Pradeep (Max) Dass

Pradeep (Max) Dass currently is a Professor of Science Education in the School of Education at The University of Texas at Tyler. Prior to UT Tyler, he was at Northern Arizona University for 10 years, where he first served as the Director of the Center for Science Teaching and Learning for seven years and then as the Chair of the Department of STEM Education for three years. Dass holds a Ph.D. in Science Education from the University of Iowa and a Master of Science in botany from Gorakhpur University, India. Prior to embarking on graduate studies at Iowa, Dass worked for 14 years as a middle and high school biology/science teacher in India. For 10 of those years, he taught at Woodstock School — an international, private, residential, K-12 school — nestled in the foothills of the Himalayan mountains. Dass is passionate about helping teachers develop appropriate understanding of the nature of science and enabling them to incorporate nature of science elements seamlessly into all their instruction, rather than teaching those elements in a "stand-alone" unit once during the semester or academic year. He has conducted numerous workshops to this effect, published on topics and themes related to the nature of science instruction, and worked with both pre-service and in-service teachers throughout his 30-year career as a university-based science education faculty member.