By Gardner Rees '25
Frederick Whelen joins College Prep as the newest member of the science department, filling in for Jeff Sensabaugh who is currently on sabbatical. In his introductory interview with the Radar, Mr. Whelen discusses his passion for science and his excitement for teaching.
Mr. Whelen holds an MSc. in Quantum Physics from Imperial College London and a BS in physics and astrophysics from the University of Chicago. He currently teaches advanced physics and sophomore chemistry.
The following interview has been edited for clarity and conciseness.
Radar: Introduce yourself to College Prep! Tell us a little about your background.
Mr. Whelen: I’m originally from the Bay Area. I grew up in San Francisco and lived there until I was about 14. Then I moved to New Hampshire, where I went to boarding school at Exeter. After high school, I went to college at UChicago. I spent the last year in London doing my master’s degree, and then thought I’d move back to the states. I live in San Francisco now.
Radar: Can you tell us a little bit about your high school experience at Exeter?
Mr. Whelen: I enjoyed it. But it was a pretty sink or swim situation. There is support if you are willing to find it, but if you’re not, then they are pretty happy to let you sink. It worked out for me, I guess, but I had a bunch of friends where that didn’t work. It’s definitely a place with high expectations—similar to College Prep, just not as nurturing for better or for worse. It was a lot of fun to not live with my parents as a teenager—probably overall good for my relationship with them.
Radar: What were you into academically in high school? Has it always been science?
Mr. Whelen: Yes, definitely physics, math, chemistry, and to a lesser extent, biology. You know, I went to history class, but I wasn’t ever the hugest fan.
Radar: How about extracurricularly?
Mr. Whelen: I think I was part of Rocketry club. I played Tennis, Squash—I like whacking balls around. Honestly it was mostly studying. I skied a little too.
Radar: What drew you to study physics and astrophysics as an undergraduate?
Mr. Whelen: I have always really liked physics—even since I was a little kid. My parents gave me a bunch of books on astronomy and space, so I kind of knew that I wanted to do something like that. I set out intending to double major in physics and astro to see where it would take me. I did end up liking it so I kind of kept going. I like thinking about things; I like solving problems; I like the rush you get when you solve a really difficult problem and then you feel like a total genius and then it's another three days of feeling really stupid while you try to figure something else out. I live for that high—that “oh, I finally figured it out.”
Radar: Is there something unique about physics that made it stand out to you more than other disciplines of science?
Mr. Whelen: I liked that I didn’t have to memorize a bunch of stuff. I liked chem and bio but I felt like it was a lot of “oh, I got to memorize this or else I’m gonna fail the test.” It's more heavily focused on the piecing of things together. I felt like once I got to my senior advanced physics class in high school, and they didn’t expect us to memorize things, but instead figure out problems from principles, and I thought that was a lot more fun and felt very freeing: it meant you had to understand what was going on under the surface, instead of just repeating a formula over and over again.
Radar: Can you tell us a little bit more about your work at the Imperial College London? Specifically, what made you pivot towards quantum physics for your masters?
Mr. Whelen: I switched from astro because it wasn’t mathy enough for me. Astro ended up being a lot of programming, which was fun, but not really what I wanted to do. I really liked the idea of learning about fundamental physics, which you get with Quantum. When I saw this really cool program in London that was really focused on this fundamental stuff, I was like, yeah. It was mostly high-energy particle physics and a little bit of gravity. There ended up being a lot of classes on field theory and some on general relativity. I ended up writing my thesis on spontaneous supersymmetry breaking.
Radar: Other than the academics, what made you choose to study abroad in London?
Mr. Whelen: I’ve always really liked London as a city—my uncle lives there, so I’d been there a few times—there is always something to do, so I thought it would be really fun.
Radar: Can you tell us a little bit about what your experience studying abroad was like?
Mr. Whelen: It was definitely hard at first just dropping into a massive city like that by myself. I didn’t know anybody, so I was living by myself trying to meet random people. I spent a lot of time at the pub trying to psych myself up enough to go up to people and say: “hi! My name is Frederick and I moved here three days ago.” But it worked out. It was a lot of meeting people through brute force, though. I met some really cool people through my classes as well, and by the end of it I had enough friends. It definitely ended up working out.
Radar: We’ve heard about your interest in gymnastics—can you tell us the story about how you got into it?
Mr. Whelen: That started a year ago. I had just graduated college and had absolutely nothing to do with my life for four months, so I figured that I would learn how to do a standing backflip. One thing led to another and soon enough, I had joined a gymnastic society at Imperial. It was really fun and I met a lot of people through it, so I figured I’d stick with it. I’m not in a club anymore, but I still do it on my own. On a good day, I can still do a standing backflip.
Radar: Can you tell us a little bit more about your experiences with teaching? How did you realize that teaching was something you were passionate about?
Mr. Whelen: Prior to this, my teaching experience was mostly as a TA in college or as a tutor. I always thought it was really fun and rewarding, but I had never properly done it as a teacher, so I thought that I might as well apply to some teaching jobs, and I got this one and thought it looked super cool! It's been a lot of fun so far.
Radar: How do you interact with teaching? What's your philosophy?
Mr. Whelen: I’m honestly still trying to figure it out. I really liked the way that I was taught in high school. Exeter uses the Harkness method, and it felt like I was being treated like an adult. At the same time, that's hard as a teacher to get good at. I’d really like the students to figure things out for themselves. As a student, I really liked that “aha!” moment, rather than having it be robbed from me. But, that's difficult—especially early on in a chemistry class, where there is just a lot of stuff you need to memorize. But yeah, that's what I’m trying to balance right now.
Radar: If you could have all of your students leave your class taking away one thing, what would it be?
Mr. Whelen: I’d like them to like science. I’d like them to come away with the tenacity to keep at difficult problems, even when they don’t immediately understand them.
Radar: If you could design and teach any science seminar, what would it be?
Mr. Whelen: You know, I’m really enjoying teaching advanced physics. Probably it would be very similar to that. I might want to delve a little more into electricity and magnetism or waves. Maybe quantum mechanics too.
Radar: What do you do for fun?
Mr. Whelen: I like to run, I like to play tennis, and I like gymnastics and long walks. On occasion, I like to stare at the ceiling—especially when I’m tired. Sleep and naps are huge, too.
Radar: What’s your favorite element?
Mr. Whelen: You know, we recently played around with Gallium in chem class. That was a lot of fun, so I’d go with Gallium.
Radar: Favorite equation?
Mr. Whelen: Either Euler's Equation or the Rarita–Schwinger Equation for spin three-half particles.
Radar: Thanks so much for your time!
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