Associate Research Professor Chandra Turpen has been elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society. Turpen was selected by the Topical Group on Physics Education Research for outstanding contributions to the physics education research community, including mentoring students, supporting faculty change efforts, and pioneering interdisciplinary education research that supports institutional change and broadens participation in physics.
Xiechen Zheng, Kellen O'Brien, Stephanie Williams, Chandra Turpen, Yan Li, Patrick Banner and Donna Hammer at the awards ceremony.
After studying physics and chemistry as an undergraduate at the University of California, Santa Cruz, Turpen earned her Ph.D. in physics at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Following a postdoctoral appointment at Western Michigan University, she joined the University of Maryland in 2011. She was named an Assistant Research Professor in 2016, and promoted to Associate Research Professor in 2024. Turpen studies the process of learning physics and applies this research to inform the design of curriculum and instruction. She previously co-chaired a Department of Physics committee devoted to improving the teaching of quantum mechanics. In recent semesters, Turpen has taught PHYS 401 (Quantum Physics 1), PHYS 371 (Modern Physics), PHYS 360 (Intro to Quantum Mechanics) and PHYS 161 (Mechanics and Particle Dynamics).
In 2025, she was selected as a UMD Outstanding Graduate Faculty Mentor, and in 2018 as a UMD Woman of Influence.