iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Gabe Spalding @mqmlab.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Students in my Optical Physics course are always given the opportunity to create their own Computer-generated Holograms (CgH). The first image shows the calculated "optical texture" required, and the second shows a resulting image of the Illinois Wesleyan mascot. Huzzah! #ITeachPhysics

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Gabe Spalding @mqmlab.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Join me in celebrating Jonathan Reichert today, on his 95th birthday. The Reichert Foundation is an ambitious non-profit working to establish programs and grants for hands-on instructional laboratories in physics, beyond the first year of university #ITeachPhysics #ITeachScience

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Gabe Spalding @mqmlab.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

We joined Dalton to watch a Falcon 9 launch in person tonight. August 30, a Falcon Heavy rocket with 9 times as many engines launches the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, featuring detection systems designed in part by recent Illinois Wesleyan Physics professor, Dr. Mr. Perera. Mark your calendar!

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Gabe Spalding @mqmlab.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

And we’re off! The race is on, to the national meeting of the American Association of Physics Teachers. Will I get to Pasadena before you? All of us, together, make a difference! #ITeachPhysics #AAPT

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Gabe Spalding @mqmlab.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

The future of Quantum Science & Engineering, focused on undergraduate students, is here, at Illinois Wesleyan University

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Gabe Spalding @mqmlab.bsky.social · 22/01/2026

#ITeachPhysics I've passed the presidential gavel to @msaphysics.bsky.social, the youngest president in the history of AAPT (Woot!). Debbie Andres has earned EVERY BIT of our confidence, trust, and respect. In my view, she is absolutely the right person for the coming year.

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Gabe Spalding @mqmlab.bsky.social · 15/01/2026

Heading to a meeting of the American Association of Physics Teachers. More than ever, I consider this a magical community. #ITeachPhysics

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Gabe Spalding @mqmlab.bsky.social · 07/11/2025

This Physics outreach truck is now just outside our Center for Natural Sciences (CNS) at Illinois Wesleyan University, ready for student engagement! #ITeachPhysics

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Gabe Spalding @mqmlab.bsky.social · 14/10/2025

Into the breach once more! Our message includes that (a) Science has been and must be good for our nation, and that (b) we ought to be working to broaden participation in science. #AAPT

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Gabe Spalding @mqmlab.bsky.social · 16/09/2025

Looking forward to further collaboration with Wolfram on resources (see QR code below) for teaching within Illinois Wesleyan University's 11-course Concentration in Quantum Science & Technology. #ITeachPhysics

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Gabe Spalding @mqmlab.bsky.social · 07/09/2025

Bubbles are the "dolphins" of Physics! (Everyone loves bubbles)

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Gabe Spalding @mqmlab.bsky.social · 03/09/2025

If you have the capacity to do so, support us by becoming (or continuing as) a dues-paying member of AAPT and/or coming to our next national meeting, to enhance (and learn from) this community, as we piece together our next steps. #ITeachPhysics

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Gabe Spalding @mqmlab.bsky.social · 10/08/2025

It's a beautiful day in this neighborhood A beautiful day for a neighbor Would you be mine? Could you be mine?

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Gabe Spalding @mqmlab.bsky.social · 17/07/2025

Visiting U.S. Senate and House offices, in support of science and science education, for AAPT. My sub-group: Professor Eric Brewe (representing CU*iP conferences), Professor Thomas Searles (representing NSBP), Dr. Mark Elsesser (Government Affairs, APS), and Ellie Clancy (Lot Sixteen)

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Gabe Spalding @mqmlab.bsky.social · 05/06/2025

1/5: NSF cuts are deepest on the mathematical side of STEM. Yet these posts argue we are facing a significant nationwide shortage of advanced-degree-holding talent in such areas, and median starting salaries for Physics bachelors who directly enter the workforce continue to soar.

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Gabe Spalding @mqmlab.bsky.social · 04/06/2025

1/4: #ITeachPhysics Median starting salaries for Physics bachelors who directly enter the workforce are only a small part of the case that these are the kinds of alumni a university should strive to create: it shows that they do well for themselves.

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Gabe Spalding @mqmlab.bsky.social · 02/06/2025

1/4: In 1776, as General Cornwallis’s troops advanced upon the College of William & Mary, representatives of the secret society Phi Beta Kappa were sent out to Harvard and to Yale, to ensure that the society would not cease to exist: their revolutionary tenet sprang from the following question…

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Gabe Spalding @mqmlab.bsky.social · 01/06/2025

#ITeachPhysics 1/4: Three-quarters — i.e., the LARGE majority — of Physics departments offer grad students a teaching assistantship stipend below the living wage needed to live in a shared apartment. In other words, financial support has not kept pace with financial need.

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Gabe Spalding @mqmlab.bsky.social · 30/05/2025

Andor has some memorable lines

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Gabe Spalding @mqmlab.bsky.social · 16/04/2025

This is a major milestone celebrating the Illinois Wesleyan University emphasis on continuing to probe students’ multiple interests, and doing the work to connect the dots. It’s a great day to be a Titan! #TGOE www.wglt.org/local-news/2...

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Gabe Spalding @mqmlab.bsky.social · 07/04/2025

Please join us in congratulating Wanda on her award for the top research presentation at the Combined Meeting of the Illinois and the Iowa Sections of the American Association of Physics Teachers. #ITeachPhysics

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Gabe Spalding @mqmlab.bsky.social · 02/04/2025

Working to amplify student interest, student identity within their majors, and student opportunity, all of us, together, make a difference. #ITeachPhysics

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Gabe Spalding @mqmlab.bsky.social · 31/03/2025

There's a sense of significant opportunity here. Please point (quantum-) interested students towards Illinois Wesleyan University! #ITeachPhysics

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Gabe Spalding @mqmlab.bsky.social · 17/01/2025

Everyone teaching Physics should be encouraged to participate in national meetings of AAPT, at least once every three years. This would benefit each of us, individually, as well as our shared professional society, AAPT. #ITeachPhysics

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Gabe Spalding @mqmlab.bsky.social · 30/12/2024

This term students in my Optical Physics course calculated Computer-generated Holograms, of whatever objects they could think of. The one below, when transmitted to a Spatial Light Modulator (SLM), produces a hologram of our school mascot, "Tommy Titan." SLMs can be a great tool for Optics teaching.

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Gabe Spalding @mqmlab.bsky.social · 07/12/2024

Once again off to D.C., to a gathering of the American Institute of Physics, which brings together representatives from a large number of scientific and engineering professional societies. All of us, together, can try to make a difference.

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Gabe Spalding @mqmlab.bsky.social · 06/12/2024

Illinois Wesleyan University contingent at the Illinois Manufacturing Association annual luncheon

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Gabe Spalding @mqmlab.bsky.social · 25/11/2024

ICYM, Scholar Goggler uses your Google Scholar page to make a word cloud from the titles: scholargoggler.com

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Gabe Spalding @mqmlab.bsky.social · 21/11/2024

Tonight was our STEM Career Night, so I texted this picture, with no comment, to each of my students who had not yet shown up. Guess what? It worked pretty well!

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Gabe Spalding @mqmlab.bsky.social · 18/11/2024

Students weren’t “supposed” to complete this lab yet, but one group couldn’t wait, and so went in on their own time to give it a try!

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Gabe Spalding @mqmlab.bsky.social · 12/11/2024

At the American Institute of Physics, I serve as one of two delegates representing the American Association of Physics Teachers, as we work together with the delegates from other professional societies, towards advancing the common good. All of us, together, can try to make a difference.

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Gabe Spalding @mqmlab.bsky.social · 12/11/2024

I guess this is our inaugural “Science on Tap” at Keg Grove Brewing, just off campus. Our town has one community college and two universities, so there’s a good seed for nucleating such gatherings.

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