Catherine Hirshfeld Crouch is Associate Professor of Physics at Swarthmore College, where she has taught since 2003 and was awarded tenure in 2009. Dr. Crouch has extensive expertise in both the optical properties of nanoscale materials and pedagogical best practices for college and university science. She earned her PhD. at Harvard University and continued at Harvard as a postdoctoral fellow with Eric Mazur until beginning her position at Swarthmore. She has published more than thirty peer-reviewed research articles and regularly involves Swarthmore undergraduate students in her work. She has also spoken and written about the intersection of faith and science in a number of settings including the Q conference and InterVarsity’s Following Christ conference for graduate and professional students. She is married to Andy Crouch and together they are raising their children Timothy and Amy.
Our mentors offer their best advice as an assistant professor considers the costs, benefits, and strategies of traveling to academic conferences while raising her young family.
