BIOSKETCH: Mano Singham

Mano Singham is currently Director of Case’s University Center for Innovation in Teaching and Education (UCITE) and Adjunct Associate Professor of Physics.

He obtained his B.Sc. from the University of Colombo in Sri Lanka, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in theoretical nuclear physics from the University of Pittsburgh. Before coming to Case Western Reserve University in 1989, he taught and carried out research at the University of Rochester, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Drexel University, University of Pittsburgh, and the University of Colombo.

He has researched and conducted seminars and workshops for university faculty on teaching and learning. He has conducted workshops around the country on Active Learning methods for science teachers at pre-college and college levels, and run summer and academic year programs for K-12 science teachers. He also worked for five years as Scientist-Educator for Project Discovery, one of National Science Foundation’s Statewide Systemic Initiatives to improve K-12 science education. He has also conducted Cognitive Coaching seminars for school administrators.

He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society.

In 2001 he won Case Western Reserve University’s Carl F. Wittke award for distinguished undergraduate teaching, and has received numerous other awards for teaching and service to education.

He has written articles and given invited talks on The Achievement Gap in Science and Mathematics Education, Active Learning, and Science and Religion at professional meetings of scientists and educators.

His recent research interests are in the fields of education, theories of knowledge, and physics and philosophy. His first book, THE QUEST FOR THE TRUTH was published by Phi Delta Kappan Educational Foundation, in November 2000. His second book The Achievement Gap in U. S. Education: Canaries in the Mine, deals with the educational achievement gap between white and black students and was published in May 2005 by Rowman and Littlefield Education Press.

In other activities, he acted as Dr. Quari Shah and the Marabout in the play Homebody/Kabul by Tony Kushner, performed at Dobama Theatre in 2003, and also had a small role in the 2001 independent film The Ignorance and Absence of Gerard, written anddirected by Preston DeFrancis, a Case alumnus and former student of his.