Education

Ph.D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology
B.S., Physics, University of Virginia

Biography

Since 2000, Dr. Dark has been a professor at Spelman College.  Her decision to join Spelman was born from a desire to champion the field of physics as a viable career option for African American women.  She is a member of the American Physical Society (APS), the Optical Society of America, and the American Association of Physics Teachers.  She has served on the APS Committee on Minorities and as a General Councillor.  Her research interests are in laser interactions with biological tissues and electro-optical effects in biomolecules.

Professional Leadership
Co-chair, Chemical and Biological Physics Section, National Society of Black Physicists

General Councillor, American Physical Society, 2009 - 2014

Selected Presentations

“Soft Matter Research at Spelman College”, Southeast Conference for Undergraduate Women in Physics, Orlando, FL, January 2013.

 “Benzimidazoles as Photovoltaic and Light Emitting Materials, ” (Poster) Gordon Research Conference on Electronic Processes in Organic Materials, Barga, Italy, June 2012. 

“Benzimidazoles as Photovoltaic and Light Emitting Materials, ” (Poster) SPIE Optics + Photonics, San Diego, CA, August 2010.

“Undergraduate Physics Research In Soft Matter at Spelman College:  Knee Cartilage and OLED’s”,  Georgia Institute of Technology’s 4^th Southeast Workshop on Soft Materials, Atlanta, GA, May 2010.

 “Characterization of Laser-Induced Thermal Response of Soft Bovine Knee Tissue During Infrared Laser Welding,” Joint meeting of the National Society of Black Physicists and National Society of Hispanic Physicists, Boston, MA, February 2007.

Courses Taught

PHY 101 Introduction to Astronomy
PHY 102 Physics and the Arts
PHY 111/112 General Physics I/II
PHY 261 Optics
PHY 356 Lasers, Optics, and Spectroscopy
PHY 411 Quantum Mechanics

Research Interests

My area of research interest includes laser interactions with biological tissues and electro-optical effects in biomolecules.

Research

Optical and mechanical properties of soft matter

Interferometry

Additional Publication

Dark, M.L. (2023) Developing technical and soft skills in an introductory optics course.  Seventeenth Conference on Education and Training in Optics and Photonics: ETOP 2023, Technical Digest Series (Optica Publishing Group), paper 1272314.   

Dark, M. L. and Merriweather, C. M.  (2021) "Student Learning through Independent Projects in Introductory Optics," in Education and Training in Optics & Photonics Conference 2021, A. Danner, A. Poulin-Girard, and N. Wong, eds., OSA Technical Digest (Optica Publishing Group), paper W4A.5. 

Dark, M.L. (2021) Teaching an Introductory Optics Lab Course Online. Physics Education 56: 055015. https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6552/ac080c 

Dark, M.L. and Hylton, D.J. (2018) Physics Meets Art in the General Education Core. Journal of College Science Teaching. 47: 36-40.