Rate My Professor John Zweck

John Zweck served as Professor of Mathematical Sciences and Affiliate Professor of Science/Mathematics Education in the Mathematics faculty at The University of Texas at Dallas from 2012 to 2024. He earned a B.Sc. with honors in Mathematical Sciences from the University of Adelaide, Australia, in 1988, and a Ph.D. in Mathematics from Rice University in 1993, with a thesis on compactification problems in the theory of characteristic currents associated with a singular connection advised by F. Reese Harvey. Prior to UT Dallas, Zweck held academic appointments including Assistant Professor at the University of Nevada, Reno from 1995 to 1998, Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of New Mexico from 1998 to 2000, and Associate Professor at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County from 2006 to 2012, where he was granted tenure.

Zweck's research at UT Dallas focused on computational and applied mathematics, spanning nonlinear waves and nonlinear optics, modeling and simulation of short-pulse mode-locked fiber lasers, photoacoustic trace gas sensors, plasma processing systems, and optical fiber communications systems. He contributed theory, models, and numerical algorithms, including development of the PhoSSiL Photonics Systems Simulator C++ Library, and authored over 90 research publications while earning two U.S. patents, including one in 2015 on a cueing system for universal optical receiver. His efforts secured nearly $4 million in funding, primarily from the National Science Foundation, supporting projects like collaborative research on stability of nonlinear waves in fiber lasers and NSF EDT team training through industrial collaborations. Zweck received the UT Dallas President’s Teaching Excellence Award in Undergraduate Instruction in 2022 and the University of Texas System Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Award in 2023. He coordinated Calculus III with small-group active learning involving over 30 graduate teaching assistants and 60 undergraduate learning assistants, and created 3D-printed models of curves and surfaces to boost visualization and problem-solving for over 3,000 students in multivariable calculus, partial differential equations, and applied mathematics courses. He co-organized the Computational Science Seminar and served on committees including Graduate Admissions and Educational Policy.