Welcome to Undergraduate Physics at Georgetown! We're a collection of friendly and welcoming faculty and students working together to understand the mysteries of the Universe. Our students form a close-knit community in which the pursuit of excellence is more often cooperative than competitive. Since the number of majors we graduate each year (typically 10-20) is about the same size as our faculty, our students get a lot of personal attention, especially since all of our courses are taught by faculty members, not graduate students. The faculty also encourage undergraduates to get involved in their research, sometimes as early as freshman year. Most of our majors take advantage of the fantastic opportunity to work directly with internationally-known faculty on cutting-edge research. Many of our students even become authors on published scientific papers and/or present their work at national and international meetings.
Our department offers B.S. and A.B. degrees in Physics, B.S. and A.B. degrees in Biological Physics, and a minor in Physics. Our B.S. majors often go on to top graduate schools in physics, biophysics, applied physics, materials science, and engineering. Since quantitative skills and an ability to analyze and solve difficult problems are prized in a wide variety of fields, our B.S. and A.B. majors are well-prepared for many different types of jobs. In recent years, some of our majors have gone on to top medical, law, and business schools, whereas others have taken jobs in finance, at software companies, at consulting firms, in scientific laboratories, in policy institutes, and in teaching.
If you're interested in becoming part of our community, feel free to visit us on the 5th floor of the Reiss Science Building, and please don't hesitate to contact the Director of Undergraduate Studies, Prof. David Egolf.
The Physics Department offers programs leading to a B.S. in Physics, an A.B. in Physics, or a minor in Physics. We also offer degrees in Biological Physics (detailed on this other page). Students planning to attend graduate school in physics or engineering or intending to work as a physicist usually pursue a B.S. degree. Students interested in careers in medicine, law, finance, or other areas will benefit from any of the programs, but they may find that the A.B. (or the minor) allows more time to pursue other degrees or interests. The first 5 courses taken for the B.S. and the A.B. are the same, so it is not necessary to decide between the two degrees until at least the end of the 2nd year.
Any student contemplating becoming a physics major or minor is strongly encouraged to consult with the Director of Undergraduate Studies in Physics, David Egolf, as early as possible.
Requirements for a B.S. in Physics
These requirements are summarized in this printable checklist.
Note: Students earning the B.S. in Physics are exempt from the College Social Science General Education Requirement.
Students considering the B.S. major are strongly encouraged to begin the major during their freshman year; however, with careful planning, it is possible to complete the B.S. starting in the first semester of sophomore year. Typical schedules for various situations can be found on the Planning Your Physics or Biological Physics Major page.
Note: Students who entered Georgetown in Fall 2008 or earlier are subject to a different set of requirements summarized in this printable checklist.
Requirements for an A.B. in Physics
These requirements are summarized in this printable checklist.
Students considering the A.B. major are encouraged to begin the major during their freshman year to allow the greatest flexibility; however, it is straightforward to complete an A.B. starting in the first semester of sophomore year. Typical schedules for various situations can be found on the Planning Your Physics or Biological Physics Major page.
Note: Students who entered Georgetown in Fall 2008 or earlier are subject to a different set of requirements summarized in this printable checklist.
Departmental Honors
The faculty may award Honors in Physics to Physics or Biological Physics majors who have performed exceptionally well both in coursework and in independent research. Students who are awarded Honors in Physics typically have a GPA in physics lecture courses of 3.7 or better. Students must also have exhibited excellence in independent research (including at least six credits of research coursework) and must have presented their work in written and oral forms to the faculty. To be eligible for consideration, a physics or biological physics major must have completed at least 4 upper-level physics lecture courses (PHYS 220-299 or >= 400), including at least two courses from PHYS 251, 252, 253, and 254.
Requirements for a Minor in Physics
These requirements are summarized in this printable checklist.
Note: Students who entered Georgetown in Fall 2008 or earlier are subject to a different set of requirements summarized in this printable checklist.
The Physics Department offers programs leading to a B.S. in Biological Physics or an A.B. in Biological Physics. We also offer majors and a minor in Physics (detailed on this other page). Students planning to attend graduate school in physics, biological physics, biophysics, or engineering or intending to work as a physicist usually pursue a B.S. degree. Students interested in careers in medicine, law, finance, or other areas will benefit from either of the programs, but they may find that the A.B. allows more time to pursue other degrees or interests. The first 5 courses taken for the B.S. and the A.B. are the same, so it is not necessary to decide between the two degrees until at least the end of the 2nd year.
Any student contemplating becoming a Biological Physics major is strongly encouraged to consult with the Director of Undergraduate Studies in Physics, David Egolf, as early as possible.
Requirements for a B.S. in Biological Physics
These requirements are summarized in this printable checklist.
Note: Students earning the B.S. in Biological Physics are exempt from the College Social Science General Education Requirement.
Students considering the B.S. major are strongly encouraged to begin the major during their freshman year; however, with careful planning, it is possible to complete the B.S. starting in the first semester of sophomore year. Typical schedules for various situations can be found on the Planning Your Physics or Biological Physics Major page.
Requirements for an A.B. in Biological Physics
These requirements are summarized in this printable checklist.
Students considering the A.B. major are encouraged to begin the major during their freshman year to allow the greatest flexibility; however, it is straightforward to complete an A.B. starting in the first semester of sophomore year. Typical schedules for various situations can be found on the Planning Your Physics or Biological Physics Major page.
Departmental Honors
The faculty may award Honors in Physics to Physics or Biological Physics majors who have performed exceptionally well both in coursework and in independent research. Students who are awarded Honors in Physics typically have a GPA in physics lecture courses of 3.7 or better. Students must also have exhibited excellence in independent research (including at least six credits of research coursework) and must have presented their work in written and oral forms to the faculty. To be eligible for consideration, a physics or biological physics major must have completed at least 4 upper-level physics lecture courses (PHYS 220-299 or >= 400), including at least two courses from PHYS 251, 252, 253, and 254.
Whether you're starting your Physics or Biological Physics major as a Freshman or Sophomore, thinking ahead is a good thing! Many of our physics courses have prerequisites, so it helps to sit down and figure out what courses you'd like to (or are required to) take and in what order you'll need to take them. Don't worry -- your advisor will help you and nothing will be set in stone, but it's always good to have a plan, even if it changes later.
The documents on this page will help you get started with your planning, and each semester you'll go over your plan with your advisor.
Requirements for the Physics and Biological Physics Majors
Here are some checklists with all of the requirements for the B.S. and the A.B. (Students who entered Georgetown in Fall 2008 or earlier should use the ones at the bottom of the page instead.)
When are the courses offered?
If you're going to plan out your schedule, it helps to know when various physics courses are typically offered and what the co- and pre-requisites are. The table linked below has this info. We can't promise everything will stay the same in the future, but most of it should.
Physics Department Course Listing
4-year Plans
Now that you know what you have to take and when the courses are typically offered, you can start making a plan. You'll go over this plan each semester with your advisor. Although your advisor will probably focus on your math and science classes, you can also include your Gen. Ed. requirements in your plan. If you want to start from scratch, here's a blank planning sheet:
Most physics and biological physics majors take the same courses for the first couple of years, so we've created a few pre-filled plans. We've only included the minimum requirements for the major, but most of our students take more physics (and other science) courses, so feel free to add more physics courses! If one of these plans is close, but not exactly right, just make changes. If you want it to look "clean", you can always copy the courses onto a blank one later.
General Advice
Requirements for Students who entered in Fall 2008 or earlier
You are subject to the old requirements. Since you're all seniors, we aren't bothering with 4-year plans for you. However, we have created checklists for you. These include both old and new course numbers since many of the courses have changed.
The opportunity to work directly with faculty on research is one of the strengths of our program, and it's possible to get involved as early as Freshman year. It's a great way to see how new discoveries are made, and some students even end up with their work published in scientific journals. The skills you gain doing research will be of great benefit for future careers in science, engineering, and medicine, and even in areas such as finance and consulting.
To work on some research projects in the Department of Physics, you'll need particular physics or math or computer skills (which you acquire as you progress through your coursework), but for others, you'll simply need enthusiasm about figuring out how Nature works.
How to get started
First you need to figure out what kind of research is interesting to you and which faculty members have opportunities available. To get started on that, take a look at our Department of Physics Research page and explore what our faculty members study. Each Spring semester, we also hold information sessions at which some of the faculty members describe research opportunities in their groups. (Some of their presentations are available on-line.) Once you have an idea of what type of research you might want to do, just stop by our offices or send us email. Even if we haven't advertised an opportunity, we might have one available. We're a friendly department, and if one of us doesn't have a spot available for you, we might be able to point you to someone else who would.
The time commitment for research can vary quite a bit. It's possible to get involved informally with only a few hours per week. When you're ready for greater involvement, you can get course credit through our Independent Research courses. Over the summer, we also offer opportunities to get paid for doing research full-time.
Independent Research courses (PHYS-300-339)
Juniors and Seniors may take as many as 4 semesters of Independent Research for course credit. These courses require a time commitment of at least 10-12 hours per week, but you'll be rewarded with an opportunity to take a research project and really make it your own. That extra time will let you really delve into the physics you're exploring in a deep way, and by the end of your first semester, you'll probably even be starting to come up with your own ideas for the next direction in your research project. With each semester, you'll gain more experience, skills, and independence, and you may even get to publish your work in an international scientific journal.
In each semester of Independent Research coursework, you'll also be learning how to present your research to other scientists. The formal requirements for the written and oral presentations are described on our Physics 300 webpage. If you complete at least 2 semesters of Independent Research, you'll also be considered for Honors in Physics at the end of your Senior year.
Summer research at Georgetown and beyond
Starting as early as the summer after your Freshman year, you can get paid to do research over the summer! You can stay at Georgetown and work in one of our research groups or you can take advantage of the many summer programs at other universities and research labs across the country. Either way, it's a great chance to get some experience and maybe even make a new discovery.
Your independent research project should be the capstone of your undergraduate education. One of the benefits of our small department is that you have the opportunity to be directly involved in research with a faculty member. Your research will allow you to experience firsthand how the frontiers of scientific knowledge are expanded. Some examples of recent student research projects are posted here.
Finding a Research Mentor: General information about getting involved in research is available on the Research Opportunities page. After you have identified one or more faculty you would be interested in working with, but before preregistration for the semester you plan to begin thesis research, talk the faculty member(s) about the possibility of thesis research.
Registration:
For your first semester of research, you should enroll in Physics 301 (or PHYS-311 for Biological Physics research), with the section number appropriate to your mentor. You will need to complete an Add/Drop form and obtain the signature of your mentor. If you would like the opportunity to perform some really in-depth research, we recommend that you plan to take at least 2 semesters of independent research. In addition, two semesters of independent research are required for those wishing to be considered by the faculty for Honors in Physics. (For your second semester of research, you should enroll in Phys 302, then 303, etc., or, if you started with 311, then 312, then 313, etc.)
Expectations:
Physics 3xx is normally taken for 3 credits per semester, and you should plan to spend at least 3 hours of research per week per credit. Students involved in experimental research will need to arrange for large blocks of time to spend in the laboratory. It is essential that you understand what your mentor expects from you and what is required for your specific research project. It is then incumbent upon you to follow through - you will likely have to take the initiative to keep your project moving, make progress on your writing, and be in a position to produce a complete thesis at the end of your project.
The Thesis:
During each semester in which you are registered for Physics 3xx, you will be required to prepare
a detailed report describing your research.
If you are doing only one semester of research, you will complete a 10-20 page research paper and deliver a 15 minute oral presentation. The paper should follow the guidelines here.
If you are doing two semesters in the same lab: During the first semester, you will complete a 10-20 page progress report and research plan. The progress report should begin with introduction and methods sections that follows the guidelines here, but instead of sections on 'results' and 'discussion', you will have sections on 'preliminary results' and 'planned research'. These sections should tell the story of what you will be doing in the next semester of your research, and why. For the second semester of research, you will complete a paper of at least 20 pages following the guidelines, and give a 20-minute oral presentation
Here are some pointers for effective scientific writing and oral presentations.
The Second Reader:
All thesis and progress reports will be evaluated by two members of the faculty, the research mentor and a second reader selected in consultation with your mentor. Second readers should be chosen in the first month of the semester and ordinarily are faculty from a different research area in physics who are not serving as a research mentor for other senior research projects. The final grade for the course will be determined by the quality of research performed, as determined by the research mentor, and by the quality of the written work, as graded by both the mentor and the second reader.
Honors in Physics: Two semesters of independent research are required
for those wishing to be considered by the faculty for Honors in Physics. The draft of the full thesis and the oral presentation are important components of the faculty decision to award Honors in Physics
Timeline and due dates (specific dates will be provided each semester):
The final paper is the culmination of all your research efforts. Among other things, think of it as an opportunity for you to (i) organize your thoughts about what you have studied; (ii) demonstrate that you have a good understanding of your chosen area of research; (iii) tell us what your research has entailed; (iv) convey to us what you have learned from your efforts and how your work fits into a broader context. The precise organization of the paper will depend on the research project, but some general guidelines are given below.
Title
The title should be concise, but informative enough to convey to the nonexpert reader the topic of your research project.
Abstract
The abstract should succinctly state the main results of your research project. Briefly state the problem you have studied, the technique used to carry out the study ( e.g. what kind of experimental method was used, if appropriate), and the primary results and conclusions presented in the paper. The abstract should be self-contained -- do not use technical jargon and do not include references. The abstract should consist of one paragraph that is at most fifteen lines long.
Main Body of Text
The main body of the text will be composed of several different sections, the exact number of which will depend on the nature of your research project. In all cases, there should be an introduction, and a conclusion. If you are doing an experimental research project, other section headings might include experimental method, results, and discussion. For a project based more on library research rather than laboratory research, sections might be organized according to topic. If you are uncertain how to organize the sections of your paper, discuss it with your research mentor early in the semester.
The introduction should be written at the level of a Scientific American article. It should show that you have a firm grasp of the basic concepts in your field of research. Motivation for your research project should be given here, and you should cite relevant work done by others.
The conclusion section summarizes in a few paragraphs (at most) the main results of your research. This is also a good place to remind us how your research fits into the `big picture' -- what is the impact of your research, what open problems remain to be answered, etc.
Acknowledgments
Include a paragraph acknowledging those who have contributed substantially to the research described in your thesis. In addition, describe specifically your role in generating the results. It is entirely appropriate and in many cases inevitable that your thesis will include data from current or former members of your research group, or that your 'independent research' was in practice highly collaborative, but you don't want to appear to be taking credit for someone else's work!
References
References appear in a separate section right after the conclusion. All references in your proposal will appear in this endnote section. There is no separate bibliography section. The references are for recognizing previous research that has been performed in your field, for citing scientific ideas, hypotheses, and conjectures made by others (including your research mentor), and for explanatory footnotes to clarify the text. Do not quote directly from any of your scientific resources. Always rephrase another author's ideas in your own words. Be certain to give credit to the work of people who have preceded you!
References are to be numbered in order of their occurrence and to appear within brackets [1] in the text of the proposal. The endnote should be written according to the style of Physical Review Letters (which you find online).
[1] Authors' names, Journal or Book title, Volume number (in bold), page number
and (year).
Tables and Figures
Each table and figure must be referred to in the text of the paper, and must be numbered consecutively according to their occurrence in the body of the paper. If the figures are not embedded directly into the text, the tables should appear first right after the references; they are followed by the figure captions and the figures.
Length requirements
The length of the text should be between 10 to 20 pages for a one semester research project, and at least 20 pages for a full year project. -- double spaced, 12 point font. Label each section heading, and use subheadings if necessary. References, figures and tables are not to be used in determining your length restrictions. Note that each figure and table must be numbered consecutively, and referred to explicitly in the text.
All seniors are expected to give an oral presentation of their results to the faculty at the end of their last semester of senior research. An oral report on research progress is one of the most important methods of communication for physicists. Learning to express complicated scientific ideas in an organized and understandable talk is a skill that will come in handy in whatever field you end up in. You should take advantage of the weekly talks given in the department to get an idea of how other scientists present their work. One of the best ways to learn how to give a scientific talk is to learn from people who are good at it.
The most important thing to do is relax. You will be giving your talks in front of the friendly audience of the physics department, so try not to be nervous. It has been said that the biggest fear people have is speaking in public. There is no reason to be afraid if you have a well-rehearsed and organized talk, that explains your research at the level of a fellow physics major. Some stylistic and procedural guidelines are given below:
For a 1 semester research project, you will give a 15 minute presenation, with 5 additional minutes for questions. For a full year research project, a talk of at least 20 minutes in length is required, with 10 minutes for questions
after you are finished.
The following are guidelines given by the American Physical Society for first-time talk givers.
The rest of this guideline is based on advice by Peter Feibelman in A Ph.D. is Not Enough (Reading, MA, Addison-Wesley, 1993).
When you are speaking in front of an audience, you are the showman. Physics may not be considered entertainment by many, but your listeners are investing their time to hear what you have to say. They expect to hear a good story with a beginning, a middle, and an end. And you really should approach the construction of your talk as a means of telling a story. You have invested a tremendous amount of time in trying to understand a complicated area of physics. The listeners do not want to be taken down the same tortuous path that you followed, they want to see the simple explanations, and be reminded of things that they know. Don't make your audience squirm because you are explaining something poorly, or have horrible mispelings, or unreadable transparencies. Make your audience happy to hear your talk!
Feibelman's fundamental principle is never overestimate your audience. No matter how many degrees they have, how many scientific papers they have published, or how many courses they have taught, those frightening looking people in the audience want a complete performance. We don't mind hearing things we already understand. In fact it will make your audience feel good to understand something. We have never seen a colleague walk out of a talk and say ``That talk was horrible. I understood everything that was in it.''
The opening lines of a talk set the tone for the rest of it. The main points you want to get across is that you have some advanced understanding of a physics topic, and that you know what context it fits into (relative to the whole field of physics).
Do not simply launch into a discussion of your thesis results. After a short introduction to your general field, give an overview of the methods you used, and, perhaps, a hint at what your conclusions are. Since your talk is short, a 3-4 slide introduction is probably sufficient.
Be aware of how you appear to your audience. Speak clearly, and loudly enough to be heard in the back of the room. Be enthusiastic about your project, and confident in your presentation.
Time is of the essence in giving a talk. You want to be certain to convey your main message before your talk is over. Rehearsal is the key! It will tell you how many slides can be put into your talk, and will give you confidence about what you want to say. A good ballpark figure is 10-14 slides for a 20 minute talk.
Required elements. Your first slide should be a title slide, which contains the title of your talk, your name, your advisor's and collaborator's names, and the date. The second slide is an outline slide. One way to get a message across is to do what is done in the army. First you tell them what you are going to tell them, then you tell them, then you tell them what you told them. An outline slide gives an overview of your talk, and lets your audience know what you will cover. The body of the talks is next. Your talk will end with a conclusion slide. What did you accomplish with your research? What are the open directions for future work?
A note on style. Much of the information conveyed during your talk will be from the figures. Experimentalists should include clear schematic diagrams of their apparatus, which explain how different parts of the
apparatus work.
Do not put many equations in your talk! Your audience will not be able to understand anything but the most simple equations. There is no point to showing a complicated mess of equations. It may be that your research did require a complicated mess of equations, but they belong in an appendix to your thesis, not here.
WRITE BIG. There are two reasons for this. One it will make your slides easily readable by anyone in the audience. Second, it will limit you as to how much you can include in any one slide.
Rehearse, Rehearse, and Rehearse your talk again.
Acknowledgments The advice given in this handout is based on material
from the American Physical Society and from A Ph.D. is not enough by
Peter Feibelman. It has been assembled by J. Freericks and A. Liu,
and modified by J. S. Urbach.
The objective of your writing assignments is to illustrate that you are doing or have done, and that you understand how your specific project fits within broader fields of physics. We want to see that you understand why your research is important, and that you can explain it to a fellow physics major.
Scientific writing is not easy; you must work at it. We have provided some guidelines and advice that should help you in your efforts.
(1) The hardest thing about scientific writing is to explain complicated concepts in a way that someone else can understand. This is no easy task; be prepared to revise your writing many times to achieve clarity.
(2) ``A picture is worth a thousand words.'' It is very difficult to construct good self-explanatory figures and captions, but they are worth the effort. There are many possibilities in constructing a figure. (i) Put more than one curve, each clearly labelled on a plot. (ii) Use an inset in the figure to show a geometry, a blow-up of a curve, or an experimental setup. (iii) Put two figures on top of or next to each other in order to gain enhanced understanding from the fact that the eye can directly compare them.
(3) The figure caption is an integral part of the figure. The editorial style of the caption is as follows: The first ``sentence'' of a caption is not a sentence but a label (i.e. no verb). All subsequent sentences must be sentences (i.e. subject, verb, and object). The figure with its caption must be able to stand on its own. Don't say important things can be found in the text.
(4) The fundamental unit of writing is a sentence. ``Use the active voice; it has more impact.'' If you doubt this, contrast the sentence above (actually two sentences joined by a semicolon) with its passive voice alternate: ``the active voice is to be preferred for its greater impact.'' Every sentence must be understandable on its own terms. If you find yourself saying ``A second sentence will make this first one clear,'' go back and rewrite the first until it is clear on its own.
(5) A paragraph consists of sentences assembled to make a single point. If you discover two (or more!) points in one paragraph, break it up. There is no minimum number of sentences in a paragraph.
(6) Paragraphs can be constructed in several ways. (i) The most conventional and easiest pattern for a scientific writer is to start with a sentence that gives the point to be made. Subsequent sentences develop the argument so that by the end of the paragraph the point is made. (ii) Alternately the paragraph has a smooth introduction from the last paragraph and then goes into an argument whose concluding sentence is the point of the paragraph. Use this less often than (i). (iii) Really brilliant writers can place the point of a paragraph in the middle and still be clear. Neither you nor I are that good. If you find the main point in the middle of a paragraph, rewrite!
(7) Tricks of the trade. To help the reader find things in the paper, consider using: (i) an italicized (or underlined) phrase at the beginning of the paragraph to alert the reader to the subject matter (as we did here), (ii) numbered subpoints so the reader can easily find them (as we have done several times), (iii) display equations (as opposed to inline equations) to define the most important symbols, and (iv) detailed labels on figures to identify curves.
(8) The most common style errors are: (1) Using different symbols or phrases for the same concept. Once you carefully pick a symbol or phrase stick to it; do not redefine your notation; (2) Omitting the hyphens from unit modifiers. (Definition: a unit modifier is two or more adjectives or nouns which as a whole serve as a single adjective. Put hyphens between parts of a unit modifier.) Example: spin-polarized neutrons.
(9) The proposal must be thorough, but the writing should be concise, succinct. Do not underestimate the power of the simple declarative sentence. Shun flowery language, technical jargon, and unexplained terms or acronyms. Do not assume your reader will automatically understand abbreviations such as XAFS or WIMPS's; define these terms precisely--- x-ray absorption fine structure (XAFS), weakly interacting massive particles (WIMP).
(10) Include only necessary equations! There is a terrible tendency to include lots of equations. The best research proposals include no equations at all, and your final paper should include only equations that are necessary to understand results you are presenting. If you feel you need a bunch of equations, try making a figure or a table that indicates the procedure. Self-explanatory figures demonstrate that you know what you are doing. (We recognize that it is difficult to construct good figures and nearly impossible to construct good tables.)
Acknowledgments The advice given in this handout is based on advice distributed by Prof. J. Wilkins of the Ohio State University Physics Department and by the Research Corporation. It has been collated and assembled by J. Freericks and A. Liu, with minor modifications by J. S. Urbach.
This is a list of year-long student research projects from the last few years (faculty
advisor in parentheses). Winners of the physics department research award are
listed in bold.
2007:
2006:
Georgetown University Department of Physics: Programmatic Learning Goals
The programmatic learning goals for the majors and minors in our department include both general and specific objectives.
1. Overall knowledge and capabilities
• Knowledge of and ability to use various problem solving strategies
• Ability to justify and explain specific approaches to solving problems
• Ability to synthesize knowledge from different areas of physics
• Ability to work in teams
• Development of written and oral communication skills
• Application of knowledge to independent research projects.
• Tools and encouragement to become life-long learners
• Understanding of when numerical calculations are indicated and the ability to carry them out.
2. Specific physics knowledge
Develop a solid understanding of physics, both conceptual understanding and the ability to solve problems in the following areas.
• Introductory mechanics: fundamental principles governing momentum, energy, and angular momentum, with applications to dynamics of systems interacting via gravitational, electric, and contact forces; connections between atomic nature of matter and mechanics of macroscopic systems.
• Electricity and magnetism: conceptual understanding of electric and magnetic fields, interaction of charges and fields, Maxwell’s equations, electromagnetic radiation, simple electronic circuits.
• Statistical physics: basic concepts of energy, entropy, temperature and the heat capacity of solids.
• Modern physics: special relativity, inertial reference frames, time dilation, length contraction, paradoxes, principle of equivalence; basic quantum mechanics, wave-particle duality, Schroedinger's equation, the hydrogen atom.
• Mathematical methods: develop understanding of and ability to solve problems in ordinary and partial differential equations, complex variables, linear algebra, vector algebra and calculus, partial differentiation, multiple integrals, Fourier series, integral transforms, calculus of variations, and probability.
• Experimental physics: error analysis, curve fitting, data analysis, simple electronic circuits, implementation of fundamental experiments such as optical spectroscopy, electron diffraction and interferometry; learn basic experimental methods such as lock-in amplification, analog to digital conversion, image capture, etc.
3. Advanced physics knowledge
In addition, our goal is to give students the opportunities to explore in depth two or more specialty areas at a level sufficient to prepare them for graduate coursework. These areas include biophysics, optics, microelectronics, advanced classical mechanics, advanced statistical mechanics, computational physics, particle physics, cosmology, nanoscience and soft matter physics.
4. Specific goals by degree:
B.S. students: Acquire sufficient knowledge and skills for students to be able to gain admission to and succeed in good quality physics graduate programs (top 100 physics grad schools).
A.B students: Acquire sufficient knowledge and skills for students to be able to gain admission to and succeed in graduate programs in other fields (e.g. medical school) or in jobs in industry and national labs.
Minors: Acquire a basic knowledge of physics sufficient to successfully apply to careers in science related areas, e.g. high tech business, secondary education, etc.