Wolfgang W. Bauer is a University Distinguished Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Michigan State University. He is also Associate Vice President for Administrative Services at MSU, with primary responsibilities in Energy, Sustainability, and Mobility. He is also an author of the introductory calculus-based physics textbook "University Physics", published by McGraw-Hill in 2013.
Prof. Bauer has a dual appointment at the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory, where he works on nuclear physics topics. He is best known for his work on phase transitions of nuclear matter in heavy ion collisions, and transport theory of heavy ion collisions, in particular as applied to interferometry, particle production, collective flow, and isospin degrees of freedom.
Prof. Bauer has taught physics and astronomy classes on the undergraduate and graduate level since 1988. He is particularly interested in the introductory physics curriculum for engineering and science majors. For decades he has collaborated closely with his MSU colleagues Walter Benenson and Gary Westfall. They obtained NSF funding to develop novel teaching and laboratory techniques, and authored multimedia physics CDs for their students at MSU's Lyman Briggs School. Based on this work they co-authored cliXX Physik, a complete physics textbook on CD-rom. In 1992, they became early adopters of the Internet for teaching and learning by developing the first version of their online homework system. In subsequent years, they were instrumental in creating the LearningOnline Network with CAPA, which is now used at more than 70 universities and colleges in the United States and around the world. Since 2008, Bauer and Westfall have been part of a team of instructors, engineers, and physicists, who investigate the use of peer-assisted learning in the introductory physics curriculum. This project has received funding from the NSF STEM Talent Expansion Program, and its best practices have been incorporated into their textbook "University Physics", which was published in 2010 by McGraw-Hill, and which has also been translated into Chinese, Korean, Portuguese, and Spanish languages. The second edition was published in 2013, and an e-book in 2015.
Other research topics
Prof. Bauer has worked on nonlinear dynamics and chaos, where he is best known for he work on billiards systems and their decays and for his work on buckyball fragmentation. He also worked in bio-medical physics and holds a US patent on cell-by-cell cancer detection. In recent years, he has focused much of his research and teaching on issues concerning energy, including fossil fuel resources, ways to use energy more efficiently, and, in particular, alternative and carbon-neutral energy resources. He has been a member of the group designing the energy transition plan for Michigan State University.
Administrative positions
Head of Nuclear Theory Group, National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory
Associate Chair and Undergraduate Program Director, Department of Physics and Astronomy, MSU
Chairperson, Department of Physics and Astronomy, MSU
Founding Director of the Institute for Cyber-Enabled Research
Professor Bauer was awarded the National Science Foundation Presidential Faculty Fellow Award in 1992 and the Alexander-von-Humboldt Foundation Distinguished Senior U.S. Scientist Award in 1999. He was elected Fellow of the American Physical Society in 2003. Also in 2003, Professor Bauer received the ComputerWorld 21st Century Achievement Award for Education and Academia for his work on LON-CAPA, "Judged best IT application in the world in Education and Academia". In 2007 he was named University Distinguished Professor at Michigan State University. In 2012 he was named Outstanding Referee by the American Physical Society.
