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Mark Hannum
Mark Hannum
01:10

Mark Hannum

Thomas Jefferson School of Science and Technology

Alexandria, VA USA

"Fear of the unknown is innate to humans; it's never going to go away. But you just have to kind of accept it and take that jump off the cliff."

Career Roadmap

Mark's work combines: Education, Science, and Teaching / Mentoring

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Day In The Life

Neuroscience Lab Director

I run a neuroscience research lab for high school students where we work on understanding neurological disorders.

My Day to Day

Teaching is never the same day twice. I work with students to improve their skills and prepare them for life beyond high school. As head of the lab, I focus my lesson plans on three areas of neuroscience: behavioral, computational, and fundamentals. I spend a lot of time designing projects and experiments for my students that will help them learn these aspects of neuroscience.

Skills & Education

Advice for getting started

It's important to set goals, but you have to be willing to jump into the unknown. Allow yourself to do things that interest you even if they aren't apart of the "plan."

Here's the path I took:

  • High School

  • Bachelor's Degree

    Physics, General

    Kalamazoo College

  • Bachelor's Degree

    Mathematics, General

    Kalamazoo College

  • Graduate Degree

    Engineering Physics/Applied Physics

    George Mason University

Life & Career Milestones

My path in life took a while to figure out

  • 1.

    He was a math and physics double major and he was ready to enter the research field and become a professor.

  • 2.

    One day, his advisor showed him an article that said that each American state only gains one new degreed physics teacher each year.

  • 3.

    He decided, "Okay, I should devote some of my life to teaching these kids."

  • 4.

    Before that, he and his wife decided that they wanted to go explore Europe, and he got a job teaching in Austria.

  • 5.

    That job gave him some time to learn the craft of teaching and mature as a person and as a teacher.

  • 6.

    Afterwards, he returned to the U.S. to fulfill his goal of teaching physics; now runs a lab at one of the best public high schools in the country.

  • 7.

    He always had his teaching goals in the back of his mind, but he never let those prevent him from pursuing big opportunities, like going to Europe.

  • 8.

    He loves his work because the human brain contains so much mystery, and it's amazing to pass along that sense of wonder to his students.

Defining Moments

How I responded to discouragement

  • THE NOISE

    Messages from Society in general:

    Why would you teach instead of going to grad school?

  • How I responded:

    I initially wanted to become a research physicist, but once I heard that there was less than one new physics teacher per year per state, I knew I had to dedicate some of my time to teaching. That decision was not without its challenges, but I wouldn't change it for the world. I eventually went to grad school when the time was right.