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Who Is David Marasco?David Marasco was born in Geneva, Switzerland and moved to the United States at age 3. He was raised in California. He went to UC San Diego, where he earned degrees in both physics and philosophy. As an undergraduate he did research in magnetic materials and wrote an honors thesis on Leibniz's Best Possible World.David did his graduate work at Northwestern University. His doctoral thesis concerned the use of a new technique, thin-film x-ray standing waves, applied to ferroelectic materials and related surface structures. His research was performed at the Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Lab and at the National Synchrotron Light Source at Brookhaven National Lab. David has taken science education coursework through both San Jose State University and the University of Oregon. He is currently the program chair and immediate past president for the Northern California / Nevada section of the American Association of Physics Teachers. On the national level he has served on the AAPT's Committee for Diversity in Physics since 2017. In 2015 David flew on NASA's SOFIA aircraft. Read about it in this story. In his spare time he enjoys reading about history. He is an avid baseball fan - he discovered an error in Satchel Paige's offical statistics, and he's seen the game played in five different countries. His baseball photos have been used by the Fleer Trading Card company, The Daily Show and in Game of Shadows - the book that details the BALCO scandal. Click for my curriculum vitae.
Kyoto - 1990 
Sometimes physics is a pain in the you-know-what... 
I'm in front of Strontium, a piece of art at the DeYoung Museum in San Francisco. It's derived from an atomic-scale image of strontium titanate, one of the materials that I investigated in my PhD thesis. Click for image showing scale of the art. 
Me finishing the San Jose Half Marathon. The time would have been good for a full marathon, it's not-so-good for a half. This Marasco had problems in his race, but still finished first. 
Here I am in my doctoral garb. Unlike most professors, I don't wear black robes as Northwestern decided that purple was a much more interesting fashion statement. Note that only Master's hoods play by the academic color code, if you have a Ph.D. it is dark blue velvet no matter what your field. 
Me being awarded tenure, March of 2008. 
Walking the 21 Miler at Big Sur, April 2009. 
Backstage with Neil Degrasse Tyson (and George). 
Science guys. 
When I was growing up I wanted to be an astronaut. 
I flew on NASA's SOFIA, a 747 with an infrared telescope, in 2015. 
Demonstrating the Leidenfrost Effect at the Physics Show. 
Frank and I won an award for the Physics Show. 
Hari Kondabolu! 
Interviewing author Mary Roach in 2017. 
With some of my favorite people. Paolo was born July 31! Seven pounds, ten ounces. |
