“Are you dry? Are you warm?”
The question cut the air like a song — outpacing my attempt to introduce myself — as I unwrapped my scarf from around my wind-burned face and draped my coat on the chair facing the desk of David Ward.
Ward is approaching 30 years as a physics professor at Union, a career he didn’t initially desire. As a child, he dreamed of becoming a surgeon — the perfect opportunity to serve others through scientific study. But after his guidance counselor placed him in a project-based physics class during high school, he found the subject so “captivating” that he never looked back.
“Physics is the attempt to try and understand the foundations of the reality that we swim in,” Ward said. “What is space? What is time? What is energy? I like the idea of trying to understand the deep issues.”
Ward’s passion for discovery followed him into an undergraduate degree in physics, a master’s degree in plasma physics and a Ph.D. in statistical mechanics applied to the liquid state. While the last two degrees meant absolutely nothing to my literature-oriented brain, his passion for the topics leaked out through the glint in his eye and the stretch of his full-toothed smile.
“You can tell he loves what he’s teaching and who he’s teaching,” Rachel Allabaugh, junior physics and electrical engineering double major, said. “Back in quantum mechanics, he would handwrite notes for us every single week: all of his diagrams, all of his math, everything worked out and helpful.”
During Ward’s Ph.D. research, diagrams and math were his life. So were grant requests, computer funding, and only teaching a single class in order to sift through mountains of statistical data required for a successful study.
“To do cutting-edge physics, you can’t teach a load like I teach,” Ward said. “And I like teaching too much.”
Focusing on teaching as opposed to research has allowed Ward to have the time to invest in his students, develop intricate labs that give them hands-on experience without the commitment of professional research and answer complex questions related to physics, theology and life.
Every semester, Ward encourages his students to submit anonymous questions exploring the relationship between faith and science. During his classes, he is intentional about answering each one to the best of his ability.
“I’m afraid that my students are going to get their degree done, they are going to get out in the world, they’re going to have left these questions unasked and they might step away from their faith,” Ward said. “And I’m hoping that if they’ll ask these questions now, maybe I can do a little bit to help them hang on to their faith until they’re as old as I am.”
That is Ward’s nightmare: unanswered questions building up in students’ minds and methodically chipping away at their relationship with Christ. It’s worse than turning in homework late, worse than never understanding the concept of time or space and immeasurably worse than quitting physics and choosing another life path.
“He’s always aware of what his students need and don’t understand,” Allabaugh said. “He’s really good at perceiving, just pausing it and throwing out his plan for the class to make sure that we’re actually learning and growing, rather than just getting through.”
Though Ward has participated in several research projects during his time at Union — namely collaborating on a multi-rotor muscle training apparatus and method that he and his research team patented — his true passion has always been his students.
“You guys energize me, and your questions keep me going,” Ward said.
That energy was obvious from the crinkles of eagerness forming on his forehead and cheeks as he attempted to help me understand basic quantum mechanics. His love for questions was obvious from the graciously marked-up homework and books of various subjects strewn across his desk. His love for his students was obvious from how many times he brought up Union alumni who were making him “so proud,” no matter the path they chose after completing their undergraduate degrees. And his love’s effect was obvious from the smile plastered across Allabaugh’s face as she described his frequent jokes, exquisitely knit purple and green sweaters and compassion for students struggling with personal issues.
“Dr. Ward is so intentional with how he loves his students,” Allabaugh said. “And he showed me that you can love people while studying physics.”
Allabaugh first met Ward as a high school student, when she briefly ran into him on a department tour and they struck up a conversation. She encountered him again when he emailed her a few weeks later, letting her know how encouraging it was to him that young people who love the Lord were also interested in physics.
“He said he had just been especially praying for me that week,” Allabaugh said. “And he was excited to see what the Lord did, whether I came to Union or went somewhere else to study physics. But how could I go anywhere else?”
Ward wants his students to succeed, thrive and believe in the great God who created the little we understand and the lot we don’t. He wants them to continue to ask questions about anything and learn about everything.
“Our faith must be a firsthand discovery, not a secondhand story,” Ward said.
I believed him when he told me that was a quote from the late theologian William Barclay. I could not, however, find any hint of that wording in Open Library’s extensive collection of Barclay’s public domain writings. That particular wisdom either came from a lesser-known sermon or from Ward himself. It wouldn’t surprise me if it was the latter; Ward was a treasury of insight.
“We really don’t understand reality, but we can discover its beauty,” Ward said. “Just like reading Shakespeare lifts your spirits, understanding the nature of a black hole is beautiful and joyful in and of itself.”
That is the whole point.
Throughout our conversation, Ward continued to impress upon me how much of the world runs on physics — from the flickering lights above our heads to a screeching door hinge to the musical instruments I play to the MRI machines I used to hate and everything in between. We’re immersed in it, and we don’t appreciate it. Yet, Ward also made it clear that worth isn’t tied to usefulness.
“Of what use is a newborn babe?” Ward asked, quoting famous physicist Michael Faraday, who discovered electromagnetic conduction. “Does it have to have a use to be worth something? Of course not. You’re discovering and recognizing something beautiful.”
To Ward, physics is useful, but it doesn’t have to be. Students aren’t valuable because of what they can accomplish, but because of who they are. They’re worth investing in simply because they exist. Physics is worth studying because it teaches us more about God. And Ward doesn’t need to give up being a teaching professor to explore that idea further.
“Well, I think I’m going to take home some quantum mechanics today,” Ward laughed as his fingers curled around a thick textbook, eyes bright like a teenager who just received his driver’s license and saw the world open up before him. “Always something to learn, right?”
Be the first to comment