Bob Benjamin, PhD/Associate Professor of Astrophysics
"I think all kids are born as physicists: they love to do experiments; they love to drop things repeatedly. Physics is just a way of describing our physical reality."
NARRATOR
PROFESSOR BOB BENJAMIN'S CLASSES OFTEN GET PHYSICAL.
Brent McCarthy/UW-Whitewater Junior
"We're always having all kinds of cool experiments in class. It's good to see the things that we're solving with equations on paper, be demonstrated in a physical way."
STEPHANIE BESSLER/UW-Whitewater Sophomore
"So we can visualize the concepts."
Bob Benjamin, PhD/Associate Professor of Astrophysics
"I like to get the ideas across."
NARRATOR
HIS LOVE OF TEACHING STARTED ALL THE WAY BACK IN HIGH SCHOOL.
Bob Benjamin, PhD/Associate Professor of Astrophysics
"They would ask me to substitute. I got really great reviews and I think that stoked my ego a little bit; it was, oh, I'm a good teacher!"
NARRATOR
DECADES LATER, THE GREAT REVIEWS ARE STILL ROLLING IN.
Eric Rohner/UW-Whitewater Junior
He knows his stuff, that's for sure...
Stephanie Bessler/UW-Whitewater Sophomore
"I love this."
NARRATOR
HIS PHYSICS CLASSES MAY BE FUN BUT...
Bob Benjamin, PhD/Associate Professor of Astrophysics
"I have to warn my students: this class is going to be hard."
Eric Rohner/UW-Whitewater Junior
"He'll always make you work for your answers.
Bob Benjamin, PhD/Associate Professor of Astrophysics
"Sometimes the things that are the most meaningful are the things you work the hardest for. Knowledge is power, and knowledge in physics is rare and so it's particularly powerful."
NARRATOR
IT'S EASY TO SEE JUST HOW POWERFUL BY LOOKING AT THIS ASTROPHYSICIST'S RESEARCH.
Bob Benjamin, PhD/Associate Professor of Astrophysics
"I'm sitting on my couch processing data and something showed up which is probably another solar system. And it's like, oh, that's fun!"
NARRATOR
BENJAMIN RECENTLY WON A NASA GRANT TO STUDY INTERGALACTIC GAS CLOUDS. HIS WORK IS CHANGING HOW WE SEE THE MILKY WAY.
Bob Benjamin, PhD/Associate Professor of Astrophysics
"I've been involved with the Spitzer Space Telescope, which allowed us the opportunity to map the sky in the infrared."
Brent McCarthy/UW-Whitewater Junior
"He's working on such a relevant bit of research that is actually very respected. Sometimes, it feels like you have a celebrity in class."
Bob Benjamin, PhD/Associate Professor of Astrophysics
"I teach for the fun of it. I teach for the personal satisfaction of it, the thrill of seeing a student understand something that they didn't understand before. And I teach because I feel like I have an obligation. I was grading at a coffee house in town here a couple of years ago and the owner of the coffee shop saw me grading and he said ‘Oh, just give them all A's and let the free market sort them out.' And then I said to him, ‘Well, some of these students might someday be designing an airplane.' And he says, ‘Oh, grade them really tough!' And actually that's the responsibility that I feel. If you understand these things, you should want to teach them."