Dr. Robert MacDonald

Biography

Rob is a sessional instructor of Physics, Statistics, Computing Science and Mathematics. He completed his PhD in Subatomic Physics at the University of Alberta in 2008, worked as a Postdoc in particle physics and dark matter research, and has been teaching as a sessional instructor at The King’s University since 2011. Currently Rob is also serving as technical support and designer at The King's Centre for Visualization in Science. A common thread in his teaching and research is how we decide what to include in the models we make, and what we leave out.

Research interests

• Interactive visualizations in science education
• Rich context learning tools for undergraduate physics
• Statistical modelling in education research
• Particle physics and dark matter

Courses

• PHYS 241 - Mechanics
• PHYS 243 - Wave Motion and Electricity
• STAT 300 - Introduction to Statistics
• CMPT 275 - Introduction to Programming and Problem-Solving

Selected publications

As lead author:

• R.P. MacDonald, P.G. Mahaffy, et al., An Interactive Planetary Boundaries Systems Thinking Learning Tool to Integrate Sustainability into the Chemistry Curriculum. Journal of Chemical Education 2022, 99, 10, 3530–3539 (2022) https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jchemed.2c00659 
• R.P. MacDonald et al. (TWIST collaboration), A Precision Measurement of the Muon Decay Parameters rho and delta. Physical Review D 78, 032010 (2008)

As collaboration member:

• Archambault et al. (PICASSO Collaboration), Constraints on low-mass WIMP interactions on 19F from PICASSO. Physics Letters B711:153-161 (2012)
• Hillairet et al. (TWIST Collaboration), Precision muon decay measurements and improved constraints on the weak interaction. Physical Review D 85, 092013 (2012)

PhD, Physics, University of Alberta, 2008
M.Sc., Physics, University of Alberta, 2001
B.Sc., Physics Honours (with distinction), University of Victoria, 1999