Bill W. Tillery is a professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Arizona State University, where he has been a member of the faculty since 1973. He earned a Bachelors degree at Northeastern State University (1960), and Masters and Doctorate degrees from the University of Northern Colorado (1967). Before moving to Arizona State University, he served as Director of the Science and Mathematics Teaching Center at the University of Wyoming (1969-73) and as an assistant professor at Florida State University (1967-69). Bill has served on numerous councils, boards, and committees and was honored as the "Outstanding University Educator” at the University of Wyoming in 1972. He was elected the "Outstanding Teacher" in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Arizona State University in 1995.

During his time at Arizona State, Bill has taught a variety of courses, including general education courses in science and society, physical science, and introduction to physics. He has received more than 40 grants from the National Science Foundation, the U. S. Office of Education, from private industry (Arizona Public Service), and private foundations (The Flinn Foundation) for science curriculum development and science teacher inservice training. In addition to teaching and grant work, Bill has authored or co-authored more than 60 textbooks, many monographs, and served as editor of three separate newsletters and journals between 1977 and 1996.

Bill also maintains a web site dedicated to providing resources for science teachers. This site is named The Science Education Resource Page (SERP) and is funded by a grant from the Flinn Foundation. The URL is http://serp.la.asu.edu.

Bill has attempted to present an interesting, helpful program that will be useful to both students and instructors. Comments and suggestions about how to do a better job of reaching this goal are welcome. Any comments about the text or other parts of the program should be addressed to: