Jason Hafner

Professor
Department of Physics & Astronomy
Department of Chemistry
Rice University

Curriculum Vitae

Google Scholar Profile


BIO: Prof. Hafner got his B.S. in Physics from Trinity University in 1993.  He earned his Ph.D. from Rice University in 1998 under Richard Smalley for work on carbon nanotubes, and pursued postdoctoral studies at Harvard University with Charles Lieber. He returned to Rice in 2001 to join the faculty where his lab studies nanophotonics and interfacial biology. Hafner was named a Beckman Young Investigator in 2002, and won the Norman Hackerman Award for Chemical Research from the Welch Foundation in 2011. He is currently a Professor of Physics and Astronomy and of Chemistry. Hafner is a Member of Scientia at Rice and the Magister of Jones College. He has taught freshman and sophomore physics for the past twelve years and was a founding member of Rice’s Center for Teaching Excellence. He is on a quest to find a lecture demonstration that will get him fired.

19 Responses to Jason Hafner

  1. Emily Baker says:

    Dear Dr. Hafner,
    My name is Emily and I am a sophomore in highschool in Fort Worth. I received an email about the online Physics 1 class you are apart of and wanted to get a jump start on physics for junior year. Will the online require me to take tests along with assignments at your own pace, or is it like a traditional class? Thank you, Emily Baker

  2. Jason Hafner says:

    Hi Emily,

    The online class is in three parts (with a fourth review part). We are in part 1 now. For each part we release all of the content at once, then have homework assignments due each week, then take a test at the end. Part 1 will end in late December, and the test will be out and available to take at your own pace for two weeks (no time limit).

    The point of the class is really to help students prepare for the AP exam, so we are quite flexible on how you (or your teacher) use it.

    I think it would be useful for getting ahead. If you register for each part, it will remain on your edX dashboard permanently. So, even if you don’t complete the assignments as you go, you will have access to the material and questions all summer.

    Good luck!

    -JH

  3. Kevin Guan says:

    Hello Professor Hafner,

    I took your course on Waves and Optics in Edx.org. I must say that you are a brilliant lecture! I love your clear demonstrations of physical concepts and your derivations on all the equations. You are very articulate and knowledgeable about physics. I must say that you are even better than my college professors. I learned more from your lectures than I did from them! Thank you so much for everything! I hope your research goes well! Please continue to make courses on Edx on anything in physics! This includes your research too. You have made me love physics, even though I was a biology major! Thank you so much! Please take care.

  4. Jason Hafner says:

    Aw shucks, thanks! I’m making 101x Mechanics right now, and then I’ll probably be finished making them. But I hope to keep the classes I have made running for as long as I can.

  5. elan poule says:

    Dear Dr. Hafner
    Please tell me when PHYS 101.1x: Mechanics, Part 2 is come out.
    you killing me by unknowing
    best regard

  6. Sam Prokopchuk says:

    Hey Professor Hafner,

    I just wanted to say a quick thank you for doing such a fantastic job on the ap physics 1 course on edx. Without you’re clear, instructive, and entertaining teaching style, I don’t know if I could have gotten a 5.
    I will definitely be seeking to take another of your courses on edx in a few months 🙂

  7. Shashank says:

    Hello professor Hafner,
    I am a student of applied math from the Netherlands, I loved ur lecture series on Electromagnetism and Optics, especially the conceptual breath u cover. Ur lectures have directly been responsible for me to pass and score well on my university courses on Electromagnetism 1 and Optics. Therefore a wholehearted THANK YOU Professor for publishing them. Thanks a lot.

  8. Ludmila Grigoryeva says:

    Dear professor Hafner,
    I am associate professor in KNUCA, Ukraine. I want to thank you very much for your courses. I’ve seen really cute approach to lecturing. I widely use demonstrations in my job too, and your ones gave me some new ideas. I teach Strength of Matherials, and it needs much clarification. I’ll recommend your courses to my students, and I’m preparing my own course at your example.

  9. Jason Hafner says:

    Thanks! Good luck with your course. In my slight dabbling in explaining materials properties I know that it can get very complicated very fast. 🙂

  10. Tom Jagiella says:

    Prof. Hafner, can’t thank you enough for providing such excellent online resources. I use your videos to supplement my lectures (teaching AP Physics C: Mechanics at Saint Bede Academy).

    I am currently finding it difficult to find the Phys 101 lectures (e.g., I am about to begin torque, rotation, moment of inertia). EdX timing doesn’t coincide, so I can no longer find your content there to supplement our lectures. I am subscribed to Physierge, but mostly see Phys 125 there (guessing that’s still the algebra based class for Architects?).

    What’s the best way to find the Phys 101 videos?

    Thanks for any help! Go Owls!
    Tom Jagiella (WRC ’88, my wife is Jones – she’ll get a kick out of you being their “Magister’ – I assume that’s what Rice now calls the Master?)

  11. Jason Hafner says:

    Hi Tom!

    I hope you saw the rest of Mechanics go up on my YT channel around when you sent this. In fact, I think this message is what prompted me to get those out – I just forgot to respond here.

    You clearly married up! 🙂 Yes, Magister is just the new word for Master. We are in our third year. I now have Hurricane Harvey and COVID 19 under my belt. Quite the Magister ride! 🙂

    -Jason

  12. Tyler Johnston says:

    Hello Dr. Hafner,
    I came across your channel while trying to set up an integral to find the center of mass of an isosceles triangle. Your content has helped me in my engineering physics courses at community college. Thanks for the good content.
    -Tyler

  13. Jason Hafner says:

    Great! Good luck with the course. -Jason

  14. Aditya kumar says:

    Professor​ your lectures of mechanics,waves, electromagnetism,optics by luck i found your YouTube channel through searching and i am thankful because you are my first physics professor whom i am writing because your lectures are now in my friends set.Hope one day i will meet you professor.What i have learning from your lectures i have to use it in my self study by solving questions that is my real tests from that i know what i learned i will try and keep try to improve my self through study. Thankyou

  15. Travis Finley says:

    Do you have any work on refraction and mirage?

  16. Jason Hafner says:

    I’m glad I could help! Best of luck.

  17. Jason Hafner says:

    I have some lectures on basic refraction from my waves and optics class:

    https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9_sR6QqqcykEaDlDontokT4fT15uKygd

    But in terms of research, I think the only area where something like refraction is being studied these days is something called metamaterials.

  18. Jeremy Guo says:

    He’s a good teacher

  19. Richard Phillips says:

    In 1958 I was a freshman. We ‘joked” among ourselves about learning more calculus in physics class than we did in calculus class and it was for the reason you cited in your 2:36 minute video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fjWafOajjc

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