presentations.md~

---
# Feel free to add content and custom Front Matter to this file.
# To modify the layout, see https://jekyllrb.com/docs/themes/#overriding-theme-defaults
title: About me
permalink: index.html
---

<img src="./images/swolfHeadVert.jpg" width="200" alt="Head Shot" align="right" style="padding 5px;"/>

[PDF CV](./files/swolfCV.pdf)

This is the [Github](github.com) home of Steven Wolf, Assistant Professor of Physics at East Carolina University.  I am also the Learning Assistant Program Director at ECU.  I was hired as part of the [ECU STEM CoRE](https://stemcore.ecu.edu) (Collaborative for Research in Education).  Together we are working with ECU faculty to make more STEM professionals (especially teachers) and do research on gaining expertise within our disciplines, as well as systems that promote retention to college and persistence within the discipline.  I am currently co-PI on two NSF grants with this collaborative:
- [XLABs](https://stemcore.ecu.edu/2019/03/26/xlabs/)
- [ADESSA](https://stemcore.ecu.edu/2019/03/25/adessa/)

More information about my research projects can be found on my [research page](research.html).

I earned my B.S. in physics and mathematics from [Valparaiso University](https://www.valpo.edu/physics-astronomy/) in 2003.  I earned my M.S. in [physics from Dartmouth College](https://physics.dartmouth.edu/) in 2005 picking up some FORTRAN and studying a bit of space weather.  After about a year working at a community college at teaching at a rural high school, I decided to go back to school for my [Ph.D. at Michigan State University](https://www.pa.msu.edu/), which I completed in 2012.  My thesis involved the use of networks to describe the ways that students, and physics faculty, categorize introductory physics problems.  Working with an interdisciplinary team such as the STEM CoRE is not new to me.  While a postdoc at Michigan State, I worked at the [CREATE for STEM Institute](http://create4stem.msu.edu) with Mathematics Ed and Physics Ed researchers.