Two faculty members in physics and environmental engineering received 1996 Distinguished Public Service Awards today from their colleagues at the University of California, Davis. The annual awards, including a shared $1,000 honorarium, were presented to Wendell Potter and Daniel Sperling by the Representative Assembly of the Academic Senate, the governing body of UC Davis professors. Established in 1990, the awards recognize faculty members who have made significant public-service contributions to the community, state, nation and world throughout their academic careers. Wendell Potter, Professor of Physics Potter has been the driving force behind a UC Davis-based outreach program aimed at improving the quality of science teaching in grades kindergarten through 12 in the Sacramento area and throughout the state. Initiated through a grant from the National Science Foundation to work with teachers for a better understanding of how students learn science, the program is now known as the California Science Project, Sacramento, one of 12 statewide projects to improve science education in the public schools. Potter is co-director. For the past 11 years, Potter's program has inspired science teachers to develop a clear, intuitive understanding of the dynamics of the physical world. In turn, teachers' confidence has transformed the nature of their students' educational experiences. Instead of bogging down in the usually short-lived memorization of facts and formulas, teachers can lead their students through science concepts in ways that make more relevant and lasting impressions. Around the country, hundreds of workshop leaders and teachers in grades 4 through 8 use a one-hour laser disk and manual featuring six teachers from the California Science Project, which Potter conceived, developed, wrote and edited. In a ripple effect, teachers from the science project are working with colleagues to extend the new ideas. Other teachers from the science project have now assumed statewide leadership positions in the science education reform movement. In addition to the science project, Potter has given dozens of workshop presentations at area schools and school districts on new ways to teach science that encourage meaningful learning for the students. He also has had significant impact on state and national efforts to change the way science is taught. He is the main physical science author for the Science Framework for California Public Schools, the primary document that determines how science is taught in grades K-9. He also represents the campus on Project Pipeline, a program that aims to increase the number of underrepresented minorities who will teach science and math in K-12 in the public schools. Professing to have learned as much about teaching science as he is reputed to have shared, Potter is applying the lessons to university undergraduate physics courses, which suffer from the same problems as K-12 science education, albeit at a more sophisticated level. This fall, biology students at UC Davis will learn physics in a completely new kind of course. Potter also serves as the vice chair of the physics department. His experimental research specialty has been in condensed matter, although his scholarly interests have shifted to formulating and implementing education theory into the university and pre-university educational infrastructure. Daniel Sperling, Director of the UC Davis Institute of Transportation Studies Recognized as one of the world's leading authorities on alternative transportation energy, Sperling has a strong commitment to the development and introduction of more environmentally benign fuels and vehicle technologies. His contributions to public service have been closely linked to his success as a researcher and to his effective leadership of a multidisciplinary research team, the UC Davis Institute of Transportation Studies, which includes a diverse range of researchers, from engineers to anthropologists. Sperling is widely credited as one of a handful of individuals most responsible for sustaining California's highly contentious "zero-emission vehicle" mandate. Originally requiring a small percentage of electric cars to be offered by major auto makers beginning in 1998, the state mandate is likely to be softened later this month as a result of vigorous opposition by the auto and oil industries. That it is not being eliminated altogether is partly due to Sperling's effective sharing of his research team's finds. The most influential study has proved to be one testing -- and refuting -- industry claims that consumers would not purchase limited-range vehicles. Major car companies have come to accept the findings and are announcing plans to begin marketing electric cars. He believes UC professors have a unique status and special responsibility to advocate in the public interest -- because of their scholarly expertise, public funding and tenured job security -- even when doing so is unpopular or professionally risky. He has actively sought to inform and positively influence public policy by widely sharing his research findings at scientific conferences, public hearings and industry meetings. The professor first made his mark on public policy in the 1980s. He was one of the few respected independent analysts of transportation energy issues, speaking out against the exaggerated claims of methanol's advantage. He organized one of the first conferences to look broadly at alternative transportation fuels choices and soon transformed the conference into a popular biennial event that attracts leading researchers, policy makers and corporate managers interested in transportation energy policy and research issues. Sperling also has taken a lead role in promoting the concept of neighborhood electric vehicles, a specialized car for errands around town. He is the principal academic resource for many companies, government agencies and environmental advocates pursuing these small vehicles. He is now turning his attention to the environmental and social implications of "Intelligent Transportation System" technologies. In addition, Sperling has made himself available to media, providing radio, newspaper and television interviews, as well as writing opinion and editorial pieces for popular media and longer articles for semi-popular magazines and newsletters. One of his more creative efforts to enhance public policy is a fellowship program that allows environmental advocates to spend short sabbaticals at UC Davis to learn more about energy and transportation issues. He also provides informal consulting to high-level government, industry and nonprofit leaders. His academic appointment is shared among the civil and environmental engineering department, the environmental studies division and the Institute of Transportation Studies.