Since January 2002, Dr. Matthew E. Edwards has held the position of Professor of Physics in the Department of Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics at Alabama A&M University, Normal, AL and served as Dean, of the School of Arts and Sciences, from 2007 to 2011, a period of 4.5 years. Previous academic positions held by Dr. Edwards prior to 2002 include associate professorships at Spelman College, in Atlanta, GA and Fayetteville State University, in Fayetteville, NC, and he was a visiting associate professor and adjunct faculty member for ten years at the University of Pittsburgh, in Pittsburgh, PA, and an assistant professor of physics at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, in Pine Bluff, AR. Three summer faculty research positions that he held were at the ROME Air Force Research Lab, ROME NY, in 1996, NASA Langley Research Laboratories, Hampton, VA, in 1983, and the Naval Research Lab., Washington, DC, in 1982. Dr. Edwards is a Condensed Matter Physicist with research expertise in (1) materials of electrooptics, (2) pyroelectric/resistivity/dielectric properties of crystals and nano-particles doped organic thin films, (3) the production of large organic thin films, (4) solitons wave theory, and (5) science education research and problem solving. Dr. Edwards has more than 30 publications* (please see the below message). Also, he has guided three students to advanced degrees: two to the Ph.D., and one to the master’s degree, and has served on more than 12 other dissertations and theses committees. Presently, he is guiding two Ph.D. and two master’s degree students. Also, he sits on the Board of Directors of one science journal publication and one for science education.
Dr. Edwards (a practicing yoga meditator since 2001, and a scholar/researcher in the physical sciences) holds the Ph.D. and Master’s degree in physics from Howard University, received in 1977 and 1975, respectively, and a B.S degree in engineering physics from North Carolina A&T State University, in 1969. His additional formal studies include: (1) physics courses at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, in 1987, (2) certificate course of the American Chemical Society on Surfactants, Micelles, Liposomes, Liquid Crystals, Emulsions and Microemulsions, at Clarkson College, Potsdam, NY, in 1998. (3) Faculty summer certificate course in materials science at the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa AL, in 2000, and (4) certificate course in “managing technical professionals and organizations at MIT, Boston, MA, in 2009. Dr. Edwards as principal investigator has also received several minorities-targeted grants from NIH, and one minorities-targeted grant each from NASA and two from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the one summer faculty-targeted grant from the Air Force Office Of Scientific Research.
At AAMU, Dr. Edwards founded the Annual STEM Day, in 2006. Also, he founded in 2009 and continues to direct the IDC-HSHD&M (the Interdisciplinary Center for Health Sciences, Health Disparities, and Materials), which, as a center, has assisted more than 16 young faculty members and others to develop their research programs.
*This following paper and one other as referenced by this one were misreported in the American Institute of Physics graduate programs circulation bulletins from 2002-2006: Edwards, M.E., X-L Wu, J-S Wu, J.S. Huang and H. Kellay, “Electric-Field Effects On A Droplet Microemulsion”, Physical Review E., Vol. 57, No. 1, 797(1998)
To be an interdisciplinarian is to be focused learned with a "synergetic connection" that has convolved between two or more established disciplines. Secondly, to be a multidisciplinarian is to be knowledgeable in two or more disciplines without such a "synergetic connection" between them. Thirdly, to be a disciplinarian is to be focused learned and enamored with vast information and understanding in a single field of study, which indicates the ability to investigate new concepts, solve problems, or make products. This same ability: to investigate new concepts, solve problems, and make products emanates from the interdisciplinarian career-path alliances, as well, but far less so from that of multidisciplinarian ones. Each of these career-path alliances (also referred to as paradigms of inquiry and intellectual demands) can be engaged for scholarly activities on one hand for some individuals, or for practicing/professional activities of some other individuals on the other hand. How to achieve a career-path alliance and sustain the same is an interesting contemplation. To that extent, I review these career-path alliances and illustrate selected structures that illumine timeline-paths to achieve them. Also, I denote how to maintain each career-path alliance, once achieved, and how to diverge from one to another, while still maintaining a scholarly demeanor or a practitioner’s behavior after either has been achieved.
