking about some wins this year. 

First, we once again had record-breaking GPER participation at the APS Global Physics Summit in Anaheim, CA and we are on-track for similar engagement in 2026 (see Michael Loverude and Mac Stetzer’s update on the Global Physics Summit).

Second, we were able to secure some additional funding for travel awards to support more of our community to attend the Global Physics Summit and take on new initiatives. We are sincerely appreciative of the Physical Review journal family for their partnership in these efforts!

Third, we are going to spend 2026 focused on renewed membership engagement recruitment. While we have several plans in the works, the first is to take more opportunities to celebrate the success of the GPER community. To that end, please take a moment to share any good news or kudos you have (or are aware of) about our community. We will share these regularly in our communications moving forward, so please keep them coming! 

I have sincerely cherished my time as chair of GPER, particularly the incredible support of the GPER exec team and the APS staff. This roller coaster of a year, through this position, gave me the opportunity to connect more deeply with members of this community. If you haven’t had this experience yet, I strongly encourage you to consider running for a GPER exec position.

I look forward to struggling through 2026 with you all! See you Denver!

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Welcome to new GPER officers Bethany, Eric, Katie, and Jason!

By: Jackie Chini, GPER Past Chair and Nominating Committee Chair

We are excited to announce that Bethany Wilcox, Eric Burkholder, Katie Ansell, and Jason Tran will join the GPER Executive Committee in January 2026.

Dr. Bethany Wilcox will serve a 4-year term in the chair line.  Bethany is an Associate Professor in the Department of Physics at the University of Colorado Boulder. Her research interests include understanding and addressing students' difficulties utilizing sophisticated mathematical tools and techniques in the context of physics problem solving. She is also interested in the development of research-based and validated assessments of student learning that can be used to measure the impact of curricular changes or compare student learning across courses and institutions. In particular, she is utilizing advanced testing theories to explore viable options for creating modular assessments that can address variations in content coverage in and across courses.  

Dr. Eric Burkholder will serve a 3-year term as Secretary-Treasurer.  Eric is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Physics at Auburn University. He studies a broad array of topics in Physics Education Research, including scientific decision-making in graduate physics curricula, student experiences and performance in introductory STEM courses, and educational change initiatives in international contexts. He is also a member of the Effective Practices for Physics Programs Editorial Board and an APS Advocacy Champion.

Dr. Katie Ansell will serve a 2-year term as a member-at-large. Katie is a Teaching assistant Professor in the Department of Physics at the University Illinois Urbana Champaign. Her current work in Physics Education Research focuses on understanding social and cognitive aspects of how groups of students learn to work together, and how instructors, near-peers, and students navigate the ecosystem of introductory physics labs. As Teaching Faculty, she also applies principles from cognitive science, instructional design, and education theory to her teaching practices in large introductory courses.

Jason Tran will serve a 2-year term as graduate student member-at-large. Currently, Jason is a PhD student in Physics at Georgetown University. He works with Dr. Leanne Doughty and Dr. James Freericks, focusing on student understanding of quantum mechanics and quantum physics at various levels of instruction, from high school through graduate quantum, without the traditional calculus-intensive approach. He is also a Member-at-Large with PERCoGS and is an APS Ambassador.

This year, 22.4% of eligible GPER members cast their vote in the election.  We thank all of you who participated.

We also express our gratitude to the GPER members who agreed to run for GPER positions this fall but were not elected. The vibrancy of our community is largely dependent on the dedication and commitment of those who are willing to serve it. We urge more members to consider serving in the future when opportunities arise. If you are interested in running for the GPER Executive Committee in fall 2026, we welcome self-nominations. For more information, please contact Natasha Holmes at ngholmes@cornell.edu.

Thank you to GPER officers with terms ending in 2025! 

We thank four members of the executive committee who finished terms in 2025. Jackie Chini finished a four-year term in the GPER Chair Line. Ben Zwickl finished a three year term as Secretary-Treasurer. Homeyra Sadaghiani finished a two-year term as a GPER Member-at-Large and Mini-Grant Committee Chair. Andi Piña finished a two year term as Graduate Student Member-at-Large (and a PhD!). We are so appreciative of all your efforts and contributions to GPER.

2026 APS Fellows through GPER

By: Michael Loverude, GPER Chair-Elect, and MacKenzie Stetzer, GPER Vice Chair

GPER had the opportunity to recognize two members of our community with APS Fellowship. We are pleased to announce the 2025 APS Fellows through GPER:

Melissa Dancy: “For foundational research on the adoption and implementation of curricular innovations in physics classrooms and groundbreaking work on how racial and gender inequalities are expressed and perpetuated in physics.” 

Eleanor Sayre: “For outstanding contributions to the physics education research community through mentoring and development of emerging scholars, extensive scholarship, impactful service, and encouraging critical discourse amongst community members.”

The Fellowship committee met in June to consider nominations and reviewed them according to APS requirements as well as the GPER-specific guidelines for Fellows. This is always a challenging process as the nominees are all successful and established members of the community. The number of Fellows is capped at 0.5% of the total membership of APS and each unit is allocated Fellow slots based on its membership. For the coming year, we will be preparing a document with additional guidance for the community in preparing Fellow nominations, including suggested best practices. 

The GPER executive committee would like to sincerely thank the Fellowship Committee as well as all the nominators for volunteering their time to recognize members of our community.

GPER at the 2026 APS Global Physics Summit

By: Michael Loverude, GPER Chair-Elect, and MacKenzie Stetzer, GPER Vice Chair

The 2026 Global Physics summit will be held in Denver, CO (and online) March 15-20, 2026. This will again be the largest GPER presence ever, with 3 invited sessions, 5 mini-symposia, and 8 contributed sessions. Invited session slots are allocated by APS based on the contributions at the previous meeting, and our recent growth means that we have three invited sessions for the first time! After several years of dramatic growth, the number of contributed talks has only slightly increased from the 2025 meeting; given the challenges faced by our community, this is still cause for celebration. We also note that some subfields have faced greater challenges and lost external funding, so any celebration should be tempered by the knowledge that many members of our community are facing difficult choices.

The three invited sessions will highlight many scholars for whom this is their first APS invited talk. One session highlights three of GPER’s most recent APS Fellows, including 2025 Fellow Vashti Sawtelle as well as our two 2026 Fellows (see above). A second session brings colleagues from afar to speak on research in mathematics in physics. The third highlights scholars whose work attends to supporting students in developing skills. The mini-symposium format has one invited talk and six contributed speakers. Four of the five minisymposia are similar to the highly-attended sessions from 2025: emerging research methods in PER; research on DEIA; PER using AI, LLMs, and machine learning; and research on cognitive processes in PER. The fifth mini-symposium focuses on mathematical and quantitative reasoning. The eight contributed sessions have up to nine contributed talks each. With the growing PER presence, it is increasingly difficult to avoid conflicts and parallel sessions, but we have done what we can to minimize them.

In addition, there will be non-scientific sessions including our GPER business meeting, a session for the awarding of pins for GPER Fellows, and several workshops. The PERCoGS (PER Consortium of Graduate Students) will have an informal meeting early in the meeting, which is open to all graduate students in PER. 

Since many members of the community will be attending APS meetings for the first time, we have prepared a document with FAQs. Many relate to the submission process and travel, but a few are shown here as well:

• Is the GPER business meeting closed to the executive board or open to everyone?
  The GPER Business Meeting is open to all! 

• Should I go to the GPER business meeting?
  Please attend if you’re available and want to hear about what GPER has been working on, how to get involved, have suggestions for how we do things, or just to connect with the GPER community.

• How do I find all the PER sessions in the schedule?
  All GPER sessions will be tagged in the program with the GPER label, so one option is to filter the full schedule to find GPER sessions. BUT the PER community will also present talks within the sessions sponsored by the Forum on Education (FED), Forum on Diversity and Inclusion (FDI), Forum on Outreach and Engaging the Public (FOEP), and even more groups!!

• Is it true that there are GPER sessions in parallel?
  Yes! Our community presence has grown at the APS meeting such that there will be a number of sessions that you’re going to want to see taking place at the same time; the laws of physics mean that you are going to miss a lot of great talks!

GPER Mini-grants

By: Homeyra Sadaghiani, GPER Member-at-Large and Mini-Grant Committee Chair

GPER members have the opportunity to apply for GPER mini-grants, which provide modest financial support. This year, we developed a condensed application template to increase clarity and transparency in the application process. There are four mini-grant strands:

Strand 1: Conference Support (budget: $3,000; typical award: $1,000).
This strand supports the proposer’s commitments to a conference to share physics education research findings with the physics community (e.g., travel, registration fees, workshop costs, poster printing). All conferences are considered; however, the APS Global Physics Summit will be prioritized. Preference is given to GPER members with limited conference resources (such as students without grant funding, faculty at two-year colleges and/or minority-serving institutions, and adjunct faculty) and to junior researchers.

Strand 2: Emergency Support (budget: $2,500; maximum award: $500).
This strand is intended to “support individual members who are facing unanticipated financial challenges.” The guidelines for what qualifies as an emergency follow the APS National Mentoring Community (NMC) Bringing Emergency Aid to Mentees (BEAM).

Strand 3: Conference Organizer Support (budget: $1,000).
This strand supports “the successful organization of PER-focused conferences and the development of early-career PER researchers at such conferences.” Funds help conference and session organizers defray associated costs.

Strand 4: Journal Publication Fee Support (budget: $1,000; maximum award: $500).
This strand “supports proposers in paying the journal publication fee for publishing physics education research articles in American Physical Society journals,” helping to offset the cost of publishing PER in APS journals.

Applications for the Conference Support strand were due on December 1st, 2025. We received 15 eligible applications, and awardees will be announced in early January.

The 2025 Mini-Grants Review Committee was chaired by Homeyra Sadaghiani (California State Polytechnic University, Pomona). Committee members were Vashti Sawtelle (junior GPER Member-at-Large, Michigan State University), Meagan Sundstrom (Drexel University), and Andi Piña (Rochester Institute of Technology).

Looking Ahead
Applications for the next cycle of Conference Support (Strand 1) will be due in September 2026, ahead of the abstract deadline for the 2026 APS Global Physics Summit Meeting. Applications for the Emergency Support, Conference Organizer Support, and Journal Publication Fee strands are accepted year-round and reviewed monthly. More information about the mini-grants program is available  here.

GPER membership update! Please help us continue to grow.

By: Ben Zwickl, GPER Secretary/Treasurer

The presence of GPER within APS continues to grow in number as does our visibility within APS conferences. Together, we are advancing PER as a sub-discipline of physics and promoting and disseminating PER within the wider physics community. In 2025, GPER saw an increase of 95 members (12%) to a new high of 908 GPER members according to the “current count” from APS Unit Membership statistics update on 10/1/2025. 

To maintain our growth and impact:

• Encourage students to join GPER and PERCoGS, especially if they present at the APS April Meeting or Global Physics Summit.

• Continue to renew your GPER membership.
  
  

Please see more information about benefits of GPER membership here.

GPER Budget

By: Ben Zwickl, GPER Secretary/Treasurer

This update is based on the most recent available budget report from APS on 10/31/2025. GPER income is primarily from membership dues, which are $3,990 in to-date (up $225 from 2024) and the GPER share of APS General Meeting Income, which is $2,027 (up $920 from 2024). Additional revenue to-date includes $449 from APS investments.  

Our assets and income and the 2025 GPER Budget are presented below.

Assets and Income

2025 Budget Approved by the GPER EC

Physical Review Physics Education Research (PRPER) Update

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