Director
As a nationally recognized leader in physics education, Gay Stewart serves as the director of the WVU Center for Excellence in STEM Education. Her central role in the physics education community ensures that any findings transferable to physics will be known and discussed at the national level. Gay began her academic career with the primary research area of improving physics education for college students, STEM majors and future K-12 teachers. She has broadened her focus to how best to recruit and retain more students to STEM degrees and careers, with a particular focus on rural, first-generation-to-go-to-college students.
Most recently, she is the recipient of the 2019 Hans Christian Oersted Medal, joining the ranks of luminaries Carl Sagan, Richard Feynman and Nobel laureates as the recipient of this prestigious award from the American Association of Physics Teachers. She is also the former president of the American Association of Physics Teachers, a member of the Board of Directors of the American Physical Society and a leader of the College Board's redesign of the AP physics sequence.