Dr. Dijou Babatunde
Physics Department Chairman
Claremont College
Claremont, CA 91711

Dear Dr. Babatunde:

I am happy to have the chance to apply for a faculty position at Claremont College. Enclosed is a copy of my current curriculum vitae, which includes a list of my publications and my teaching and research proposals.

My teaching philosophy has developed through my experience as a high school chemistry teacher, as a teaching assistant at Harvard University, and as a research supervisor at M.I.T. In my experience, the most successful classes are those in which there is a high level of student participation. I will try to encourage classroom participation by carefully organizing each lecture. With clear organization, students are more likely to believe they understand the framework of the class and will therefore be willing to ask questions about sections they do not understand. A second technique that I think will be useful is asking questions of individual students in order to create a more participatory classroom environment. I would also be interested in developing new courses, particularly courses for non-physicists that might focus on a single topic of current interest.

The research project I would like to pursue at Claremont involves coherent time-domain teraherz spectroscopy of condensed matter systems. I think this is an excellent project for an undergraduate school because it explores exciting physics, it involves many useful technologies, and it is unusual enough that there will be very little competition with larger research groups.

I have asked that four letters of recommendation be sent to you on my behalf. The writers are James Smith, my thesis advisor; Marvin Gardner, my post-doctoral advisor; and Randall Miller and Daniel Golden, in whose courses I was a teaching assistant at Harvard University. Their addresses appear on the last page of my curriculum vitae.