Dr. Richard Wolfson is the Benjamin F. Wissler Professor of Physics at Middlebury College, where he has taught since 1976. Dick did undergraduate work at Swarthmore College and MIT and, and got an M.S. from the University of Michigan and a Ph.D. from Dartmouth. His ongoing research on the Sun’s corona and climate change has taken him to sabbaticals at St. Andrews University in Scotland; the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado; and Stanford University.

Dr. Wolfso is a committed and passionate teacher. This is reflected in his many publications, including the video series Einstein’s Relativity and the Quantum Revolution: Modern Physics for Nonscientists (The Teaching Company, 1999), Physics and Our Universe: How It All Works (The Teaching Company, 2011), Physics in Your Life (The Teaching Company, 2004), and Understanding Modern Electronics(The Teaching Company, 2014); his books Simply Einstein: Relativity Demystified (W. W. Norton, 2003), Nuclear Choices: A Citizen’s Guide to Nuclear Technology (MIT Press, 1993), and Energy, Environment, and Climate (W. W. Norton, 3rd edition 2018), Essential University Physics; and articles for the World Book Encyclopedia and Scientific American.

Outside of his teaching and research, Richard enjoys canoeing, hiking, gardening, cooking, and painting.