Dr. Cynthia Heiner is an experimental physicist by training and a physics education researcher in practice, which allows her to combine her research curiosity with her passion for teaching. She received her BSc with honors in Physics from the University of New Hampshire in 2002. She went on to study physics in Germany, doing experimental research at the Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society, for which she was awarded her PhD at Radboud Universiteit in 2009.  

After nearly 10 years in physics labs, she turned her attention and research focus to the classroom, investigating ways to impact physics learning through evidence-based teaching methods and innovative assessments, as part of the "Carl Wieman Science Education Initiative” at the University of British Columbia. She returned to work in Europe in 2012 and has since been involved with several projects at both the Freie Universität Berlin and Imperial College London, ranging from student transitions and outreach to professional development training and re-structuring of teaching and curriculum.  

Cynthia has published in both physics and education academic journals and presented at national and international conferences on various aspects of science education; thrice she was the featured keynote speaker. Her research interests include curriculum structure redesign and realization, adaption, group assessment, and blended learning approaches. She has taught in German and English, with her revised introductory physics course (taught in German) receiving a teaching award.

She will bring her experiences teaching and working in three distinct higher education settings into her work with colleagues here at the FU Berlin through the StudentU project and Dahlem Center for Academic Teaching.

Heiner, C. E., Schnaithmann, C., Kaiser, N., & Hagen, R. (2023). Fostering Student Participation with Design Thinking in Higher Education. International Journal of Management and Applied Research, 10(2), 177–190.  https://doi.org/10.18646/2056.102.23-014

Schnaithmann, C., Kaiser, N., Reinecke, K. & Heiner, C. E. (2024) Studierendenorientierte Lehrentwicklung mit Design Thinking. Neues Handbuch Hochschullehre, 115 (Sonderausgabe zur TURN23), 113–126. Franz Steiner Verlag. https://www.nhhl-bibliothek.de/media/263cce49cd3391acb6fb6b8ca603b68b541f1986/7de647818670dac54a3a44d6824f5ee073666fdf.pdf