David Garrison
Ph.D. Physics, Pennsylvania State
University
Department
of Physics, 1997-2002
Dissertation:
ÒTesting Binary Black Hole Codes in Strong Field RegimesÓ
Dissertation Committee: Jorge Pullin, Pablo Laguna,
Abhay Ashtekar, Steinn Sigurdsson.
B.S. Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Undergraduate studies, 1993-1997
Major in Physics, Minor in Earth Atmospheric
& Planetary Science, and Concentration in Political Science.
Undergraduate
Thesis: Gravitational Lensing of
Extended Radio Sources
Notable Achievements
1. Founded the Physics program at UHCL (BS, MS,
Collaborative PhD)
2. Developed the Collaborative UHCL-UH Physics PhD
Program through agreement with the UH Physics Department
3. Established the UHCL Physics guest lecture series and
Distinguished lecture series
4. Developed the Professional Science Masters of Physics:
Technical Management Sub-Plan
5. Developed the undergraduate Engineering Physics
sub-plan
6. Developed an advisory board for the UHCL Physics
program
7. Helped develop the UHCL Computational Physics
Laboratory, Physics Teaching Laboratory and Plasma Physics Laboratory
8. PI of a multi-university unfunded FAA Center of
Excellence in Commercial Space Transportation. The proposal involved 125 participants
and was completed in less than one month.
9. Co-founded UHCLÕs Center for Faculty Development
10. Appeared on an episode of ÒThe UniverseÓ on the
History Channel.
11. Interviewed several times on Television, Radio and the
World Wide Web.
12. Interviewed for HistoryMakers - ScienceMakers series
UHCL Faculty Development Fund Award Total, $22,913
UHCL Faculty Research Support
Fund Awards Total, $24,916
NSF SSTEM Co-I, 2013,
$592,468
HistoryMakers –
ScienceMaker, 2012
Institute for Space
Systems Operations Grant, 2010, $66,800
Fort Zumwalt North Hall
of Fame Inductee, 2009
Institute for Space
Systems Operations Mini-Grant, 2006, $7,077
Institute for Space
Systems Operations Mini-Grant, 2005, $6,666
Council of Graduate Schools
PSM implementation grant, 2005-2007, $25,000
NASA Faculty Fellowship
Program at JSC, 2004, $12,000
Institute for Space
Systems Operations Post-Doctoral Aerospace Grant, 2004, $20,000
Council of Graduate
Schools Professional Science M.S. planning grant, 2004, $6,000
NASA GSRP Fellowship,
2001-2002, $27,000
Academic Computing
Fellowship, 2001-2002, $15,000
Sloan
Scholar, 1998-2002
Bayer
Fellowship, 1997-1998, $3,000
Minority
Scholars Award, 1997-1998
Class
of 1961 Clarke E. Swannack Scholarship Recipient, 1995-1997
University
Club Scholarship Recipient, 1993-1997
National
Merit Scholarship Commended Student, 1993
Director
of Graduate Programs for the School of Science and Computer Engineering &
Associate Professor of Physics, University of Houston-Clear Lake (Joint Faculty
appointment with the University of Houston as Associate Professor of Physics)-
2014-Present
The
Graduate Program Director serves as the administrator reporting to the academic
dean for the school and assists the dean and associate dean in planning,
executing, and monitoring the schoolÕs activities. In coordination with the
division heads, program chairs, and where appropriate, others at the School,
the Graduate Program Director coordinates all activities related to graduate
programs and processes through the several primary responsibilities. I also developed a Recruitment Plan in
order to increase domestic graduate student enrollment in the college and I am
currently running a targeted marketing program.
Department
Chair & Associate Professor of Physics, University of Houston-Clear Lake
(Joint Faculty appointment with the University of Houston as Associate
Professor of Physics) –2008-2015
Founded
and developed the UHCL Physics program (BS, MS, Collaborative PhD, PSM Physics
sub-plan in Technical Management and the BS Engineering Physics sub-plan). Presently teaching undergraduate and
graduate level physics and astronomy courses. Classical Mechanics, Electrodynamics,
Fundamentals of Spacetime, General Relativity, Modern Physics Research, Methods
in Computational Physics, Research Project and Seminar, Mathematica for Physics
and Mathematical Methods in Physics I & II. Other duties include: advising and
mentoring students, community outreach, running the UHCL Physics seminar
series, promoting the physics and space science programs, managing adjunct
faculty, developing the schoolÕs undergraduate and graduate physics curriculum,
managing a research program in theoretical and computational physics and
developing the educational and research relationships between UHCL, UH and the
Johnson Space Center.
Department
Chair & Assistant Professor of Physics, University of Houston-Clear Lake
–2003-2008
Some
duties included biennial planning, creating a strategic plan for the physics
program, preparing class schedules, service on the school curriculum committee,
hiring and supervising roughly four to seven adjunct professors per semester,
promoting the physics program and managing the physics programÕs resources.
Visiting
Assistant Professor and Interim Chair of Physical Sciences, University of
Houston-Clear Lake –2002-2003
Taught
graduate and undergraduate level physics courses. Classical Mechanics, Electrodynamics,
Special Relativity, Research Methods in Space Science, Research Project &
Seminar and Mathematical Methods in Physics I & II. Other duties included: advising and
mentoring students, community outreach, promoting the physics and space science
programs, managing adjunct faculty, developing the schoolÕs physics curriculum,
developing a MasterÕs degree in physics program, starting a physics research
program and improving the relationship between UHCL and the Johnson Space
Center.
Teaching Assistant, Pennsylvania State University
--1998-2000
Taught
recitations and labs for several introductory level physics classes.
Courses include virtually every course in Penn StateÕs Algebra and Calculus
based Physics Curriculum. Examples include: Physics 202 - Calculus based
physics for engineers focusing on electrostatics taught using traditional
recitations and lectures; Physics 203 - Calculus based physics for engineers
focusing on thermodynamics and modern physics taught using traditional
recitations and lectures; Physics 212 - Calculus based physics for engineers
focusing on electrostatics taught using dynamic physics, a combination of group
learning in recitations and labs as well as traditional lectures; Physics
215 - Algebra based physics for pre-med students focusing on classical
mechanics and thermodynamics taught using traditional recitations and lectures.
Writer, Thinkwell --2001
Helped
develop interactive Physics CDÕs that included video lectures and tests.
I wrote practice tests and answer keys for each unit.
Instructor, Kaplan --1999-2001
Prepared
Students for the Physics section of the MCAT Medical School Admissions exam
using a series of lectures. Each lecture lasted for three hours; the
first was on classical mechanics, the second was on electrostatics and
thermodynamics and the last was on magnetism and modern physics. These
lectures focused on reviewing the material as well as test taking techniques
and confidence building.
Teaching Assistant, Washington University --1994
Assisted
Prof. Ogilvie of Washington University in developing and preparing the
curriculum for Computational Physics for Washington University Juniors, Seniors
and first year Graduate Students. My work included setting up computers,
installing software and networking, developing and testing homework projects
and writing elements of the curriculum. Matlab, Fortran and Maple where
used.
Physics Tutor, --1994-2002
Individually
tutored several students in basic and advanced undergraduate level math and
physics courses. Examples include: 8.01 and 8.02 at MIT; Physics
201, Physics 202, Physics 203, Physics 204, Physics 211, Physics 212, Physics
213, Physics 214, Physics 215, Physics 237, Physics 265, Physics 400 and
Physics 419 at Penn State.
Associate Professor, University of
Houston-Clear Lake –2008-Present
Various
research projects both independently and in collaboration with NASA JSC.
Research topics include numerical relativity, cosmology, computational physics
and plasma physics. My focus is on
studying the early universe using numerical simulations.
Assistant Professor, University of
Houston-Clear Lake –2003-2008
Various
research projects both independently and in collaboration with NASA JSC. Some
research topics include numerical relativity and cosmology as well as
collaboration with the Advanced Space Propulsion LaboratoryÕs VASMIR project
for the development of a Plasma rocket engine.
Visiting Assistant
Professor, University
of Houston-Clear Lake –2002-2003
Various
research projects both independently and in collaboration with NASA JSC. Work included numerical relativity and
cosmology as well as collaboration with the Advanced Space Propulsion
LaboratoryÕs VASMIR project for the development of a Plasma rocket engine.
Research Assistant, Pennsylvania State University --1998-2002
Working
with Prof. Jorge Pullin and Prof. Pablo Laguna on several projects in an effort
to develop numerical codes to solve the problem of the 3D spiraling coalescence
of two black holes. This project is done in Penn State's Center for
Gravitational Physics and Geometry in order to realize the top candidate for a
gravitational wave source that may be detected by LIGO. Most of my work is based on developing a
method of testing the stability of the numerical codes using periodic
cosmological systems, which lack singularities. Using these modes I induced constraint
violating and gauge modes in unstable codes and identified early clues to their
instability. Additional projects
included a study of gravitational gradient noise in gravity wave detectors,
applying causal differencing to our evolution methods and the development of
black hole spectroscopy, a method of using data from gravitational wave
detectors to determine the mass and angular momentum of a black hole.
B.S. Physics Thesis
Project,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology -- 1996-1997
Worked
with Prof. Jacqueline Hewitt simulating the gravitational lensing of observed
images to determine the conditions under which a gravitational lens is
detectable. I used Monte Carlo techniques and an unlensed radio image of
Cygnus-A to generate statistical data on the luminosity ratios of lensed radio
lobes. Next I compared the
results to the natural range of luminosity ratios of unlensed radio lobes
caused by varying the orientation of the radio lobes with respect to the
observer. I then attempted to show
whether or not gravitational lenses could be detected by simply looking at the
luminosity ratios of the radio lobes.
This knowledge could lead to new techniques in the detection of dark
matter.
Research Assistant, Washington University --1995
Worked
with Prof. Ogilvie and Prof. Will of Washington University on several projects
in theoretical Physics such as variable calculations and computer simulations,
which provided me with an introduction to General Relativity and gauge
theory. Many of the simulations
used Unix based visualization packages although some of the work was based on
using symbolic manipulators to plot analytic functions.
Research Assistant, Massachusetts
Institute of Technology --1995
Worked
with Prof. David Pritchard on a project to measure the mass of ions more
precisely than ever before. The data gained from this experiment will be
used to develop a new atomic standard for the kilogram, and is accurate enough
to find the Òrest massÓ of both gamma waves and atomic bonds. Much of my work included building
electronics and analyzing data.
Research Assistant, Massachusetts
Institute of Technology -- 1994
Experience with: Macintosh,
UNIX, LINUX, Windows, and DOS operating systems; Networking systems including
Internet Web Servers; Mathematics software such as Maple, Matlab, and
Mathematica; R, C, C++, Visual Basic, Perl, HTML, Java, JSP, ASP, SQL, and
Fortran programming languages.
AUM Clean Energy Group,
Investment Board – 2013-2014
Space Center Houston,
Educational Advisory Board Member – 2012-Present
Latin Deaf Services, Inc.,
Advisory Board Member – 2011-Present
UHCL Faculty Senate –
2007-2009, 2012-2015
UHCL Faculty Senate
Executive Committee - 2008-2009, 2012-2015
UHCL Faculty Senate
President Elect, President and Past President – 2012-2015
UHCL Faculty Senate
President – 2015-2016
UHCL University Council
– 2008-2009, 2012-2015
UHCL Academic Council
– 2008-2009, 2012-2015
UHCL Faculty Senate
Research Committee – 2007-2009 – Chair -- 2008-2009
UHCL Planning and Budget
Committee – 2007-2009
UHCL Black Students
Association – Advisor – 2005-2007
Organized UHCL Physics and
Space Science Guest Lecture Series – 2003-Present
UHCL Physics Club –
Co-advisor – 2002-Present
American Association of
Physics Teachers -- 2002-2003
National Society of Black
Physicists -- 2002-Present
American Physical Society
-- 1994-Present
Kappa Sigma Fraternity
–1993-Present -- Social Chair – 1995-1996
MIT Varsity Football Team
-- 1993, 1994 & 1996
National Society of Black
Engineers --1993-1997
Black Student Union,
Society of Physics Students --1993-1997
Helped organize 1997
National Conference for Black Physics Students -- 1997
National Honor Society --
1989-1993
Jazz Band improvisational
soloist --1989-1993