Paul SaulnierFaculty

Paul was born and raised in Connecticut, which explains why he has been a life-long New England Patriots fan. His undergraduate degrees are from the University of Hartford (where his Dad worked). There he received a B.S. in Physics and a B.S. in Electrical Engineering. After graduation he spent two years working for General Electric Aerospace division where he served as a project engineer on a space-based program. At the time, many people said that he would never go back to school once he started working, but he would proved them wrong by continuing his studies at the University of Delaware. There he received a M.S. degree in physics by working on a theoretical investigation of a certain class of nonlinear differential equations and a Ph.D. degree in experimental optical physics. After leaving graduate school, he was fortunate enough to land a tenure-track faculty position at Carroll College (in Wisconsin) where he taught for two years. He was hired by Gustavus in 1993 and has since taught some 20 plus different courses ranging from a First Term Seminar, to 3CC Senior Seminar, to General Physics, to Quantum Mechanics, to the History and Art of Film Noir. He has been actively involved in student/faculty research and has mentored 30+ Gustavus undergraduate research associates and has been involved in securing external funding for teaching and research. All of Paul’s research papers have involved undergraduates, with many serving as lead authors. His research has focused on light scattering experiments and an interdisciplinary biophysics program that examines the behavior of grouped organisms in nature. In addition to teaching and research, Paul has been active on a variety of campus committees, including Faculty Senate, Personnel Committee, and the Faculty Development Committee. But the service that he is most proud of is the fact that he has served for 14+ years as coordinator of the Faculty Shop Talk series (http://gustavus.edu/events/shoptalks/). Paul is married to Amy and they have two sons, Kevin and Brian. Outside of academics and family, Paul enjoys cooking, wine, film, music, and learning to play guitar.

Courses Taught