The Griffon News

He is anything but the typical physics professor. He sits reclined in his office chair with his tennis shoes perched on his desk, sporting a button-up dress shirt and a pair of khaki
Dockers.

Michael Ottinger, associate professor of physics, has known for some time that he enjoys physics.

“It’s fun; it gets me back to writing computational physics programs,” he says. Fun is not what most would associate with writing any kind of physics programs.

Although he is not shy when telling anyone about his education, he is not boastful. Ottinger earned both his B.A. and M.S. degree in physics at Brigham Young University in Provo,
Utah. He then went on to earn his Ph.D. at Texas University at the early age of 32.

“Go, Longhorns,” he says jokingly.

Ottinger, a native of California, has lived in Missouri for the past 10 years and says that he considers this his home. He has been instructing at Missouri Western for seven years, and this semester he is teaching physics 107 and physics 211. He has 18 students in one class and 12 in the other.

“(Physics) 107 is a fun class that teaches applications that play a part in our everyday lives,” he says.

Ottinger also teaches two independent study courses for students who are planning to minor in physics.

“I have the same students taking both physics laboratory and modern physics.” This is what he enjoys the most – writing computational physics problems.

During the fall of 2007 semester, when Assistant Professor of Physics Darell James Johnson goes on sabbatical, Ottinger will have the opportunity to teach Physics 104, astronomy.

“It’s the study of stars,” he says. “A lot of people get it confused with astrology, which is actually the study of the zodiac sign.”

Ottinger looks forward to adding the new course to his load in the fall. He talks about the stars and the planets before adding matter-of-factly his opinion on the deletion of the planet Pluto from the solar system.

“It makes sense,” he says. “It was tough, and they didn’t want to do it.”

He explains that if Pluto were to remain a planet, there are actually two objects larger than Pluto in the solar system that they would have to add to the system.

“It was either do that or delete Pluto,” he says. Ottinger says that later this year they will come up with a definition of all the planets.

“What makes a planet will have to be clearly defined.”

Ottinger talks science whether he is on campus with fellow faculty and students or he is at home with his wife and three children.

“We talk about science at the dinner table,” he says. “We watch TV shows and movies and critique them.”

He recounts an interesting conversation started by one of is students.

“I had a 107 student actually ask me if Superman could really fly,” he says. “I am willing to suspend the fact that Superman can fly; however, the other science has to be correct.”

Ottinger describes a scene in “Superman Returns” where Superman stops a flying plane.

“Come on. They would all be dead if Superman really stopped that plane like that,” he says. He continues to explain the general physics behind the idea that if a plane were to be traveling that fast and suddenly crashed into Superman’s hand, it would be smashed to pieces.

“Some movies I cringe at when the science is ludicrous,” Ottinger says. “It bothers me when the science isn’t right.”

Ottinger enjoys working physics’ programs so much that when the publishers of a text he had recently adopted approached him for feedback on their upcoming edition, he gladly accepted.

“I sent them my opinions,” he says. “They liked my thoroughness. I ended up rewriting each chapter as they sent it to me. I basically told them what worked, what didn’t work and where they could improve.”

Ottinger continued to be a part of the process of that text for the next three editions as they were published, as well as writing the teacher answer book portion and a new online problem sets application.

“Book editing keeps me current with students,” he says. While Ottinger enjoys receiving the extra income, his textbook editing contributes to his department on campus by having him published.

As if he weren’t keeping busy enough with his course load, book editing and family life, Ottinger was the director of this year’s Mid America Regional Science and Engineering Fair. Students from Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa and Missouri high schools presented their research and received awards.

“It’s amazing the projects the kids come up with,” Ottinger says. “They are our future scientists. {MARSEF) is good for recruiting, as 70 percent of the students that participate in the science fair will enroll at Missouri Western. The best part is that I get to personally escort the top two winners to Albuquerque, N.M. for the nationals.”

Ottinger is not the typical mad scientist. He enjoys teaching and working with students and working physics problems at home for fun. Other than being a professor and book editor, he is also a husband and a parent. But most of all, he’s a typical person who enjoys movies and relaxing with his family. And, yes, talking about how science applies to everybody’s everyday life.