Dr. Bruce G. Oldaker. Dr. Oldaker was born in New Mexico and raised in Okinawa, Maryland, and Colorado, while his father served in the US Army. Dr. Oldaker received his BS degree in Mathematics from the University of Minnesota in 1972, after earning an Army ROTC Scholarship. He served in the Army as a Field Artillery officer in Colorado and Germany during the 1970s. He received the MS (1981) in Physics from the University of Colorado and the PhD (1990) in Physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, after earning a Fannie and John Hertz Fellowship. His research involved both experimental and theoretical research in the mechanical force of light on neutral atoms. He served at the United States Military Academy as an instructor, assistant and associate professor of physics. Dr. Oldaker helped found the Photonics Research Center at West Point, served as an Army scientist with the Army Research Office, and supervised the advanced physics and nuclear engineering programs of the Department of Physics, eventually becoming the Deputy Head of the Department. In 2002 he retired from the Army after a 30-year career with the rank of Colonel. In 2002 he joined the faculty of Rye Country Day School (RCDS), in Rye, NY, as Instructor of Physics. In 2005, Dr. Oldaker and a colleague from RCDS were the incorporators of the United States Association for Young Physicists Tournaments (USAYPT). Dr. Oldaker was an International Team Coach/Leader of the first competitively selected US team that participated in the International Young Physicists' Tournament, the 17^th IYPT, held in Brisbane, Australia. In 2005, he was the Team Director and International Coach/Leader for the US team that participated in the 18^th IYPT, held in Winterthur, Switzerland, the 19th IYPT, held in Bratislava, Slovakia, and the 20th IYPT, held in Seoul, Korea . In December 2005, Dr. Oldaker was elected Secretary of the USAYPT. In his spare time he researches the history of the teaching of physics, sometimes plays his classical guitar, and gardens a little with his wife of 33 years, Patti. In February, 2008, he also became the Treasurer of the USAYPT.

Dr. Oldaker is a member of AAPT and Sigma Xi, has served as an AP Reader in Physics, and has been a Hertz Foundation Interviewer for many years.