Teaching background

I have been preparing students for the Australian and International Physics Olympiad as well as teaching HSC physics since 2009. I teach with genuine enthusiasm (and enjoyment!). My goal is to present physics as a unified, coherent whole, with an emphasis on building real understanding and strong connections to students’ everyday experience of the world through extensive practical activities and meaningful problem solving.

Past students have been selected for the January Physics Olympiad summer school (2011, 2016, and 2019-2023) and have represented Australia at the Asian and International Physics Olympiads (2011, 2016, 2019, 2022, 2023). In 2023, 8 of 10 students in my Advanced Olympiad class have received an invitation to attend summer school in January 2024.

I am a deputy director of the ASI Junior Science Olympiad (teaching Physics to the Australian Junior Science Olympiad team) and a sessional lecturer in physics method (i.e. teaching how to teach physics) for pre-service teachers at the Australian Catholic University. Between 2018 and 2022 I taught HSC physics at a local selective high school.

I enjoy opportunities to contribute to resource development which supports high quality physics teaching. Between 2019 and 2021 I was a member of the two writing teams which produced the NESA/DOE year 12 and year 11 module guides (NSW DOE Module guides for Physics), which are designed to provide advice and support for teachers of HSC physics across NSW. I was invited to produce resources for teachers and students on the NSW DOE HSC Hub in 2020, co-presented a workshop on the use of Tracker for video analysis in HSC physics at the STANSW Stage 6 conference in 2021, and was a member of the NSW DOE Desmos in Science resource writers team in 2022. In 2023 I presented a workshop on energy and electromagnetism in the context of motors and generators in Module 6 in HSC physics at the STANSW stage 6 conference for HSC physics teachers.

Academic background

I have a PhD and a 1st class honours degree in physics from the University of New South Wales. I have previously worked in physics research in Australia (at UNSW and the University of Wollongong), as well as in the U.S. (at the University of Santa Cruz, California) and Europe (at the University of Geneva), with my last academic position being a Marie Curie Incoming International Fellowship in 2006. I obtained my Diploma of Education from Macquarie University in 2008.

A short publication list (full list at google scholar)

Recent papers

“A century-old question: Does a Crookes paddle wheel cathode ray tube demonstrate that electrons carry momentum?“, T.E. Humphrey & Vaishnavi Calisa, The Physics Teacher, Vol 52, page 142 (2014).

Selected papers

Tammy as a post-doc at the International Thermoelectrics Conference at Clemson University in 2005.

“Exp erimental Tunneling Ratchets” H. Linke, T.E. Humphrey, A. Löfgren, A.O. Sushkov, R. Newbury, R.P. Taylor and P. Omling, Science, 286, 2314-2317 (Dec. 1999).

“Reversible thermoelectric nanomaterials” T.E. Humphrey and H. Linke, Phys. Rev. Lett. 94 096601 (2005).

“A Reversible Quantum Brownian Heat Engine for electrons” T.E. Humphrey, R. Newbury, R.P. Taylor and H. Linke, Phys. Rev. Lett. 89, 116801 (2002).

PhD. thesis

“Mesoscopic Quantum Ratchets and the Thermodynamics of Energy Selective Electron Heat Engines” T.E. Humphrey, PhD, UNSW (1999).

Older papers

2006

“Concept study for a high efficiency nanowire based thermoelectric” M. F. O’Dwyer, T. E. Humphrey and H. Linke, Nanotechnology, Volume 17, Number 11 (2006).

“Symmetry of magnetoconductance fluctuations of quantum dots in the nonlinear response regime” A. Löfgren, C.A. Marlow, T. E. Humphrey, I. Shorubalko, R.P. Taylor, P. Omling, R. Newbury, P.E. Lindelof and H. Linke, Phys. Rev. B, 73 235321 (2006).

2005

“Electronic Efficiency in nanostructured thermionic and thermoelectric devices” M. F. O’Dwyer, R. A. Lewis, C. Zhang, T. E. Humphrey, Phys. Rev. B, 72 205330 (2005).

“Reversible thermoelectric nanomaterials” T.E. Humphrey and H. Linke, Phys. Rev. Lett. 94 096601 (2005).

“Solid State thermoelectrics and thermionics in the ballistic transport regime” T.E. Humphrey, M. F. O’Dwyer, C. Zhang and R. Lewis, J. Appl. Phys. 98 026108 (2005).

“Power Optimisation of Thermionic Devices” T.E. Humphrey and H. Linke, J. Phys. D. 38 2051 (2005).

“Particle Conservation in the Hot Carrier Solar Cell” P. Würfel, A. Brown, T.E. Humphrey, M.A. Green, Prog. Photo. 13 277 (2005).

“Quantum, cyclic and particle exchange heat engines” T.E. Humphrey and H. Linke, presented at “Frontiers of Quantum and Mesoscopic Physics”, Prague 2004. Physica E, 29 390 (2005).

2004

“Inhomogeneous doping in thermoelectric nanomaterials” T.E. Humphrey and H. Linke, Plenary presentation at the “International Thermoelectrics Conference”, Adelaide 2004.

2002