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Phillip W. Hammer

Philip W. Hammer
Vice President, The Benjamin Franklin Center at the Franklin Institute

Workshop Moderator
Talk Title: Reflections on Scientific Citizenship, Our Way Forward

Biographical Sketch

Philip (Bo) W. Hammer serves as vice president for The Franklin Center at The Franklin Institute in Philadelphia.  He is chiefly responsible for overseeing the international Benjamin Franklin Medals and Bower Awards programs.  Hammer is also responsible for the Journal of The Franklin Institute, the Institute’s library, the museum’s collections, the Benjamin Franklin National Memorial, and the Institute’s portfolio of astronomy programs.

Hammer received his BS in Physics in 1987 from Humboldt State University in Arcata, CA, and his PhD in Physics from the University of Oregon in 1991. After being a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Hammer spent the ‘93-'94 academic year as an American Physical Society (APS) Congressional Science Fellow working on the staff of the Subcommittee on Science in the US House of Representatives.

Hammer has served as the Assistant to the Executive Director at the American Institute of Physics, and as the Director of the Society of Physics Students and Sigma Pi Sigma–The Physics Honor Society.  He was a participant in President Clinton’s Forum on Science in the Public Interest in 1994, served on the APS Panel on Public Affairs from 1995-1996, and was a panelist on the US House of Representatives Early Career Scientists Roundtable in 1997.  Hammer is past-President of the (Rockville, MD) West End Citizens’ Association and past-Chair of the APS Forum on Physics and Society.

Hammer is currently President of the Haddon Heights (NJ) Board of Education, is a member of the Council of the American Physical Society, and serves as Chair of the APS Committee on Informing the Public.