- Research Associate & Sessional Lecturer, Dept. of Physics and Astronomy and the Carl Wieman Science Education Initiative, University of British Columbia (Vancouver, BC, Canada) 2010 - present
- Postdoctoral Researcher & Scientific Press Officer, Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society (Berlin, Germany) 2009 - 2010
- Graduate Research Assistant, Dept. of Molecular Physics, Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society (Berlin, Germany) 2004 - 2009
- Graduate Research Assistant, Max Born Institute for Nonlinear Optics and Short Pulse Spectroscopy (Berlin, Germany) 2002 - 2004
- Undergraduate Research Assistant, Dept. of Physics, University of New Hampshire (Durham, NH, USA) 2002
- NSF Summer Undergraduate Research Fellow, Dept. of Chemistry, Columbia University (New York, NY, USA) 2001
- NSF Summer Undergraduate Research Fellow, Dept. of Physics and Astronomy, Vanderbilt University (Nashville, TN, USA) 2000
- Undergraduate Research Assistant, Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans, and Space (Durham, NH, USA) 1999 - 2001
I'm a Science Teaching and Learning Fellow with the Carl Wieman Science Education Initiative working on physics education research in the Physics and Astronomy Department here at UBC. I enjoy working with anyone interested in science education and outreach -- from students to senior lecturers. My aim is to help implement evidence-based educational methods into the classroom to improve student learning and achievement.
As an instructor, I view myself as a 'coach' helping students to make sense of physics concepts and to connect their understanding to the real world. I devote class time to engaging students in active discussions and problem solving to make class time feel more like a dialogue and less like a lecture.
I am also interested in Atomic and Molecular Physics, specifically in low-energy, or 'cold', collisions. I worked on developing a molecular synchrotron aimed at observing just such collisions. These experiments and others in the field of cold atoms, molecular beams and traps, and molecular collisions are topics I find particularly exciting.
- P. C. Zieger, S. Y. T. van de Meerakker, C. E. Heiner, H. L. Bethlem, A. J. A. van Roij, G. Meijer (2010). Multiple packets of neutral molecules revolving for over a mile. Physical Review Letters 105, 173001.
- C. E. Heiner, H. L. Bethlem, G. Meijer (2009). A synchrotron for neutral molecules. Chemical Physics Letters, 473, 1-9.
- C. E. Heiner, G. Meijer, H. L. Bethlem (2008) Motional resonances in a molecular synchrotron. Physical Review A: Rapid Communications 78, 030702(R).
- C. E. Heiner, D. Carty, H. L. Bethlem, G. Meijer (2007). A molecular synchrotron. Nature Physics 3, 115-118.
- C. E. Heiner, H. L. Bethlem, G. Meijer (2006). Molecular beams with a tunable velocity. Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics 8, 2666-2676.
- C. E. Heiner, J. Dreyer, I. V. Hertel, N. Koch, H.-H. Ritze, W. Widdra, B. Winter (2005). Anisotropy in ordered sexithiophene thin films studied by angle-resolved photoemission using combined laser and synchrotron radiation. Applied Physics Letters 87, 093501.