Ian teaches physics at all levels. He is passionate about teaching both one-on-one and in a large lecture format. He has received awards for teaching at the Departmental, Divisional, and University levels at Purdue University USA, where he spent most of his career. Students at Purdue gave him their highest award for teaching.
Ian is privileged to have had more than a dozen brilliant students receive a PhD at Purdue and currently has four DPhil students at Oxford. He has also mentored 10 postdoctoral fellows.
Selected honours (education):
- Honorary Life Member, Phi Eta Sigma National Freshman Student Honor Society (USA) (2010) & Alpha Lambda Delta National Student Society (USA) (2010)
- Induction into “The Purdue University Book of Great Teachers” (2004); approximately 300 faculty in the 148-year history of the university have received this honour
- Life Fellow, the Purdue University Teaching Academy (1998); the Academy has approximately 300 fellows
- Charles B. Murphy Award for Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching (Purdue) (1998); the highest undergraduate teaching award with four awards made annually from approximately 2,200 faculty
- Top Ten Teacher, College of Science, Purdue (2001)
- The Spira Award (Physics Professor of the Year), Purdue (1994)