I am currently an Associate Professor of Physics at Davidson College.  Fall '08 I am teaching  physics 120 and classical mechanics. Spring '09 I am teaching physics 220 and mathematical methods.   My research interests are in the areas of theoretical physics and physics education research and development. 

My research interests in theoretical  physics lie in the mathematical and computational formulations of quantum mechanics (including supersymmetric or SUSY QM, time evolution of wave packets, and quasi-probability distributions in phase space) and abelian and non-abelian quantum field theories (QED and QCD).  Eight students have worked with me on quantum mechanics research projects since I arrived at Davidson.  I received a Research Corporation grant for SUSY QM work with students during the summers of '02 - '04.  Summer '04 and '05 and the '05-'06 academic year, Laura Gilbert (Physics with Honors '06) worked with me doing research in support of an Honor's thesis in physics.  To see the 2002 Gordon Research Conference poster: click here.  Click on the following link for a more complete listing of what my students have done (talks, posters, papers, awards, etc.), and for a more complete listing of what other students have done, visit the Department's student research site.

My research interests in physics education research and development lie in the development and testing of interactive curricular materials (using Physlets^® and Open Source Physics programs) for use in a wide variety of physics courses (from introductory physics to advanced quantum mechanics).  As part of this research, I have authored or co-authored over 1000 Physlet-based interactive exercises, co-authored numerous articles,  and co-authored seven books.  This work is supported during '02  - '05 and '05 - '08 by grants from the National Science Foundation.

I am currently the Books Department Editor for Computing in Science and Engineering, Section Representative of the North Carolina Section of the American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT), a member of the AAPT's National Meetings Committee, a member of the AAPT's Committee on Educational Technologies, and a member of the ComPADRE Quantum Physics Editorial Board.  I have also served as the Chair of the Committee on Educational Technologies of the AAPT.

As part of its 75th anniversary celebration, the American Institute of Physics posted the top five articles from Computing in Science and Engineering. The paper, “Physlets for Quantum Mechanics,” M. Belloni and W. Christian, Comp. Sci. Eng. 5, 90-96 (2003), was among the 5 and was deemed "Best Education Article" and it was stated that "this article meets the ideal framed by the mission of CiSE as a publication." 
Available at: http://www.aip.org/anniversary/pubs_cise.html.

Co-author of, “Improving Students’ Understanding of Quantum Mechanics,” with Chandralekha Singh and Wolfgang Christian in the August 2006 issue of Physics Today.

Received a 2006 Award for Distinguished Service (also called a Distinguished Service Citation) from the American Association of Physics Teachers for my "many and innovative contributions to physics teaching and for service to the physics community at large."

Co-author of seven books: a 194-page book and CD in Hebrew:גרסה עברית דר' דוד פונדק,  דר' סעיד מחאג'נה, מר שאדי עסקלה המכללה האקדמית להנדסה אורט בראודה (Multi-Representational Mechanics: Physlet^® Physics: Interactive Illustrations, Explorations, and Problems for Introductory Physics),  http://braude.ort.org.il/physlet/, an 88-page book and CD in German, Physik mit Physlets, a 266-page book in Slovene published by the Slovenian Ministry of Education and Sports, Fizika s Fizleti: Interaktivne predstavitve in raziskave za uvod v fiziko, a 200-page interactive quantum mechanics textbook Physlet Quantum Physics: An Interactive Introduction (now in its third printing), a 456-page book in Spanish Fislets: Enseñanza de la Física con Material Interactivo, a 330-page interactive textbook Physlet Physics: Interactive Illustrations, Explorations, and Problems for Introductory Physics (now in its fourth printing) and Physlets: Teaching Physics with Interactive Curricular Material  (now in its fifth printing) on physics pedagogy.

Received grants from the National Science Foundation's CCLI-EMD program (DUE-0442581 and DUE-0126439) for the proposals, "OPTIC: Open Physics Technology for Interactive Curriculum" and “Open-Source Physics EducatioN (OPEN)”.  I am co-PI on these grants with Wolfgang Christian as lead PI.

Received a Research Corporation, Cottrell College Science Award (CC5470) for the proposal, Using Supersymmetric Quantum Mechanics to Construct and Investigate New Exactly Solvable PT-Symmetric Periodic Potentials.  We have extended this investigation to study wave packet revivals. 

Received Summer 2001,  Summer 2002, Summer 2003, and Summer 2005 Associated Colleges of the South Teaching with Technology Fellowships with Larry Cain and Wolfgang Christian to integrate JiTT and Physlets into intermediate and advanced quantum mechanics courses.  The materials we developed are available here.   We recently (May 2004) contributed an invited paper to the ACS journal Transformations.  The paper is available here.  I gave a talk on this work at the 2001 Rochester AAPT meeting:  QM Talk.

Received a MERLOT Classics Award and a MERLOT Editor's Choice Award from MERLOT (Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching).  Wolfgang Christian and I received the awards for our work on Physlets.

My spring 2001 Physics 120 class and Physlets were featured in the Syllabus column of the February 16, 2001 Chronicle of Higher Education.

Spent the 1997-1998 academic year as a Visiting Assistant Professor of Physics at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida.

Completed my Ph.D. in theoretical particle physics at the University of Connecticut during the summer of 1997.  My thesis research is in the area of Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD).  For a quick tutorial on QCD, look here: QCD.   While I was at UCONN, I was an instructor in the KAST (Kids are Scientists, Too) Program. I taught physics and astronomy to 4-6th and 7-9th graders.

MY CV