Alumni Association Distinguished Teaching Award Robert R. Marchini
Professor Robert “Bob” Marchini has been teaching at the U of M since 1967. He also
serves as the undergraduate advisor and laboratory coordinator in his department and
advisor for both Sigma Pi Sigma and the Society of Physics Students. He is well known
for his “Magic of Physics” demonstrations, in which he uses an assortment of magician-like
tricks to illustrate principles of physics. Dr. Marchini won the University's Distinguished
Teaching Award in 1980 and the Thomas W. Briggs Award for Excellence in Undergraduate
Teaching in 2001. He has been recognized by the Tennessee Science Teachers Association
and the Tennessee Academy of Science for his service to the science teaching community.
One of Dr. Marchini’s greatest contributions to the department, according to Department
Chair Shah Jahan, is in the number of students he brings into physics. “Fully half
of all of our physics students are ones who changed their majors after being taught
by Dr. Marchini.” Noting that “one can always find students in his office from early
to late”, Dr. Jahan states that “the passion he brings to the teaching of physics
is contagious, and students just want to be part of this great intellectual exercise.
He is the “Pied Piper of Physics.”