Michael Dennin

Vice Provost of Teaching and Learning; Dean of Undergraduate Education; Professor of Physics UC Irvine

  • Irvine CA

Prof. Dennin is leading the evolution of teaching and learning on the college campus, and he is a top communicator of all issues of physics.

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UC Irvine

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Biography

Professor Dennin earned his A. B. from Princeton University, and his M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of California, Santa Barbara. He held a postdoctoral position at UCLA. He is an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow and a Research Corporation Cottrell Scholar.

Professor Dennin's main research interest is systems that exhibit emergent properties. These include the behavior of complex fluids, such as foam and sand, as well as the complex dynamics of biological systems.

Professor Dennin is well-known for popularizing science for the public. He has taught many online courses on the nature of science, including team teaching a MOOC based on the television program, The Walking Dead. He has appeared on a number of television programs, including Spider-man Tech, Batman Tech, Star Wars Tech, and Ancient Aliens.

Areas of Expertise

Teaching and Learning in Higher Education
Condensed Matter Physics
Undergraduate Education
Physics
Biophysics
Science of super heros

Accomplishments

UCI Senate Distinguished mid-Career Award for Service

2011 - 2012

UCI Award for Instructional Technology

2008 - 2009

UCI Extension UCI Irvine Faculty Award

2008 - 2009

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Education

University of California, Santa Barbara

PhD

Physics

1995

Princeton University

AB

Physics

1988

Affiliations

  • American Physics Society
  • American Association of Teachers
  • American Association for Advancement of Science

Media Appearances

Data-Based Decisions Tip: Removing Barriers to Completion With Policy RevisionData-Based Decisions Tip: Removing Barriers to Completion With Policy Revision

Inside Higher Ed  online

2023-07-12

To boost completion rates among students, the University of California, Irvine, used data to work collaboratively with institutional divisions to reimagine major-change policies. … UCI Compass is a universitywide initiative that organizes data sets for interdisciplinary collaboration, focused on the student journey and barriers to success. Through Compass, the university has built a “student data warehouse,” pulling information across enrollment management analytics, the Office of Institutional Research and academic departments, explains Michael Dennin, vice provost for teaching and learning and dean of undergraduate education.

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How the idea of ‘excellence’ can be misleading in higher education

Times Higher Education  online

2023-05-05

Michael Dennin, UCI professor of physics and astronomy, dean of undergraduate education and vice-provost for teaching and learning writes, “In March the University of California, Irvine hosted the Waypoints Symposium. This meeting brought together representatives from more than 30 institutions to discuss questions in higher education, especially around equity and inclusion. Among the exciting ideas and themes, two stood out to me in particular: the challenge of time for both students and faculty, and the concept of “excellence”. These themes reminded me of several key learning moments in my career.”

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THE Podcast: when pop culture meets academia

Times Higher Education  radio

2023-05-11

In this episode of the Campus podcast, Michael Dennin, a professor of physics and astronomy in the School of Physical Sciences at the University of California, Irvine, talks about using superheroes (and zombies) to bring the dynamics of physics into the classroom. Michael, who is also dean of undergraduate education, vice-provost for teaching and learning, and the recipient of UCI Senate teaching and innovation awards, explains how his approach enriches traditional physics problems, encourages creativity, and champions teamwork and interdisciplinarity.

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Articles

Exact Solution of a Strongly Coupled Gauge Theory in 0 + 1 Dimensions

Physical Review Letters

Chethan Krishnan and K. V. Pavan Kumar

2018

Gauged tensor models are a class of strongly coupled quantum mechanical theories. We present the exact analytic solution of a specific example of such a theory: namely, the smallest colored tensor model due to Gurau and Witten that exhibits nonlinearities. We find explicit analytic expressions for the eigenvalues and eigenstates, and the former agree precisely with previous numerical results on (a subset of) eigenvalues of the ungauged theory. The physics of the spectrum, despite the smallness of N, exhibits rudimentary signatures of chaos.

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Quantifying flow and stress in ice mélange, the world’s largest granular material

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Justin C. Burton, Jason M. Amundson, Ryan Cassotto, Chin-Chang Kuo, and Michael Dennin

2018

Ice mélange, a granular collection of broken icebergs ranging from tens of meters to hundreds of meters in size, sits in front of many of the Earth’s most active tidewater glaciers. In addition to influencing heat and mass transport in the ocean, the jam-packed mélange provides a geophysical living laboratory to test principles developed for small-scale granular materials such as sand.

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Bubble ribbons under imposed flow

Colloids and Surfaces A: Physicochemical and Engineering Aspects

Chin-Chang Kuo, Alex Levine, Michael Dennin

2017

Bubble rafts consisting of a single layer of bubbles floating on the surface of water have proven to be an important model system for studying materials ranging from crystalline systems to amorphous solids to complex fluids. An interesting question in foams and complex fluids is how the detailed nature of the bubble–bubble interactions determines the resulting stable states of the system, especially in the context of different approaches to generating the foam or complex fluid.

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