Dr. David L Goodstein was a professor at the California Institute for Technology (Caltech) for 41 years. For almost half that time he was also the Vice Provost. He wrote many books, technical papers, book reviews and general articles, 

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Goodstein was educated at Brooklyn College (BS, 1960) and at the University of Washington (Ph.D., 1965). In the 1980s he was the director and host of The Mechanical Universe, an educational television series on physics that has been adapted for high school use and translated into many other languages.

 

In 1999, Goodstein was awarded the Oersted Medal of the American Association of Physics Teachers, and in 2000, the John P. McGovern Medal of the Sigma Xi Society. He has served on and chaired numerous scientific and academic panels, including the National Advisory Committee to the Mathematical and Physical Sciences Directorate of the National Science Foundation. He is a founding member of the Board of Directors of the California Council on Science and Technology..