AAPT names new head

Toufic M. Hakim, director of research and sponsored programs at Kean University in Union, New Jersey, has been named executive officer of the American Association of Physics Teachers, succeeding Bernard V. Khoury, who is retiring after 16 years at the organization’s helm.

Hakim, a longtime administrator and educator who has worked extensively in fundraising and public relations, will begin his new post on 5 September. He told Physics Today that his priorities will include boosting the society’s educational and other services to members and nonmembers, growing its membership—which currently totals 10 000—and redoubling its efforts to bring physics to the outside world and the general public.

“We do a lot of meaningful programs,” Hakim said, “and we are looking to enhance our position and services and to be able to articulate the positive changes that have been made to physics education over time.”

Hakim noted the relative paucity of women and minorities working in physics, and he plans to develop strategies to increase those numbers, especially by working to boost interest and education in physics at earlier levels than high school or college. It is also important for AAPT to reach out to practicing physicists, he added.

“There is a movement in [physics] education reform across the board,” Hakim said. “AAPT will participate in this dialogue.”

He plans to publicize the society’s services, resources, and message in various ways, including through blogs, podcasts, and online listservs. Hakim also hopes to focus efforts on fundraising to provide more support for members’ professional development.

“It will be a collaborative effort,” he said of his role and responsibilities as executive officer. “AAPT has always been a group of dedicated, passionate volunteers.”

Hakim also wants to create stronger synergy between AAPT’s national office and the society’s 47 regional sections. “This objective is consistent with AAPT’s agenda of national advocacy and support for physics education, and our commitment to membership development programs and services,” he said.

Khoury, who announced his retirement last year, will remain on the AAPT staff as executive officer emeritus through the end of 2007 to facilitate Hakim’s transition into his new post.

A recommendation by a national executive search firm and a six-member search committee—composed of two members of AAPT’s board of directors and four past AAPT presidents—to hire Hakim was unanimously approved by AAPT’s executive board in April. Kenneth Heller, AAPT president, lauded the choice.

“[Hakim’s] experience and persona fit our needs for the next AAPT executive officer,” Heller said in a prepared statement. “His creativity and dynamic personality will maintain and enhance the range and effectiveness of AAPT programs and will help the association become a more powerful presence in physics education. Dr. Hakim has demonstrated through his years of teaching and student research engagement that he cares deeply about student learning and physics development.”

Hakim earned a PhD in physics in 1986 from the University of Delaware in Newark, where he also earned an MS in electrical engineering in 1987. He received a bachelor’s degree in physics in 1979 from the Lebanese University in Beirut.

At Kean University, Hakim substantially increased research funding, energizing the university’s research environment. He was also part of a national program to evaluate all undergraduate research projects funded by the National Science Foundation and served as president of the national Council on Undergraduate Research. Prior to working at Kean, Hakim served as senior academic adviser and assistant to the president of the College of New Jersey in Ewing. During that time, he was a fellow of the American Council on Education.

Before his CNJ stint, Hakim was a professor of both physics and engineering at Jacksonville University in Florida. There he developed successful undergraduate research programs and an international studies department and was recognized by the university with its highest faculty award.