Michael C. Wittmann is the Head of Education at the American Physical Society.  Michael was founder of the UMaine Physics Education Research Laboratory and co-founder of the Maine Center for Research in STEM Education (RiSE Center), an interdisciplinary research center at UMaine, focused on discipline-based education research in the STEM departments and the College of Education and Human Development. His research in physics education included research on advanced physics topics such as quantum mechanics, investigations of both student and teacher knowledge of energy at the middle and early high school level, and the development of models of learning in physics. He served as editor of the Physics Education Research Section of the American Journal of Physics and was co-founder and co-organizer of the biennial conference on the Foundations and Frontiers of Physics Education Research. He served as chair of the UMaine Department of Physics and Astronomy. For his work in education research, professional development, and community growth, he was named a Fellow of the American Physical Society.