David E. Pritchard graduated from Caltech and Harvard in physics. A professor at MIT since 1970, he pioneered several new areas of atomic physics (state-resolved collisions, van der Waals molecules, atom optics and interferometry, Bose Einstein condensation, and precision mass measurement) for which he won four prizes for research in atomic physics, mentored 3 Nobel prizewinners (one gave Dave his medal), and 4 students who won national research prizes.

Dave wrote A Mechanics Workbook using the paper-based “programmed instruction” method to teach problem solving in the 1970’s. With his son, he developed cybertutor.mit.edu, then founded Effective Educational Technologies which developed myCyberTutor.com – now sold by Pearson Education as MasteringPhysics.com, MasteringChemistry.com, etc. to ~ 2.5M students per year. He was the first Major Coordinator in the MIT Physics Department, and won a Dean’s Teaching and Advising Award, the Earll M. Murman Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Advising at MIT (2010) and the Dennison College “Best Mentor” award. His education research group has developed a new pedagogy for teaching problem solving and an integrated online environment for learning introductory physics - see http://RELATE.MIT.edu. These developments form the basis for the group’s current efforts for a full blended online course in mechaniacs, see it at http://RELATE.MIT.edu/physicscourse .