Education Distinction

If there’s one word to describe the career of Dr. Jorge Lopez, it’s ‘prolific.’

In his 30 years as a professor in the Department of Physics at the University of Texas at El Paso, he’s taught physics courses at all levels, supervised over 100 BS, MS and Ph.D. students, and developed or modified curricula and teaching materials for university, pre-college and pre-K levels.  

An avid writer, he’s also written 8 books and over 100 journal articles on research topics, and organized regional, national and international meetings and written dozens of general audience articles both in English and Spanish for newspapers and journals in the USA, México and Spain. He has given over 48 TV, radio and newspaper interviews.

Physics has fascinated Dr. Lopez ever since he was a child growing up in Juarez, Mexico, just over the border from El Paso where he is now the Schumaker Professor of Physics at the University of Texas.

After graduating from UTEP, he pursued post-doctoral research positions the prestigious Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen and the Lawrence Berkeley Lab.  After a brief teaching gig in California, Dr. Lopez returned to his alma mater and embarked on a remarkable professorial career that led him to become chairman of the Physics Department from 2001 to 2009.

Even with his teaching and administrative duties, Dr. Lopez maintained a commitment to scientific research, studying nuclear reactions at intermediate energies and developing models with increased complexity.

His other research efforts have included subjects as varied as nuclear physics, gravity waves, astrophysics, physics education, pre- K science teaching, materials science, and applications of scientific methods to social sciences including political science, anthropology and cultural heritage.

He has collaborated with researchers in Berkeley, CA, Buenos Aires, Caracas, and several institutions in Mexico. In particular, he played a key role initiating the Latin American Symposium on Nuclear Physics and Applications, and in founding the Division of Radiation Physics of the Mexican Society of Physics.

A member of 15 advisory boards of conferences, Dr. Lopez has been the PI and co-PI in over one hundred grant proposals for research, education and outreach activities. Of those, 42 proposals have been funded for a total close to $5 million US dollars.

Dr. Lopez is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and was recognized by the White House and the National Science Foundation with the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring. He has also neen recognized by The National Science Foundation, the Journal Nature, the Mexican Academy of Sciences, the Society of Hispanic Engineers and Scientists, the Society of Mexican American Engineers and Scientists, the University of Texas at El Paso, Texas A&M University, the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, and other institutions.