Stephanie Viola Chasteen (March 25, 1972 – November 3, 2024) was an American physics education researcher and science communicator,[1] known on social media as "sciencegeekgirl".
She was educated at Oyster River High School in Durham, New Hampshire, and majored in social psychology at Bard College,[2] graduating in 1995.
[3] After serving in the Peace Corps in Guinea, West Africa, she received a Ph.D. from the University of California, Santa Cruz,[1] in 2005,[3] specializing in condensed-matter physics.
[4] Chasteen died on November 3, 2024, after a year-long struggle with glioblastoma, a form of brain cancer.
[1] Chasteen was posthumously named a Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS) in 2024, after a nomination from the APS Topical Group on Physics Education Research, "for significant contributions to physics education research, including groundbreaking work on departmental change, teaching upper-division courses, evaluating and supporting numerous research projects and dissemination programs, and outstanding service to the APS Topical Group on Physics Education Research".