Kathryn Shirk, or Dr. Shirk, has been familiar with Shippensburg University since she went to the elementary school on campus when she was a child.

A native to Shippensburg, Shirk began teaching at SU in the fall of 2012. Currently, she is teaching intermediate physics II, quantum I and math and numerical techniques.

“I really like to teach quantum because it’s new and weird to students, but I also like astronomy because the students are a diverse group,” Shirk said.

Before teaching at SU, Shirk was a student at the university. She also attended Penn State, after which she worked for an engineering firm, Booz Allen Hamilton, in Washington, D.C., where she worked with the Department of Defense contracts with the National Security Agency.

Shirk then continued her education at Purdue University, where she earned her doctorate and worked in materials engineering to make materials that absorb sound. During her time at Purdue with the doctorate program, she realized she wanted to teach.

“I had to teach as part of the Ph.D. program and was one of the few who really liked it. When I finished I wanted to go somewhere that valued teaching and Shippensburg does that,” Shirk said.

Recently, Shirk with two of her students, Eric Novak and Robyn Collette, attended the American Physical Society to present research where they used a 3-D printer to create micro-fluidic devices.

There were about 9,000 attendees and the abstract of the research had to be submitted and accepted in order to attend.

Shirk said that the fact that they got accepted was exciting, and she wants to get more research done this summer in order to continue to have students present their research.

She likes to encourage herself and her students to do research.

“I think everyone should take physics at some point because it is about how stuff works,” Shirk said.

Share