Sachmpazidi Lab

headshot of Diana Sachmpazidi

Dr. Diana Sachmpazidi joined the RIT School of Physics and Astronomy in 2024 after a postdoc at the PER group at University of Maryland College Park. She is a core member of RIT’s Physics Education Research Group and the Center for Advancing Scholarship to Transform Learning. Dr. Sachmpazidi’s research program focuses on understanding and promoting institutional and cultural change in higher education, with an emphasis on improving undergraduate and graduate Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education.

Current Projects

My research group studies how physics departments engage in departmental change to advance evidence-based improvements in their undergraduate and graduate programs. Our current work includes examining the culture of physics graduate programs, developing national survey instruments to assess departmental approaches to educational change across more than 130 physics programs, and studying professional development resources that support faculty in strengthening their leadership skills. We also investigate graduate student pedagogy and strategies for fostering sustainable, systemic improvements in physics education. Below, we offer a glimpse into our current active projects.

Project: Strengthening Policies and Structure of Graduate Programs

This project investigates how physics graduate programs cultivate supportive, growth-oriented environments that enable all students to thrive and succeed. We examine departmental practices, policies, and cultural norms that influence student retention, belonging, and progression in graduate physics. By partnering with multiple institutions, we analyze how programs adjust their recruitment, admissions, mentoring, professional development, and community-building strategies to foster healthier and more resilient graduate cohorts.

Key goals include:

  • Identifying features of program structures and practices that correlate with student belonging
  • Diagnosing challenges and barriers within departmental systems
  • Facilitating evidence-based change by providing actionable insights and recommendations to programs

Project: Assessing Departmental Culture for Educational Change in Physics

This project examines how physics departments enact change in their educational practices. We focus on understanding the cultural factors that shape how departments engage with evidence-based reform and sustain improvement over time. Through the development and use of the Culture around Systemic Change Survey (CSCS), we aim to characterize departmental perspectives on the processes, priorities, and challenges of educational change.

Key goals include:

  • Developing and refining survey tools to measure departmental culture around approaches to educational change
  • Identifying patterns and factors that support or hinder sustained improvement efforts across physics programs
  • Providing data-driven insights to guide disciplinary organizations in promoting effective, systemic change 

Project: Graduate Student Perspectives on Pedagogy

While significant progress has been made in adopting student-centered pedagogical approaches—such as active learning—at the undergraduate level, these methods have not been equally implemented in graduate education. This project seeks to understand how graduate students experience and perceive the teaching approaches used in their courses and to identify opportunities for modernizing the graduate curriculum. Through interviews with physics graduate students, we explore their views on instructional practices, classroom dynamics, and perceived learning outcomes.

Key goals include:

  • Characterizing graduate students’ perspectives on pedagogical approaches in their coursework
  • Identifying strategies to modernize graduate curricula and better align them with current educational practices and disciplinary needs
  • Informing professional development efforts aimed at supporting effective and engaging graduate instruction

Project: Sustaining Systemic Change in Physics Departments

Efforts to improve undergraduate physics programs have led to the development of initiatives aimed at fostering more intentional and collaborative approaches to educational change. Building on our prior work examining departmental culture and faculty change practices, this project investigates long-term opportunities and threats to sustaining systemic change within physics departments. Using case studies of programs that participated in the Departmental Action Leadership Institute (DALI) and adopted the Departmental Action Team (DAT) model, we analyze how local cultures evolve to support collective, evidence-based reform efforts. The key goal of this last phase of inquiry is to assess long-term factors that promote or threaten the sustainability of systemic improvement efforts in physics education,

Select Scholarship

1. Cochran, G. L., Ptak, C., Tempkin, J., Boone, T., Nelson, S. F., Henige, S. R., and Sachmpazidi, D. (2025). Understanding familial capital and its implications for physics graduate programs. Physical Review Physics Education Research, 21(2), 020116. 10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.21.020116

2. Sachmpazidi, D., Van Dusen, B., and Henderson, C. (2025). Role of departmental sup- port structures and self-efficacy on physics student persistence: An examination of stu- dents’ experience from 19 physics graduate programs. Physical Review Physics Education Research, 21(1), 010158. 10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.21.010158

3. Sachmpazidi, D., Turpen, C., Petrella, J., Dalka, R. P., and Abdurrahman, F. N. (2024). Recognizing dominant cultures around assessment and educational change in physics programs. Physical Review Physics Education Research, 20(1), 010132. 10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.20.010132

4. Dalka, P. R., Sachmpazidi, D., Henderson, C., and Zwolak P. J. (2022) Network analysis approach for Likert-style surveys. Physical Review Physics Education Research, 17(2), 020113. 10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.18.020113

5. Sachmpazidi, D. and Henderson, C. (2021). Departmental support structures for physics graduate students: Development and psychometric evaluation of a self-report instrument. Physical Review Physics Education Research, 17(1), 010123. 10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.17.010123

6. Sachmpazidi, D., Olmstead A., Thompson, A., Henderson, C, and Beach, A. (2021). Team-based instructional change in undergraduate STEM: Characterizing effective faculty collaboration. International Journal of STEM Education, 8, 15. 

7. Sachmpazidi, D., Bautista, M., Chajecki, Z., Mendoza M., and Henderson, C. (2021). Integrating numerical modeling into an introductory physics laboratory. American Journal of Physics, 89, 713-729. 

1. Sachmpazidi, D. (in press) Cultural and Systemic Barriers to Graduate STEM Education in the Handbook on Equity-Oriented Discipline-Based STEM Education Research.

2. Cochran, G. L., Hyater-Adams, S., Rodriguez, M., Cid, X. C., Sachmpazidi, D., Rosa, K., and Barthelemy, R. S. (2024). Racial equity in physics education research. Nature Physics, 20(3), 336-338.

3. Sachmpazidi, D. Research on equity in physics graduate education in The International Handbook of Physics Education Research: Special Topics, edited by M.F. Tasar and P.R.L. Heron (AIP Publishing, Melville, New York, 2023), pp.4-1-4-10.

1. Sachmpazidi, D. and Turpen, C. (2025). Measuring what matters: A human-centered design approach to survey development around departmental culture in physics. In A. Pawl, J. P. Zwolak, and A. E. Leak (Eds.), Physics Education Research Conference 2025 Proceedings. American Association of Physics Teachers.

2. Verostek, M., Sachmpazidi, D., Petrella, J., and Turpen, C. (2025). Assessing the culture around systemic change in physics programs: A pilot study from 33 programs in the United States. In A. Pawl, J. P. Zwolak, and A. E. Leak (Eds.), Physics Education Research Conference 2025 Proceedings. American Association of Physics Teachers.

3. Coldren, K. and Sachmpazidi, D. (2025). Identifying strengths and areas for improve- ment in a new physics Ph.D. program. In A. Pawl, J. P. Zwolak, and A. E. Leak (Eds.), Physics Education Research Conference 2025 Proceedings. American Association of Physics Teachers.

4. Claar, A., Kunz, A., Sachmpazidi, D., Verostek, M., Codding, D., Woods, S., Goldberg, B., and Cochran, G. L. (2025). Mapping structural equity with departmental profiles in physics graduate education. In A. Pawl, J. P. Zwolak, and A. E. Leak (Eds.), Physics Education Research Conference 2025 Proceedings. American Association of Physics Teachers.

5. R. P. Dalka, C. Turpen, D. Sachmpazidi, F. N. Abdurrahman, D. A. Craig, and J. C. Corbo, Considering the Departmental Action Leadership Institute as a Community of Transformation: What’s highlighted and what’s missed?, Paper presented at Physics Education Research Conference 2023 [Sacramento, CA, July 19-20, 2023], edited by D. L. Jones, Q. X. Ryan, and A. Pawl.

6. F. N. Abdurrahman, D. Sachmpazidi, R. P. Dalka, and C. Turpen, A case study of tensions in student-faculty partnerships for departmental change work, Paper presented at Physics Education Research Conference 2023 [Sacramento, CA, July 19-20, 2023], edited by D. L. Jones, Q. X. Ryan, and A. Pawl.

7. Sachmpazidi, D., Turpen, C. and Dalka, P. R. (2022, July 13-14). Changing the culture: Documenting shifts in a department’s norms around data use. In D. Jones and Q. Ryan (Eds.), Paper presented at Physics Education Research Conference 2022. Grand Rapids, MI: AAPT. 

8. Abdurrahman, F., Turpen, C. and Sachmpazidi, D. (2022, July 13-14). A case study of cultural change: learning to partner with students. In D. Jones and Q. Ryan (Eds.), Paper presented at Physics Education Research Conference 2022. Grand Rapids, MI: AAPT.

9. Sachmpazidi, D., and Henderson, C. (2019). Experiences of departmental supports by physics graduate students: results from 20 research-intensive institutions. In Y. Cao, S. Wolf, and M. Bennett (Eds.), Paper presented at Physics Education Research Conference 2019. College Park, MD: AAPT. 

1. Sachmpazidi, D., Verostek, M., Codding, D., Claar, A., Cochran, G., Woods, S., and Goldberg, B. (2025). Beneath the surface: Documenting culture to drive change in physics graduate programs. Invited talk at the American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT) Summer Meeting, Washington, DC.

2. Sachmpazidi, D. (2025). Survey instruments to assess the student experience in physics: A data-driven approach to improve retention and inclusion. Invited talk at the Mini- Symposium: Addressing Equity and Inclusion in Physics, APS Global Physics Summit, Anaheim, CA.

3. Sachmpazidi, D. (2024). Inclusive Physics Graduate Programs: A Collaborative Approach to Cultural Change. In Physics Colloquium, Ithaca College, Ithaca, NY.

4. Sachmpazidi, D. (2024). Towards Cultural Change in Physics Programs: Discussing ac- tion plans and metrics. In Physics Colloquium, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Albany, NY.

5. Goldberg, B., and Sachmpazidi, D. (2024). The AGEP Catalyst Project: Building Inclusive Graduate Programs. In Physics Colloquium, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN.

6. Sachmpazidi, D., Cochran, G., Codding, D., Goldberg, B., Henderson, C., Su, E.,Wittman, M.,. and Woods, S. (2024). Making Graduate Programs more inclusive: An AGEP Pilot in Physics. American Physical Society April Meeting, Sacramento, CA.

7. Sachmpazidi, D. (2023) Recognizing facets of culture around assessment and educational change in physics programs. In the PER group meeting, Imperial College, London, UK.

8. Sachmpazidi, D. (2022) Understanding the challenges experienced by women and racially marginalized students in physics graduate programs. In 2022 Confronting Challenges of Graduate Education for Marginalized Students Session, American Physical Society April Meeting, New York, NY.

9. Sachmpazidi, D. (2022) Understanding learning and change as situated in departmental cultures. In the Symposium series of Physics Education Research Consortium of Graduate Students, virtual presentation.

10. Sachmpazidi, D. (2021) The role of departmental support structures and self-efficacy on the persistence of physics graduate students. In 2021 American Physical Society – Mid Atlantic Section, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ.