Eric Weeks is the director of the Center for Faculty Development and Excellence and Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Physics. As Director, he collaborates with others in the CFDE and at Emory to support the success of faculty throughout the university. Eric came to Emory in January 2001 as an assistant professor in the Department of Physics (Emory College of Arts and Sciences), and served as Chair of that department from 2013-18. His research specialty is “experimental soft condensed matter” which means he studies squishy materials like foam, sand, and paste. He has published over 100 peer-reviewed articles and is a Fellow of the American Physical Society. At Emory he has taught classes ranging from introductory level (300+ students) to small graduate seminars. He won an Emory Crystal Apple teaching award and an Emory College CTC teaching award. Eric has a long-standing commitment to engaging and supporting faculty, students, and postdoctoral scholars in teaching, research and professional development; due to this he received Emory College’s 2018 George P. Cuttino Award for Excellence in Mentoring. In addition to his important role as a member of the Emory faculty, Eric created and led the Science Education Research Journal Club, which brings together students and faculty from Emory and other Atlanta universities to analyze and understand research approaches to science education. Eric started as Director of the CFDE in July 2018. Eric has a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Texas at Austin (1997), and a B.S. in engineering physics from the University of Illinois Urbana/Champaign. He did postdoctoral work at the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard University prior to coming to Emory.
