Christopher Stockdale

Christopher (Chris) Stockdale is an associate professor in the Department of Physics. He received his undergraduate degree from Washington University in St. Louis and his master’s and doctorate from the University of Oklahoma in physics. He was a National Research Council Postdoctoral Fellow at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C., before joining the Marquette faculty in 2003. Stockdale is currently the chair of the University Academic Senate, the assistant department chair of physics and the chair of the NASA Wisconsin Space Grant Consortium Advisory Council. Previously he served as chair of the University Board of Undergraduate Studies and chair of the Committee on Academic Technology. Stockdale has also served on the University Assessment Committee, the Information Security Governance Committee, the Academic Integrity Council, the President’s Task Force on Alcohol and Other Drugs, and the University Sustainability Committee. He represented Marquette at the summer 2018 Collegium Colloquy and was a member of the 2018-19 Faculty Exploring Leadership Opportunities (FELOS) cohort. Stockdale was a founding member in 2017 of the Marquette LGTBQ+ Employee Resource Group and served as co-chair of the ERG until 2022.

Stockdale’s research utilizes radio and X-ray observations of supernovae to probe the late-stage evolution of supernova progenitor stars in the thousands of years prior to their explosive deaths. He has used the Very Large Array and Australia Telescope Compact Array radio observatories and the NASA Swift and NASA Chandra X-ray observatories to study dozens of supernovae over the last three decades. He has mentored more than a dozen undergraduate research associates, many of whom have gone on to pursue graduate studies in the sciences. Stockdale has taught a wide range of both introductory-level and upper-level undergraduate physics and astronomy courses. He has advised more than 100 physics majors and pre-major students in the Klingler College of Arts and Sciences and has been a strong supporter of first-year experiences over his tenure at Marquette.