Sean P. McBride

Sean P. McBride is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Physics at Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia. Alongside the students, as faculty advisor, he has helped lead and support the award-winning Society of Physics Students and Sigma Pi Sigma chapters in any way he can. Dr. McBride highly values the opportunity to work with students in such endeavors and has thoroughly enjoyed this leadership role since taking on the responsibility in fall 2017. The MU SPS group has been nationally recognized annually since fall 2017 (Distinguished Chapter from 2017 to 2019 and Outstanding Chapter from 2019-2021), received a Future Faces of Physics Award in 2019-2020 that has led to the establishment of monthly virtual talks during the academic years that continue to this day, and the MU SPS chapter has been invited to contribute 3 articles to the SPS Observer since 2017. In 2020, the MU SPS group earned campus-wide recognition for the ‘Most Improved Organization Award’. Dr. McBride is passionate about working with both the on and off campus communities, bringing science to the younger generation in fun and exciting ways; this is reflected in the numerous outreach and recruiting events the SPS group has participated in over the years, ranging from putting on science demo shows for kindergarten through sixth grade students to developing exciting competitive energy and motion workshops for local high schools that are incorporated into their classes that SPS members can assist with. Since 2017, the SPS group has participated in dozens, upon dozens, of recruiting and outreach events, including assisting the Department of Physics in large scale events such as High School Physics Day 2019 when approximately 400 high school teachers and students descended onto Marshall’s campus for a fun day of tours and physics demos. Recently, MU SPS has helped annually at the state level by coaching the West Virginia State Championship Science Olympiad Team for the national level tournament. These combined outreach efforts, among the many others by the MU SPS group, were noticed in 2021 by an external donor that led to the establishment of SPS funds in excess of $25,000 with an endowment to be used by the MU SPS students for the MU SPS students.

Dr. McBride was inducted into Sigma Pi Sigma as an undergraduate student at Bloomsburg University in Pennsylvania, where he also served as the student SPS chapter president. Now, he continues to not only lead the MU SPS and Sigma Pi Sigma chapters as a faculty member, but is also recently rebuilding the MU Astronomy Club and is the faculty advisor to the WV Gamma Chapter of Sigma Phi Epsilon as well. In early 2022, Dr. McBride was awarded the Advisor of the Year Award by the Sigma Phi Epsilon chapter, an organization that was also awarded the 2022 Scholastic Achievement Award. During the summer months, Dr McBride has spent his time as a research mentor for numerous undergraduate research students in programs such as Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE), Preservice and Early career Research for Teachers (PERT), and the First2 Network Summer Immersion. In addition to being involved in campus governing bodies such as Faculty Senate, Dr. McBride is one of the co-State Directors for West Virginia Science Olympiad and is the Membership and Recruitment Chair for the Appalachian section of the American Association of Physics Teachers. Dr. McBride is a member of the American Association of Physics Teachers, the American Physical Society, and Sigma Xi, the Scientific Research Honor Society. Dr. McBride earned a MS degree in Physics from Miami University (of Ohio), a Ph.D. in Physics from Kansas State University, and completed postdoctoral scholar work in The James Franck Institute at the University of Chicago in 2015. During his postdoctoral work, he coauthored papers and worked closely with collaborators from Argonne National Laboratory in the area of nanoparticle superlattice formation and applications. Dr. McBride is an active researcher currently publishing and presenting research related to the topic of functionalized membranes for textile dye removal from water.