Edward “Joe” Redish, a popular professor of physics at the University of Maryland, died of cancer on Aug. 24 at 82. Globally recognized as a pioneer in the field of physics education research, Joe was most proud of his role in helping to build the field into a thriving international community.
Joe taught physics at the University of Maryland in College Park for more than 50 years, including a stint as department chair when Maryland had the third largest physics department in the nation. Joe came to Maryland after graduating Magna Cum Laude from Princeton University and earning his Ph.D. in theoretical nuclear physics from MIT.
After researching the theory of nuclear reactions for 20 years, including serving on the national Nuclear Science Advisory Committee, Joe turned his attention to improving the teaching of physics and other sciences. Over the next 30 years, working with many graduate students and post-docs, he built a strong theoretical framework for understanding how students learn science, why they often don’t apply resources they actually have and how to help them think more clearly. He built the widely-used survey that probes students’ expectations and attitudes towards physics. He realized that “science is not about how the world works. It’s about how we think about how the world works.”
Joe worked with colleagues around the world. In the 1970s, he joined with leading physicists in Hungary and Australia to develop the Bencze-Redish-Sloan equation for the n-body problem in nuclear physics. Over his career, Joe collaborated with colleagues on 6 of the 7 continents. As Joe would say, “Science is not just about science. It’s about learning to have scientific conversations.”
Joe was a University of Maryland Distinguished Scholar-Teacher and a a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Physical Society and the American Association of Physics Teachers. He was the first individual recipient of the APS Education Award. He received many awards for his research and teaching, including the National Science Foundation Director’s Distinguished Teaching Scholar Award and the ICPE Medal from the International Commission on Physics Education (bestowed at a conference in Istanbul).
Joe is survived by his wife of 57 years, Dr. Janice “Ginny” Redish, their children, Dr. A. David Redish and Dr. Deborah Fripp, and six grandchildren. One of Joe’s joys was learning from his children and grandchildren. He was always excited by someone who was willing to argue with him, and his children and grandchildren happily stepped up to that challenge. Joe and Ginny opened their home to students and colleagues who knew they would be welcomed, fed and treated like family. In 2017, more than 150 former undergraduate students, graduate students and colleagues from around the world came to celebrate Joe’s 75th birthday at a University of Maryland symposium in his honor.
Joe will be missed by all who knew him. He was a wealth of wisdom, a kind wit and a friend to all. He had a glint in his eye as he quoted Tolkien or sang Stan Rogers folk songs. As a secular Jew, he saw himself as an embodiment of tikkun olam, the philosophy of making the world a better place. In lieu of flowers, please consider supporting the E. F. Redish Endowed Professorship in Science Education at the University of Maryland.