Teaching

Overview

I have taught a variety of courses at the undergraduate and graduate levels. I've listed some useful online resources for selected topics I've taught below. I also have scans of my handwritten lecture notes for some courses, available on request.

I also coach and supervise the department's participation in physics competitions, notably the University Physics Competition. Physics competitions and contests can be a great way to stretch your mind, get yourself out of your comfort zone, and see what you can do with physics on your own.

Courses

Classical Mechanics

Topics include central forces, rotation, accelerating reference frames, Lagrangian/Hamiltonian mechanics, and special relativity, among others.

Resources
Mechanics and Relativity by Timon Idema (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
Variational Principles in Classical Mechanics by Douglas Cline (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
Lectures on Dynamics and Relativity by David Tong
Lectures on Classical Dynamics by David Tong

Quantum Mechanics

I mostly teach fundamentals of quantum mechanics (entanglement, information theory, etc) and approximation methods (perturbation theory, semiclassical methods, etc), but these resources cover other topics. I usually teach from the Griffiths and Schroeter's Introduction to Quantum Mechanics.

Resources
Lectures on Topics in Quantum Mechanics by David Tong
Mini-Introduction to Information Theory by Edward Witten
From Classical to Quantum Information Theory by Mark Wilde
Quantum Mechanics in Your Face by Sidney Coleman (transcript)

Statistical Mechanics

Topics include ensembles in statistical mechanics, classical gases, quantum bose and fermi gases.

Resources
Lectures on Statistical Physics by David Tong
Statistical Mechanics by Daniel Styer (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Lectures on Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics by V. P. Nair (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)

Quantum Field Theory

I usually follow the pedagogical approach of Quantum Field Theory by Mark Srednicki, developing scalar field theories from quantization through renormalization and symmetries. For other topics, see more of the resources below.

Resources
Pre-publication version & errata for Srednicki's text
Lectures on Quantum Field Theory by David Tong
Lectures on Gauge Theory by David Tong
Lectures on QFT by Sidney Coleman
Fields by Warren Siegel

Competitions

University Physics Competition

The University Physics Competition allows teams of three students to tackle a free-form, real-world style problem and write a short paper on it — all in 48 hours! Our UWinnipeg teams have had good success over the years, and our department is proud of all of our teams.

two women and a man at a table with notebooks and computers

Photo by Brooke Cagle on Unsplash