physics major thesis

Home > Arts and Sciences > Physics > PHYSICSETD

Physics Theses, Dissertations, and Masters Projects

Theses/dissertations from 2023 2023.

Ab Initio Computations Of Structural Properties In Solids By Auxiliary Field Quantum Monte Carlo , Siyuan Chen

Constraining Of The Minerνa Medium Energy Neutrino Flux Using Neutrino-Electron Scattering , Luis Zazueta

Experimental Studies Of Neutral Particles And The Isotope Effect In The Edge Of Tokamak Plasmas , Ryan Chaban

From The Hubbard Model To Coulomb Interactions: Quantum Monte Carlo Computations In Strongly Correlated Systems , Zhi-Yu Xiao

Theses/Dissertations from 2022 2022

Broadband Infrared Microspectroscopy and Nanospectroscopy of Local Material Properties: Experiment and Modeling , Patrick McArdle

Edge Fueling And Neutral Density Studies Of The Alcator C-Mod Tokamak Using The Solps-Iter Code , Richard M. Reksoatmodjo

Electronic Transport In Topological Superconducting Heterostructures , Joseph Jude Cuozzo

Inclusive and Inelastic Scattering in Neutrino-Nucleus Interactions , Amy Filkins

Investigation Of Stripes, Spin Density Waves And Superconductivity In The Ground State Of The Two-Dimensional Hubbard Model , Hao Xu

Partial Wave Analysis Of Strange Mesons Decaying To K + Π − Π + In The Reaction Γp → K + Π + Π − Λ(1520) And The Commissioning Of The Gluex Dirc Detector , Andrew Hurley

Partial Wave Analysis of the ωπ− Final State Photoproduced at GlueX , Amy Schertz

Quantum Sensing For Low-Light Imaging , Savannah Cuozzo

Radiative Width of K*(892) from Lattice Quantum Chromodynamics , Archana Radhakrishnan

Theses/Dissertations from 2021 2021

AC & DC Zeeman Interferometric Sensing With Ultracold Trapped Atoms On A Chip , Shuangli Du

Calculation Of Gluon Pdf In The Nucleon Using Pseudo-Pdf Formalism With Wilson Flow Technique In LQCD , Md Tanjib Atique Khan

Dihadron Beam Spin Asymmetries On An Unpolarized Hydrogen Target With Clas12 , Timothy Barton Hayward

Excited J-- Resonances In Meson-Meson Scattering From Lattice Qcd , Christopher Johnson

Forward & Off-Forward Parton Distributions From Lattice Qcd , Colin Paul Egerer

Light-Matter Interactions In Quasi-Two-Dimensional Geometries , David James Lahneman

Proton Spin Structure from Simultaneous Monte Carlo Global QCD Analysis , Yiyu Zhou

Radiofrequency Ac Zeeman Trapping For Neutral Atoms , Andrew Peter Rotunno

Theses/Dissertations from 2020 2020

A First-Principles Study of the Nature of the Insulating Gap in VO2 , Christopher Hendriks

Competing And Cooperating Orders In The Three-Band Hubbard Model: A Comprehensive Quantum Monte Carlo And Generalized Hartree-Fock Study , Adam Chiciak

Development Of Quantum Information Tools Based On Multi-Photon Raman Processes In Rb Vapor , Nikunjkumar Prajapati

Experiments And Theory On Dynamical Hamiltononian Monodromy , Matthew Perry Nerem

Growth Engineering And Characterization Of Vanadium Dioxide Films For Ultraviolet Detection , Jason Andrew Creeden

Insulator To Metal Transition Dynamics Of Vanadium Dioxide Thin Films , Scott Madaras

Quantitative Analysis Of EKG And Blood Pressure Waveforms , Denise Erin McKaig

Study Of Scalar Extensions For Physics Beyond The Standard Model , Marco Antonio Merchand Medina

Theses/Dissertations from 2019 2019

Beyond the Standard Model: Flavor Symmetry, Nonperturbative Unification, Quantum Gravity, and Dark Matter , Shikha Chaurasia

Electronic Properties of Two-Dimensional Van Der Waals Systems , Yohanes Satrio Gani

Extraction and Parametrization of Isobaric Trinucleon Elastic Cross Sections and Form Factors , Scott Kevin Barcus

Interfacial Forces of 2D Materials at the Oil–Water Interface , William Winsor Dickinson

Scattering a Bose-Einstein Condensate Off a Modulated Barrier , Andrew James Pyle

Topics in Proton Structure: BSM Answers to its Radius Puzzle and Lattice Subtleties within its Momentum Distribution , Michael Chaim Freid

Theses/Dissertations from 2018 2018

A Measurement of Nuclear Effects in Deep Inelastic Scattering in Neutrino-Nucleus Interactions , Anne Norrick

Applications of Lattice Qcd to Hadronic Cp Violation , David Brantley

Charge Dynamics in the Metallic and Superconducting States of the Electron-Doped 122-Type Iron Arsenides , Zhen Xing

Dynamics of Systems With Hamiltonian Monodromy , Daniel Salmon

Exotic Phases in Attractive Fermions: Charge Order, Pairing, and Topological Signatures , Peter Rosenberg

Extensions of the Standard Model Higgs Sector , Richard Keith Thrasher

First Measurements of the Parity-Violating and Beam-Normal Single-Spin Asymmetries in Elastic Electron-Aluminum Scattering , Kurtis David Bartlett

Lattice Qcd for Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay: Short Range Operator Contributions , Henry Jose Monge Camacho

Probe of Electroweak Interference Effects in Non-Resonant Inelastic Electron-Proton Scattering , James Franklyn Dowd

Proton Spin Structure from Monte Carlo Global Qcd Analyses , Jacob Ethier

Searching for A Dark Photon in the Hps Experiment , Sebouh Jacob Paul

Theses/Dissertations from 2017 2017

A global normal form for two-dimensional mode conversion , David Gregory Johnston

Computational Methods of Lattice Boltzmann Mhd , Christopher Robert Flint

Computational Studies of Strongly Correlated Quantum Matter , Hao Shi

Determination of the Kinematics of the Qweak Experiment and Investigation of an Atomic Hydrogen Møller Polarimeter , Valerie Marie Gray

Disconnected Diagrams in Lattice Qcd , Arjun Singh Gambhir

Formulating Schwinger-Dyson Equations for Qed Propagators in Minkowski Space , Shaoyang Jia

Highly-Correlated Electron Behavior in Niobium and Niobium Compound Thin Films , Melissa R. Beebe

Infrared Spectroscopy and Nano-Imaging of La0.67Sr0.33Mno3 Films , Peng Xu

Investigation of Local Structures in Cation-Ordered Microwave Dielectric a Solid-State Nmr and First Principle Calculation Study , Rony Gustam Kalfarisi

Measurement of the Elastic Ep Cross Section at Q2 = 0.66, 1.10, 1.51 and 1.65 Gev2 , YANG WANG

Modeling The Gross-Pitaevskii Equation using The Quantum Lattice Gas Method , Armen M. Oganesov

Optical Control of Multi-Photon Coherent Interactions in Rubidium Atoms , Gleb Vladimirovich Romanov

Plasmonic Approaches and Photoemission: Ag-Based Photocathodes , Zhaozhu Li

Quantum and Classical Manifestation of Hamiltonian Monodromy , Chen Chen

Shining Light on The Phase Transitions of Vanadium Dioxide , Tyler J. Huffman

Superconducting Thin Films for The Enhancement of Superconducting Radio Frequency Accelerator Cavities , Matthew Burton

Theses/Dissertations from 2016 2016

Ac Zeeman Force with Ultracold Atoms , Charles Fancher

A Measurement of the Parity-Violating Asymmetry in Aluminum and its Contribution to A Measurement of the Proton's Weak Charge , Joshua Allen Magee

An improved measurement of the Muon Neutrino charged current Quasi-Elastic cross-section on Hydrocarbon at Minerva , Dun Zhang

Applications of High Energy Theory to Superconductivity and Cosmic Inflation , Zhen Wang

A Precision Measurement of the Weak Charge of Proton at Low Q^2: Kinematics and Tracking , Siyuan Yang

Compton Scattering Polarimetry for The Determination of the Proton’S Weak Charge Through Measurements of the Parity-Violating Asymmetry of 1H(E,e')P , Juan Carlos Cornejo

Disorder Effects in Dirac Heterostructures , Martin Alexander Rodriguez-Vega

Electron Neutrino Appearance in the Nova Experiment , Ji Liu

Experimental Apparatus for Quantum Pumping with a Bose-Einstein Condensate. , Megan K. Ivory

Investigating Proton Spin Structure: A Measurement of G_2^p at Low Q^2 , Melissa Ann Cummings

Neutrino Flux Prediction for The Numi Beamline , Leonidas Aliaga Soplin

Quantitative Analysis of Periodic Breathing and Very Long Apnea in Preterm Infants. , Mary A. Mohr

Resolution Limits of Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry with Pulsed Source , Guangzhi Qu

Solving Problems of the Standard Model through Scale Invariance, Dark Matter, Inflation and Flavor Symmetry , Raymundo Alberto Ramos

Study of Spatial Structure of Squeezed Vacuum Field , Mi Zhang

Study of Variations of the Dynamics of the Metal-Insulator Transition of Thin Films of Vanadium Dioxide with An Ultra-Fast Laser , Elizabeth Lee Radue

Thin Film Approaches to The Srf Cavity Problem: Fabrication and Characterization of Superconducting Thin Films , Douglas Beringer

Turbulent Particle Transport in H-Mode Plasmas on Diii-D , Xin Wang

Theses/Dissertations from 2015 2015

Ballistic atom pumps , Tommy Byrd

Determination of the Proton's Weak Charge via Parity Violating e-p Scattering. , Joshua Russell Hoskins

Electronic properties of chiral two-dimensional materials , Christopher Lawrence Charles Triola

Heavy flavor interactions and spectroscopy from lattice quantum chromodynamics , Zachary S. Brown

Some properties of meson excited states from lattice QCD , Ekaterina V. Mastropas

Sterile Neutrino Search with MINOS. , Alena V. Devan

Ultracold rubidium and potassium system for atom chip-based microwave and RF potentials , Austin R. Ziltz

Theses/Dissertations from 2014 2014

Enhancement of MS Signal Processing for Improved Cancer Biomarker Discovery , Qian Si

Whispering-gallery mode resonators for nonlinear and quantum optical applications , Matthew Thomas Simons

Theses/Dissertations from 2013 2013

Applications of Holographic Dualities , Dylan Judd Albrecht

A search for a new gauge boson , Eric Lyle Jensen

Experimental Generation and Manipulation of Quantum Squeezed Vacuum via Polarization Self-Rotation in Rb Vapor , Travis Scott Horrom

Low Energy Tests of the Standard Model , Benjamin Carl Rislow

Magnetic Order and Dimensional Crossover in Optical Lattices with Repulsive Interaction , Jie Xu

Multi-meson systems from Lattice Quantum Chromodynamics , Zhifeng Shi

Theses/Dissertations from 2012 2012

Dark matter in the heavens and at colliders: Models and constraints , Reinard Primulando

Measurement of Single and Double Spin Asymmetries in p(e, e' pi(+/-,0))X Semi-Inclusive Deep-Inelastic Scattering , Sucheta Shrikant Jawalkar

NMR study of paramagnetic nano-checkerboard superlattices , Christopher andrew Maher

Parity-violating asymmetry in the nucleon to delta transition: A Study of Inelastic Electron Scattering in the G0 Experiment , Carissa Lee Capuano

Studies of polarized and unpolarized helium -3 in the presence of alkali vapor , Kelly Anita Kluttz

• Collections
• Disciplines

Advanced Search

• Notify me via email or RSS

Author Corner

• Physics departmenal website

About Scholarworks

• Honors Theses
• W&M Libraries
• VIMS Hargis Library
• W&M Law School Repository
• Research Guides

Home | About | FAQ | My Account | Accessibility Statement

Privacy Copyright

• Skip to main content
• Skip to main navigation

Physics Department

• About the Department 
• Organizational Chart
• Administrative Staff
• Contact and Visitor Info
• Department Directory
• Diversity and Inclusion
• Faculty Handbook
• Physics Lecture Demonstrations
• Academics 
• Undergraduate
• Affiliated Facilities
• Faculty Areas
• Research 
• Affiliated Faculty
• Faculty Awards & Special Projects
• Faculty Directory 
• Condensed Matter Seminar
• Department Calendar
• Get Involved!
• Divisional Development Office
• Online Giving
• Physics Advising Appointments

Home / academic-programs / Undergraduate / Senior Thesis

Senior Thesis

Changes for the senior thesis - effective 2020-2021:.

Starting with the 2020-2021 catalog, physics majors can satisfy their Disciplinary Communications (DC) requirement in one of two ways:

• Complete PHYS 182 “Scientific Communication” or
• Complete PHYS 195A “Senior Thesis I” and 195B “Senior Thesis II" 

This means that the senior thesis is optional for new students; you have the choice of taking PHYS 182 or writing a senior thesis in PHYS 195AB. If you are a continuing student, you can choose to graduate under these new catalog requirements as long as you will satisfy the other requirements. (Note that the new capstone courses are 134, 135, 135AB, or 136. You must take one of these lab courses to graduate under the new catalog requirements.)

What is the Senior Thesis?

The senior thesis is an option to satisfy the DC requirement for graduation in the Physics, Physics (Astrophysics), and Applied Physics majors. Students work on their senior thesis as coursework for PHYS 195A and PHYS 195B. The senior thesis is a clear, logical presentation of some independent, physics-related work done by the student under the supervision of a thesis advisor.  Possible forms of the thesis include: results of the student's experimental, theoretical, or numerical investigations (often in connection with on-going research at UCSC); a review of a particular topic in physics; or a significant extension of class material (for example a Physics 134 or 135 experiment). The thesis must display understanding of physics at the level of an upper-division physics course. In conclusion, the senior thesis may range between a literature review on a topic that the student will choose in agreement with an advisor and the representation of significant research effort. Examples of senior theses can be found here. These theses use LaTeX template files for the standard UC thesis format , with examples of figures, tables, references, etc.  The package has been tested with the graphical Web tool Overleaf ( overleaf.com ) but may also work with stand-alone LaTeX or other interfaces.  Please report errors to Prof. David Smith .

The Value to You of a Senior Thesis

The senior thesis is designed both as an option to complete the undergraduate physics experience and as an opportunity to develop writing and research skills that will be important for your career in physics and beyond. Complementing standard physics courses, the senior thesis emphasizes independent decision-making, activity-scheduling, and presenting of scientific material in a well-written form. It allows you to explore and develop subjects of your own choosing and develops your ability to communicate your work effective ly. Students considering graduate school are encouraged to complete a senior thesis. A reference letter from your thesis advisor will be a valuable addition to your graduate school application. Furthermore, yo ur transcript will reflect the fact that you completed the requirements by writing a senior thesis.

The Senior Thesis and PHYS 195A and PHYS 195B

The PHYS 195 course is designed to guide you through writing your senior thesis. The structure, format, and content of a senior thesis are discussed in detail. Grammatical skills, effective writing, and literature search techniques are developed. You will plan your topic and develop reference lists, outlines, and drafts. The thesis approved by your thesis advisor must be submitted before the end of PHYS 195B in order to pass the course. The se two courses should be taken in your thesis advisor’s section during the two quarters you intend to write your thesis. This means that you must identify a thesis advisor, who agrees to guide you in your thesis research and writing, before you enroll in Physics 195A. The Physics Department can help you find an advisor if you choose to write a senior thesis.

Timeline for the Senior Thesis:

Finding  a research project.

Students are encouraged to begin a thesis project between 1 and 2 years before their expected graduation. You should have identified a thesis advisor and research project at least 3 quarters before your expected graduation. As you choose a research project and begin your work, remember that unexpected results -- including null results -- are common in science. Even if your work does not yield the conclusion you first expected, there is great value in documenting and discussing your research work in the senior thesis. 

Enrolling in PHYS 195AB

Enroll in your thesis advisor’s section of PHYS 195A and PHYS 195B during the two consecutive quarters you plan to work on the thesis. For example, if you are graduating in Spring quarter, you can take PHYS 195A in Winter and PHYS 195B in Spring. (If you are graduating in Fall, enroll in PHYS 195A in Spring and PHYS 195B in Fall.) Make sure to leave enough room in your schedule for these 5-credit courses, as they reflect the amount of work you will need to do on your thesis.

Completing the Senior Thesis

The senior thesis must be submitted before the end of PHYS 195B in order to pass the course , and good progress must be made throughout the course, with first full drafts required in Week 7 of the quarter. If the thesis is not submitted in acceptable form by the end of the course, the instructor/advisor may decide to grade the work as Incomplete; in that case the usual policies apply for removing an Incomplete grade before it becomes a failing grade.

Physics Department Thesis Honors Procedure

The senior thesis of a physics, applied physics, or astrophysics major may be given an honors designation, an honor that will be mentioned in the graduation ceremony. In order that all of our majors have an opportunity to receive the thesis honors designation, we have adopted the following procedure:

1)  No later than June 3rd, 2022 the thesis advisor may provide a nomination of the honors designation to the chair.This is best done at the time the thesis advisor signs the thesis. It is important that all faculty be aware of the honors designation and give consideration to all theses that they sign.

2)  The Department Chair  or their designated assistants review the advisor’s recommendation within the context of the full set of senior theses received and either accept or reject the nomination.

3)  The honors designation is forwarded to the Physics Advisor at [email protected] to be recorded.

4)  Late theses, for example those completed over the summer, may still be given an honors designation, but no mention of that will be possible at the student’s graduation ceremony.

The following general criteria should be considered when nominating a thesis for honors:

• Academic Advising
• Major Information
• Frosh Information
• Transfer Student Information
• Scholarships and Awards
• Research, Internships and Jobs
• Academic Support and Resources
• Report an accessibility barrier
• Land Acknowledgment
• Accreditation

Last modified: December 4, 2023 128.114.113.87

• Diversity & Inclusion
• Community Values
• Visiting MIT Physics
• People Directory
• Faculty Awards
• History of MIT Physics
• Policies and Procedures
• Departmental Committees
• Academic Programs Team
• Finance Team
• Meet the Academic Programs Team
• Prospective Students
• Requirements
• Employment Opportunities
• Research Opportunities
• Graduate Admissions
• Doctoral Guidelines
• Financial Support
• Graduate Student Resources
• PhD in Physics, Statistics, and Data Science
• MIT LEAPS Program
• for Undergraduate Students
• for Graduate Students
• Mentoring Programs Info for Faculty
• Non-degree Programs
• Student Awards & Honors
• Astrophysics Observation, Instrumentation, and Experiment
• Astrophysics Theory
• Atomic Physics
• Condensed Matter Experiment
• Condensed Matter Theory
• High Energy and Particle Theory
• Nuclear Physics Experiment
• Particle Physics Experiment
• Quantum Gravity and Field Theory
• Quantum Information Science
• Strong Interactions and Nuclear Theory
• Center for Theoretical Physics
• Affiliated Labs & Centers
• Program Founder
• Competition
• Donor Profiles
• Patrons of Physics Fellows Society
• Giving Opportunties
• physics@mit Journal: Fall 2023 Edition
• Events Calendar
• Physics Colloquia
• Search for: Search

Thesis Information

Upcoming thesis defenses.

If you are defending this term and do not see your information listed, please contact Sydney Miller in the APO.

Forming a Thesis Committee

When : Doctoral Students – After completing the written and oral exams and generally by the beginning of their third Year of study. Forming their committees at this stage will allow students to consult with all members of the committee during their studies and can provide additional advice and mentorship for them.

How : Register for thesis research under subject number 8.ThG, form a thesis committee, meet with full committee, and submit a formal thesis proposal to the department.

Thesis Committee Formation

Student should consult with their Research Supervisor to discuss the Doctoral Thesis Committee Proposal Form which will name the 3 required members of the Physics Doctoral Committee and a descriptive preliminary thesis title. 

Doctoral Committee must include 3 members with MIT Physics faculty appointments:

• Committee Chair: Research Supervisor from MIT Physics Faculty or Research Supervisor from outside MIT Physics + Co-Supervisor/Chair from MIT Physics Faculty
• Selected Reader: from MIT Physics Faculty (in the same/similar research area, selected by student and supervisor)
• Assigned Reader: from MIT Physics Faculty (in different research area, selected by the Department’s faculty Graduate Coordinator.)

The Form should include the names of the Student, Chair, and Selected Reader and a Thesis Title, when it is forwarded to the Academic Programs Office via email to [email protected] and Sydney will work with Faculty Graduate Coordinator Will Detmold , who will identify the Assigned Reader.

Following the consultation with their supervisor, the student should reach out to the proposed Selected Reader to secure an electronic signature or email confirmation in lieu of signature to serve on this committee. (Form should include either signature or date of email agreement.) It will take approximately 2-3 weeks before an Assigned Reader will be added and Sydney will provide an introduction to this final member of your Doctoral Committee. Please note: you may not form your committee and defend your thesis in the same semester.

Thesis Committee Meeting and Proposal

Once the Thesis Committee is established, the student should send all members a draft description of the proposed thesis topic and set up the first committee meeting with all members attending together in real time. A formal 2-page written Thesis Proposal should result from this important meeting and be sent to Sydney for the student’s academic record.  

Thesis Proposal

You should discuss your thesis research with your committee members all together in real time at your first committee meeting. Following this full discussion about your thesis topic, please write up your formal Thesis Proposal to reflect the mutually-agreed thesis plans and forward the Proposal to the graduate program at the APO using [email protected] for Sydney to document in the department’s academic records.

Thesis Research

Following the formation of the doctoral committee and submission of the thesis proposal, the student will continue to work on their thesis research in consultation with their Research Supervisor and other members of their Committee. This important communication paves the way for the thesis defense and degree completion.

When students are ready to defend, they should complete an ‘ Application for Advanced Degree ’ with the Registrar and schedule a thesis defense with all committee members attending in real time, whether in person or by video. Announcements for the defense will be coordinated by the Academic Programs Office and students should be in close contact with Sydney Miller during their final term or study.

Further details about this last stage of your studies will be available separately.

Thesis Defense

If there is even a slight possibility that you may finish this term, please complete an Application for Advanced Degree at the Registrar’s website at the beginning of the term. It is easy to remove your name if your plans change, but this timely step will avoid late fees!

Once you have scheduled your defense, please send this information to Sydney at [email protected] :

• Thesis Title:
• Committee Members:
• Meeting Details: (can be sent in the final week before the defense)

She will create the email notifications for our physics community and the MIT Events and Physics Calendar listings. This information you provide her is also used to generate the defense grade sheet for your defense.

Please send your committee members a thesis draft to help them prepare for your defense and plan to spend around two weeks making thesis revisions after your successful defense. The date you submit your thesis document to the department will determine whether it is for a Fall, Spring, or Summer degree.

Thesis Formatting

Archival copies of all theses must adhere carefully to principles specified by the MIT Libraries for formatting and submission. For complete information about how to format your thesis, refer to the  Specifications for Thesis Preparation .

Graduate Program Coordinator Sydney Miller can review your title page and abstract for accuracy before you submit the thesis. You may send these to her at  [email protected].

Required Signatures and Documentation

• Signatures:  The MIT Archives require an electronic PDF document and the Department needs a separate additional stand-alone title page with electronic/scanned signatures of   the student, research supervisor, and co-supervisor (if applicable). Theses are accepted by Associate Department Head, Professor  Lindley Winslow . Please send your documents to  [email protected]  and the APO staff will forward your thesis submitted to the MIT Library Archives.
• Thesis defense grade sheets:  Before accepting a PhD thesis, the Academic Programs Office must have a signed thesis defense grade sheet from the research supervisor indicating a “Pass” on the thesis defense.
• Thesis letter grade:  Before accepting an SM thesis, Academic Programs must have received a letter or email from the research supervisor, assigning a final thesis grade of A, B, or C.

Finalizing and Submitting your Thesis to MIT

Departments collect the thesis documents on behalf of the MIT Thesis Library Archives and Physics graduate students will submit their thesis to Sydney Miller.  Review overall information from MIT about  thesis specifications and format .

Please see the attached doctoral title page format for Physics and send your draft of the title/cover page and abstract to Sydney for review and any necessary edits. Once these are approved, please prepare the full document, with pagination appropriate for double-sided printing.

Theses may be completed and signed on any date of the year and the degree requirements are completed when the thesis is submitted. This is the final day of student status and payroll. (International students are eligible for Optional Practical Training starting on the following day.)

MIT awards degrees at the end of each term:

• Fall Term degree is in February. (Theses due second Friday in January.)
• Spring Term degree is in May. (Theses due second Friday in May.)
• Summer Term degree is in September. (Theses due second Friday in August.)

Thesis submissions are electronic files and you will submit the following to Sydney:

• A complete thesis document, without signatures
• A title page with electronic signatures from yourself, your supervisor (and co-supervisor, if required). Sydney will work with the Associate Head, Lindley Winslow , whose signature is required for the department and this will be added after you submit your document to the department/Sydney.
• A separate abstract page

Doctoral students also complete and submit the  Proquest/UMI form  (PDF), with attached title page and abstract (no signatures).

In addition to submitting your thesis to the department for the library archives, you may also  add your thesis to DSpace .

Digital Submission Guidelines

All theses are being accepted by the MIT Libraries in  digital form only . Digital theses are submitted electronically to the Physics Department, along with a separate signed title page. Students on the degree list will receive specific guidance about submission from the Academic Programs Office.

General Thesis Policies

All theses are archived in the MIT Libraries. An archival fee must be paid before a student’s final candidacy for a degree can be officially approved.

After all required materials have been submitted to the Academic Programs Office, a thesis receipt will be sent by email.

Thesis Due Dates

Check the MIT Academic Calendar for deadlines to submit your online degree application.

Thesis submission deadlines Graduating in May: Second Friday in May Graduating in September: Second Friday in August Graduating in February: Second Friday in January We strongly recommend that your defense be scheduled at least three weeks prior to the submission date. Consult with Academic Administrator Shannon Larkin to determine your thesis submission timeline.

Thesis FAQs

The information on this page is applicable for both PhD and Masters (with the exception of an Oral defense) degree candidates.

How do I submit a Thesis Proposal? When is it due?

Students register for thesis research units and assemble a thesis committee in the term following passing the Oral Exam.

The first step is for the student and research supervisor to agree on a thesis topic. An initial Graduate Thesis Proposal Cover Sheet (PDF) (Master’s Degree candidates should see process in section below) must be submitted to Academic Programs by the second week of the term.

The form requires

• an initial thesis title
• the name and signature of the research supervisor
• the name of one additional reader for the thesis committee agreed upon by the student and advisor

A third reader from the MIT Physics faculty, who is not in the same research area but whose background makes him or her an appropriate departmental representative on the committee, will be assigned by the Graduate Program Faculty Coordinator. If a student has a co-supervisor (because the main supervisor is from outside the MIT Physics faculty), the thesis committee will consist of four people: research supervisor, co-supervisor, selected reader, and assigned reader.

After the student is notified of the assigned reader, he or she should convene an initial thesis committee meeting within the same term. The student should also register for 8.THG beginning in this term, and in each term thereafter. 8.THG registration should be for up to 36 units, depending on whether the student is also still taking classes and/or receiving academic credit because of a teaching assistantship. All post-qual students should routinely register for a standard total 36 units.

Master’s degree candidates should complete an SM Thesis Proposal Cover Sheet (PDF). A second reader for the Master’s degree thesis committee is assigned by the Graduate Program Faculty Coordinator. Note that there is no public defense required for an SM degree.

See the Doctoral Guidelines for additional information.

I am going to graduate soon–what do I have to do in terms of paperwork etc.?

Please reference the Registrar’s complete graduation checklist . Students should reference this list at the START of the semester prior to graduation. Your research area’s administrative office and the Physics APO will also help you manage the final stage of your degree.

How do I get on/off the Degree List?

Fill out the Degree Application through the student section of WebSIS . Petitioning to be on the degree list for a particular commencement is required. Note that it is easier to be removed from the degree list to be added, so students are encouraged to apply for the degree list if there is any reasonable chance they will complete the PhD in the coming term.

The WebSIS degree list is used to communicate information about thesis defense announcements and grade sheets, thesis formats, and completion dates, so it is important to file a degree application to be on the list in a timely way. The standard deadline for filing a degree application without being assessed a late fee is the Friday of the first week of the term in which a student anticipates graduating. Removing oneself from the degree list requires an email to Academic Programs .

When is my thesis due? Can I get an extension?

Students can defend and submit their thesis on any dates that work for their committees, but MIT confers degrees only 3 times each year: in May, September and February. Thesis submission deadlines Graduating in May: Second Friday in May Graduating in September: Second Friday in August Graduating in February: Second Friday in January We strongly recommend that your defense be scheduled at least three weeks prior to the submission date. Consult with Academic Administrator Shannon Larkin to determine your thesis submission timeline.

Note that these deadlines are already more generous that the Institute thesis deadline. Students desiring extensions should contact the Academic Administrator, Shannon Larkin .

How do I find a room for my Thesis Defense?

Many Divisions have conference and/or seminar rooms which can be used for oral exams and defenses. These locations are recommended to keep your Thesis Defense comfortable and in familiar territory. Students who cannot book a room in their research area should contact Sydney Miller in the Physics APO to check availability of a Physics departmental conference room (often difficult to schedule due to heavy demand) or to help schedule a classroom through the Registrar’s Office.

When I submit my thesis to Physics Academic Programs, what do I need to bring?

Please refer to the Graduate Thesis Submission Guidelines .

Senior Thesis

Senior Theses must be submitted and approved by your advisor by the  last day of classes for the semester/term in which you need a grade for the thesis. Otherwise you can get a T grade until you complete it.

As a BS Physics or BS Physics & Astronomy major (not applied physics, though applied majors can do a thesis and take 498R or a capstone and take 492R), you are required to complete a senior thesis research project as part of your educational experience. You should start thinking about this experience early in your education. Here we've compiled answers to many of the questions that students ask about the senior thesis.

Why do I have to do a senior thesis?

Your work on a senior thesis is perhaps the closest thing to a "real-world" experience that you will have in college. Nobody solves textbook problems or takes exams for a living. Soon, others will judge you primarily by your creativity, initiative, and ability to obtain and communicate research results; your college grades will be superfluous. We designed the senior thesis requirement to prepare you for this new reality.

In your thesis, you will craft and define a problem (often with significant help from your advisor) which inevitably will be murky in the beginning. There will be no "answer at the back of the book" to lean on. You will have to find and explain the context for that problem, including a clear summary of the related works of others. You must justify why your research problem is worth pursuing. The research for a senior thesis will require initiative, imagination, and hard work to complete. Once completed, you will have the opportunity to develop a clear written description of your work and a coherent and concise argument for its conclusions.

You should know that the professors who made the senior thesis requirement added a significant burden to themselves by agreeing to mentor your research and edit your thesis. We are willing to do it because research and writing are essential to a successful career (even if you don't end up in physics), and they can only be mastered with practice.

How do I get started?

Read the first couple of chapters in these instructions for writing a senior thesis .  The document is formatted in the style of a senior thesis, and gives lots of good pointers for getting started on undergraduate research.

When should I start?

Get started right away. The most important first step is to get involved with a research group. Browse through the research opportunities listed on the research page and find something that interests you. Then contact the faculty member in charge of this research to see if they have space for you to join their group. Often faculty members have project ideas already thought of for you to work on. Usually there is a learning curve before you can do useful research, so you shouldn't expect to immediately start your senior thesis project. Join a group early so you can learn the ropes early in your program and have sufficient time and skills to complete a project that you find interesting.

What about an Honors thesis?

If you are working through the Honors Program, be aware that you can use the same thesis to satisfy the senior thesis requirement and the Honors thesis requirement. The research and writing process will be the same as for a regular senior thesis, but the Honors Program has a few additional requirements. Work with the Honors office to make sure you fulfill the honors requirements . You use the same formatting guidelines as the senior thesis for the Honors thesis, but you'll need to add a slightly different cover page. To fulfill the senior thesis requirement upload the thesis into the department online system. The only consideration here is that to fulfill the department requirement the honors thesis must have sufficient physics and astronomy material as determined by your advisor.

What is Phscs 498R?

You are required to take two credit hours of Phscs 498R to satisfy the senior thesis requirement. This course is the university's way of bookkeeping to make sure you finish your thesis before you graduate. There are no formal lectures or course materials for Phscs 498R (no class to attend), and you can register for the course any time during your research.  We recommend that you register for it during a semester when you are already paying full-time tuition so it won't cost you any extra money.  However, it can also be a convenient way to stay full-time without adding other classes.

To sign up for Phscs 498R please fill out this online form . For the senior thesis you may do research outside the department, but you must have a faculty member within the Department of Physics and Astronomy who will certify that there is a sufficient physics and/or astronomy content in the thesis to fulfill this requirement. You may sign-up for between 0.5-2 hours of Phscs 498R in a given semester, but you need to eventually take 2 total credits. If you need/want more credits than this for research, you can talk to your advisor about taking credits of 497R. Your 498R grade it based on your written document. You can earn a grade for research through 497R, though this is optional.

Your grade for Phscs 498R will be a "T" (which has no effect on your GPA) until you have submitted your final thesis. When you submit your final thesis a senior thesis coordinator will consult with your advisor and change the "T" to a normal letter grade reflecting your performance in the research and writing process. This is true for both Honors and Senior Theses.

How much work is involved?

This depends a lot on you, your advisor, and the project you choose. It's unrealistic to expect to complete a quality thesis in as little time as the minimum two credit hours of the 498R Senior Thesis requirement suggests. The research and writing typically take a few hundred hours (and students are often given financial support…see the student employment section). Talk in depth with your advisor to make sure you both have realistic expectations about the project.

Why so much focus on writing? This isn't English!

Good writing is foremost an exercise in clarity of thought. Everyone in physics at one time or another has experienced the frustration of being on the receiving end of a poor presentation, the natural result of insufficient attention paid to clear thought. No matter how well you understand physics and no matter how imaginative your research, if you cannot communicate your ideas clearly, they benefit no one. Good writing skills will be crucial in any career you choose. If you do not acquire them now, you will have to develop them later, most likely in an ad hoc fashion under embarrassing and unpleasant circumstances.

What is Physics 416?

Your senior thesis will probably be the most challenging writing that you do as an undergraduate. A thesis is much more involved than a final paper that you may write for other classes. The physics department has developed Physics 416 specifically to help you work through the thesis-writing process. We offer the course each Winter semester, and you need to have the research phase of your senior thesis essentially finished before you can enroll in the course. This class also fulfills the advanced writing requirement in GE, and will teach you many skills which will be directly useful in a physics career which are not covered in the general advanced writing classes.

Sometimes a student's research timetable doesn't lead to a finished result in time to allow participation in Physics 416. In these cases you can take the general advanced technical writing course through English (which is offered more frequently than Physics 416), and they will usually let you write a draft of your thesis as the final paper for the course. The following guide gives a good summary of how to write a senior thesis, which you should refer to whether taking Physics 416 or the general technical writing class:

• Instructions for writing a senior thesis

What format should I use for the written document?

The submitted PDF of your thesis will need to conform to the formatting standards illustrated by these sample documents:

• Minimal sample showing the format of a senior thesis
• Minimal sample showing the format of an honors thesis
• Thesis archive with many examples of theses

These example documents were created using the LaTeX typesetting system, and some of the instructions in the sample text are specific to that system. You may write the thesis using any software you choose, as long as you produce a correctly formatted PDF document for submission. LaTex may not be right for your thesis, but we recommend you at least take a look at the LaTex resources page to see what it is. We recommend that you discuss your choice of writing software with your advisor.

What is the deadline for submitting my thesis?

The deadline to submit your senior thesis to the department website (through the Submit a Thesis/Capstone link) and have it approved by your advisor is the last day of classes of the semester/term you need the grade in (for graduation) . You and your advisor need to be working on creating the final draft of your thesis before the last day of classes so that you can submit it and have your advisor approve it before the last day of classes. This deadline gives the coordinator enough time to review your document, possibly require you to make changes, and submit a grade before the grade submission deadline. If your senior thesis is doubling as an Honors thesis, please check with the Honors program as they have an earlier deadline.

How do I turn in my thesis?

• Complete research and be writing your thesis. The writing and revision process typically takes 40+ hours, so don't wait until the day before the final draft is due to start writing. The thesis should have gone through many revisions with your advisor before the first submission deadline.
• Create a PDF of your thesis that is less than 40 MB . A huge file size for a PDF usually comes from using raster images with very high resolution. You should use vector graphics or limit the resolution of your raster graphics to 600 dots per inch. If you don't want to limit your graphics size during the creation process, the student lab computers have Acrobat professional, which allows you to compress your PDF graphics appropriately via File -> Save As Other -> Optimized PDF...
• Before the first deadline listed above make all changes suggested by your advisor. Then upload your the latest version of the thesis using the electronic submission system .
• Work with your advisor to get them to electronically approve the thesis. Just having your thesis uploaded by the deadline is not enough. If the advisor doesn't grant their approval by the deadline, the thesis may not be considered for that semester's graduation.
• After your advisor approves your thesis, the department senior thesis coordinator will review it. You will likely receive a few corrections at this point. Make the corrections and upload the new PDF file into the electronic submission system . All changes requested by the research coordinator must be completed and approved before grades are due for that semester/term. Once again, if the approval is not completed by the deadline the thesis will not be processed for that semester's graduation.

Do I Need to Give an Oral Presentation?

A short oral presentation of your completed research project is strongly encouraged, but not required (a presentation is required for Honors theses).  For students graduating in April this requirement is most naturally satisfied by giving a 12-minute talk at the annual College Student Research Conference, usually held in March. Students can also arrange other times/locations with their faculty advisors.

Thesis Coordinators

The "Senior Thesis Coordinator" and the "Honors Coordinator" may be found on Advising .

How Will My Thesis be Graded?

You will initially receive a temporary T grade if your senior thesis is not completed during the term in which you registered for credit. Note that T grades do not count towards graduation (or to your GPA)! A letter grade, determined by the Thesis Coordinator in consultation with your project advisor/mentor, will only be assigned after the senior thesis is submitted in the Thesis/Capstone system and both the advisor and coordinator have reviewed it. A letter grade is required for graduation. The grading scale used to evaluate your senior thesis is as follows:

A-, A The student has completed a quality thesis.  The advisor is primarily responsible for deciding whether the thesis should receive this grade, although the Undergraduate Research Coordinator must agree. The thesis reflects on the advisor's reputation. It should be something that the advisor would be proud to show to an external reviewer.

B-, B, B+ The student has produced a significant written report on his or her research that falls short of a quality thesis. (A written report does not preclude the possibility of a lower grade if the quality of the research and/or writing is poor.) This grade range indicates a completed thesis that follows appropriate formatting guidelines, but is not a thesis the advisor feels should be considered a quality thesis.

C-, C, C+  The student has documented his or her research but failed to produce a thesis. This range of grade is justified for students who, for example, participate in the Spring Research Conference and who produce meaningful (and reasonably extensive) technical notes to be passed on to other students who continue the work.

D-, D, D+ The student has been involved in meaningful research, appropriate for the number of credit hours (i.e. 15 x 6 hrs = 90 hrs for 2 credits). However, the student has failed to produce a written report.

Your advisor and thesis coordinator will be using the following criteria in determining your grade.

• Conceptual understanding and explanations of the physics in the research topic is at the senior level of coursework
• Understanding and correct use of mathematical descriptions of the physics in the research topic is at the senior level of coursework.
• Good design of experimental, computational and/or theoretical approach
• Experimental, computational and/or theoretical skills appropriate for the research are demonstrated.
• Work was continued until a meaningful result was achieved
• Statistical significance of results is treated correctly.
• Significance of project is not exaggerated, and is demonstrated by its relation to previous work.
• Writing: clear and concise
• Writing: correct grammar, spelling
• Writing: appropriate style and tone
• Writing: credit and references given for work of others
• Graphics are clear and appropriate

Can I Get a Bound Copy of My Thesis?

You can purchase a bound printed copy of your thesis if you want one for your personal collection, but this is not required. If you want a bound copy of the thesis, go to  printandmail.byu.edu/gradWorks/ to submit a .pdf of your thesis and order it for printing.  That web site will give you an estimate of the cost before you order.

• The Student Experience
• Financial Aid
• Degree Finder
• Undergraduate Arts & Sciences
• Departments and Programs
• Research, Scholarship & Creativity
• Centers & Institutes
• Geisel School of Medicine
• Guarini School of Graduate & Advanced Studies
• Thayer School of Engineering
• Tuck School of Business

Campus Life

• Diversity & Inclusion
• Athletics & Recreation
• Student Groups & Activities
• Residential Life

Physics and Astronomy

Department of physics and astronomy.

• [email protected] Contact & Department Info Mail
• Undergraduate
• Information for New Students
• Physics Major
• Astronomy Major
• Engineering Physics Major
• Undergraduate Awards

Recent Senior Theses

• Learning Outcomes
• Physics and Astronomy Course Offerings
• Physics & Astronomy Society
• Astronomy and Your Career
• Undergraduate Alumni Stories
• Tell Us Your Story
• Research Opportunities in Physics & Astronomy
• Sample Interaction
• Graduate Awards
• Graduate Timeline
• Recent PhD Graduates
• Foreign Study
• Astronomy FSP in South Africa
• Weather Archive
• All Projects
• Astrophysics
• Particles, Fields, Gravitation, and Cosmology
• Gravitational Quantum Physics
• Quantum and Condensed Matter
• Plasma and Space Physics
• Inclusivity
• News & Events
• News & Events
• Physics and Astronomy Colloquia
• Colloquium Archives (before 2017)
• Symposium on Charles Young's 1869 Discovery of Coronium
• Jay Lawrence Symposium Archive
• Pressure of Light Symposium
• Public Lecture Archives
• Public Observing
• Diversity Statement
• Faculty & Staff
• Membership Directory
• Committee Assignments
• Department Chair
• Graduate Advisor
• Undergraduate Advisor

Search form

• Undergraduate Requirements
• Careers in Physics and Astronomy
• Undergraduate Research

Relating Flows and Currents in Auroral Arcs Joshua Gutow Advisor: Kristina Lynch

A Luminosity Function for Field Ultra-diffuse Galaxies Joshua Perlmutter Advisor: R yan Hickox

An Analysis of Optical Polarization Angle Variations in Blazar Jets Tara Sweeney Advisor: Jedidah Isler

Modeling Astrospheres of Cool Main-sequence Stars According to Observable Stellar Parameters Gregory Mark Szypko Advisor: Hans Mueller

Tara E. Gallagher Fabrication and Characterization of Graphene Devices Advisor: Chandrasekhar Ramanathan  

Adam Burnett Senior Thesis: Testing Theories of Aural Radio Emissions With Direction-of-Arrival Measurements Advisor: James LaBelle

Krishan Canzius Senior Thesis: Entanglement Metrcis in Quantum Spin Chains Advisor: Chandrasekhar Ramanathan

Emily Golitzin Senior Thesis: Follow-up on a Swift/BAT Detected Seyfert II: Gas Ionization, Kinematics and the Spectral Energy Distribution of SWIFT J0446.4 + 1828 Advisor: Ryan Hickox

Raphael Hviding Senior Thesis: Understanding the Galactic Scale Effect of AGN with Fabry-Perot Spectroscopy from SALT Advisor: Ryan Hickox

Alana Juric Senior Thesis: Studying the Space Weather of Exoplanets in Binary Star Systems Advisor: Hans Mueller

Chenguant Li Senior Thesis: Memory Reactivation in Neural Networks Advisor: Alex Rimberg

Katherine Mentzer Senior Thesis: Extracting Density-Density Correlations From Quantum Degenerate Gases Advisor: Kevin Wright

Saba Nejad Senior Thesis: Does Gravity Enforce Macrorealism Advisor: Miles Blencowe

Andrew Sun Senior Thesis: Time-Dependent Simulation of Neutral Helium in the Heliosphere Advisor: Hans Mueller

Douglas Tallmadge Senior Thesis: Inertial Electrostatic Confinement Fusion as an Undergraduate Laboratory Advisor: Robyn Millan

William Tremml Senior Thesis: Methods of Approximating Divergence-Free Vector Fields for Ionospheric Data Advisor: Kristina Lynch

Kent Ueno Senior Thesis: Entanglement Spectra of Engineered NMR Spin Hamiltonians Advisor: Chandrasekhar Ramanathan

Erik Weis Senior Thesis: Benchmarking Quantum Computers Using Electronic Structure Algorithms Advisor: James Whitfield

Anne Woronecki Senior Thesis: Optical Trapping and Transportation of an Ultracold Cloud Using a Focus Tunable Lens Advisor: Kevin Wright

Samuel Greydanus Senior Thesis: Approximating Matrix Product States with Machine Learning Advisor: James Whitfield

Margaret Lane Senior Thesis: X-Ray Spectral Modeling of Obscured AGN with Torus Models and Comparison to Mid-IR Emission Advisor: R yan Hickox

Jack Neustadt​ Senior Thesis: Optical Observations of Galactic Supernova Remnants Advisor: R obert Fesen

Lucas Bezerra​ Senior Thesis: Fast Wavefront Characterization of Optical Traps for Quantum Gases Advisor: Kevin Wright

Pawan Dhakal​ Senior Thesis: High Precision Helium Spectroscopy and Quantum Gravity Effects Advisor: R oberto Onofrio

Oscar Friedman​ Senior Thesis: Time Evolution of the Wigner Flow Function Advisor: Miles Blencowe

Muhammad Kiani​ Senior Thesis: Fabrication and Characterization of Graphene Devices Advisor: Chandrasekhar Ramanathan

Luis Martinez​ Senior Thesis: Bubbles in My Scalar Field Soup: A Study on Oscillons in Cosmology Advisor: M ercelo Gleiser

Jonathan Vandermause​ Senior Thesis: Characterization and Control of Nuclear Spin Systems Advisor: Chandrasekhar Ramanathan

Kathryn Waychoff​ Senior Thesis: Zonal Wind Variability of the Jovian Planets Advisor: Robyn Millan

William Athol Senior Thesis: Design and Validation of a Zero Field and Low Field EDMR System Advisor: Chandrasekhar Ramanathan

Matthew Digman Senior Thesis: Gravitational Anomaly in Anistropic Spacetimes Advisor: Robert Caldwell

Nina Maksimova Senior Thesis: Testing Alternatives to the Standard Cosmological Model using the Cosmic Microwave Background Advisor: Robert Caldwell

Laurel Anderson Senior Thesis:  Experimental Control of Spin Chain Dynamics Advisor:  Chandrasekhar Ramanathan

Todd Anderson Senior Thesis:  Orbital Dynamics Model of a CubeSat Swarm Under Aerodynamic Torque in LEO Advisor:  Kristina Lynch

Spencer Diamond Senior Thesis:  Plasma Etch Characterization for Use in Cavity Optomechancis Experiment Advisor:  Alex Rimberg

Peter Horak Senior Thesis:  Attitude Estimation for Rocket-Borne Sensorcraft Advisor:  Kristina Lynch

Sarah Pasternak Senior Thesis:  Design and Early Verification of an Electrically Detected Magnetic Resonance (EDMR) System Advisor:  Chandrasekhar Ramanathan

Nathan Utterback Senior Thesis:  Kinematic Modeling and Analysis of the Galactic Supernova Remnant 3C58 (G130.7 + 3.1) Advisor:  R obert Fesen

Benjamin Katz Senior Thesis: Special-Relativistic Effects of a Microscale Oscillator on a Macroscopic Quantum State Advisor:  Miles Blencowe

Alexander Meill Senior Thesis: Implementing Measurement-Based Quantum Computing in Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Advisor:  Chandrasekhar Ramanathan

Michael Chilcote Senior Thesis: Numerical and Experimental Investigations of Ionospheric Sounding Using AM Radio Advisor: James LaBelle

Aryeh Drager Senior Thesis: Using Multimedia Pre-Lecture Assignments to Improve the Introductory Physics Experience Advisor: Robyn Millan

Emily DeBaun Senior Thesis: Nonlinear Dynamics of a Biological Cell in a Uniform Electric Field Advisor: Miles Blencowe

Nicholas Knezek Senior Thesis: An Analysis of Energetic Oxygen Interaction with Europe in the Jovian Magnetosphere Advisor: Robyn Millan

Amanda Slagle Senior Thesis: Vector Field Mapping and Analysis Using Finite Sensor Swarms Advisor: Kristina Lynch

Dhrubo Jyoti Senior Thesis: Numerical Explorations of Dipolarly-Coupled Chaotic Quantum Spin Systems Advisor: Lorenza Viola

John Roland Senior Thesis: Fabrication of Nano-Mechanical Resonators for the Study of the Quantum to Classical Transition Advisor: Alex Rimberg

Julianna Scheiman Senior Thesis: The Feasibility of Using POES Satellite Data and Ground-Based Riometer Data to Examine Relativistic Electron Events Advisor: Robyn Millan

Ian Boneysteele Senior Thesis: Delta Pion Channels Advisor: Timothy Smith

Laura DeLorenzo Senior Thesis: The Non-Linear Dynamics of a DC Voltage Biased Microwave Cavity With An Embedded Josephson Junction Advisor: Miles Blencowe

Ian Hayes Senior Thesis: Microwave Resonators for the Study Of the Quantum-To-Classical Transition Advisor: Alex Rimberg

Umair Siddiqui Senior Thesis: Design, Calibration and Use of a Collimated Electron Source for Plasma Sheath Studies Advisor: Kristina Lynch

Evan W. Brand Senior Thesis: Dynamics of an Oscillating Classical Heisenberg Spin Chain Advisor: Miles Blencowe

Benjamin Chapman Senior Thesis: Nonlinear Effects in Oscillator Chains Advisor: Miles Blencowe

Matthew Schenker Senior Thesis: VLBI Mapping of H2O Megamasers in MRK 1419 Advisor: John Thorstensen

Wendell Smith Senior Thesis: The Entangled Twin Paradox Advisor: Miles Blencowe

Steven J. Weber Senior Thesis: Radio Frequency Quantum Point Contacts With On-Chip Inductors Advisor: Alex Rimberg

Phillip Bracikowski Senior Thesis: Study of Mesospheric Dust Advisor: Kristina Lynch

Alexander Crew Senior Thesis: Data Analysis of Magnetic Fields from the ROPA Sounding Rocket Advisor: Kristina Lynch

Parker Fagrelius Senior Thesis: Understanding Quantum Mechanics: Entangling our Reality Advisor: Marcelo Gleiser

Brendan Huang Senior Thesis: Investigation of Microscopic Photon and Phonon Non-Demolition Schemes Advisor: Miles Blencowe

Leon Maurer Senior Thesis: Low Temperature Coulomb Blockade Advisor: Alex Rimberg

Bennet Meyers Senior Thesis: Bremsstrahlung X-Rays Produced in Lightning Stroke Events Advisor: Robyn Millan

David Strauss Senior Thesis: VLF Propagation Study at 24kHz Advisor: James Labelle

Karl Yando Senior Thesis: Monte Carlo Simulation of the NOAH POES Particle Detector Module and Analysis of Relativistic Electron Fluxes Advisor: Robyn Millan

Jordan Zastrow Senior Thesis: An Optical Study of the Circumstellar Medium in Cassiopeia A Advisor: Robert Fesen

Let your curiosity lead the way:

Apply Today

• Arts & Sciences
• Graduate Studies in A&S

Latin Honors and Senior Honors Thesis

Students with >3.65 GPA are encouraged to write a formal senior honors thesis that will qualify them to receive a diploma with Latin Honors:

• summa cum laude (top 15% by GPA)
• magna cum laude (next 35%)
• cum laude (other 50%)

The thesis shows a deep understanding of the concepts acquired as a Physics major, and that you can use these concepts to do original research. It should describe research performed by you in the Physics Department or elsewhere. The writing should attest to your ability to write a scientific paper. The thesis should include an introduction giving the motivation for the research project and background information, describe the methods applied and the results of the research, include a discussion section, and include appropriate citations throughout the thesis. You will receive faculty feedback on your thesis which will help you to improve your scientific writing skills.

Each year the deadline for seniors to turn in their finished theses is in March by 5:00 PM on the Monday that is the first class day after the end of spring break. This is a firm deadline that cannot be extended. Submissions should be sent to the Director of Undergraduates Studies, [email protected] . The current deadline is March 18, 2024.

All students writing a senior thesis need to report their intent to do so to the Director of Undergraduate Studies with this form . If the research was done and supervised in another department, you must find a physics faculty member to be a thesis supervisor, read your thesis and certify that it is substantial and well written. In this case, please give the names of both advisors.

A successful thesis usually contains twelve to twenty pages of text (single-spaced) plus figures, tables, and references.  Writers should consult their advisors frequently to ensure high scientific and writing quality. The librarian, Alison Verbeck, has theses from recent years in the library, so you can look at examples there, or in the  electronic repository .

All students writing a senior thesis are encouraged to present a poster describing the research at one of the two  Undergraduate Research Symposia  held each year.

We ask that students post electronic copies of their theses at the Washington University Libraries  Open Scholarship repository . The repository is a service of the Libraries to provide free access to the scholarly output of the university. More information about the repository is available on the “About” page at  openscholarship.wustl.edu . Open Scholarship already contains several senior honors projects. You can find examples listed under Student Publications in two folders – Undergraduate Theses–Restricted and Undergraduate Theses–Unrestricted.

Students may perform the research work on which they will report as volunteers, for pay, or for academic credit. An hour of work may not earn both money and credit. Students should not be paid for time spent writing theses, but may count that time toward academic credit. Seniors may use Physics 499 and/or Physics 500 to sign up for credit. These courses require manual enrollment; your advisor will request that you be registered for the class with the appropriate number of credit hours. A University-wide guideline is one unit of credit for three hours per week of research work.

Senior Thesis Intent Form

Have a question?

For information about the Latin Honors and Senior Honors Thesis, contact the Director of Undergraduate Studies.

How to Write Your Doctoral Thesis/Dissertation As a Physics Major

Full Chapter List - So You Want To Be A Physicist... Series

Part I: Early Physics Education in High schools Part II: Surviving the First Year of College Part III: Mathematical Preparations Part IV: The Life of a Physics Major Part V: Applying for Graduate School Part VI: What to Expect from Graduate School Before You Get There Part VII: The US Graduate School System Part VIII: Alternative Careers for a Physics Grad Part VIIIa: Entering Physics Graduate School From Another Major Part IX: First years of Graduate School from Being a TA to the Graduate Exams Part X: Choosing a Research area and an advisor Part XI: Initiating Research Work Part XII: Research work and The Lab Book Part XIII: Publishing in a Physics Journal Part XIV: Oral Presentations Part XIII: Publishing in a Physics Journal (Addendum) Part XIV: Oral Presentations – Addendum Part XV – Writing Your Doctoral Thesis/Dissertation Part XVI – Your Thesis Defense Part XVII – Getting a Job! Part XVIII – Postdoctoral Position Part XIX – Your Curriculum Vitae

At this stage, you have performed your doctoral research work, maybe even have published (or about to publish) a paper or two, and may have presented your work at a physics conference. It is time for you to think about finishing this part of your life. However, before you can do that, you have a couple more obstacles to get through – writing your thesis/dissertation and defending it. We will discuss the first one in this chapter.

You and your adviser should have narrowed down the main points that you will need to cover in your thesis. More often than not, you would have done more than you need during your graduate research work. It is not unusual that a graduate student has studied a number of different areas within his/her field of study, especially at the very beginning of his/her research work. However, it doesn’t mean that anything and everything needs to be included in the doctoral thesis. Your thesis must present a coherent research work that you have accomplished that no one else has done. So you and your adviser do need to be very clear on exactly what area should be included, and what shouldn’t. Chances are if you have published your work in a peer-reviewed journal, the area being covered by that paper would qualify as something that should be covered in your thesis.

Once you and your adviser have agreed on the general scope that should be in your thesis, it is time for you to organize your thoughts and figure out what to write. You should have plenty of practice already by now if you have published a few papers already. So all the advice on writing a paper applies here. Figure out the central points that you wish to convey and try to make your point as direct and as clear as possible. Note also that depending on your school’s requirement, you may have to explore the background of the issues/physics in general terms. This is because, in many schools, your thesis committee may comprise not just individuals who are familiar with your field of study, but also individuals from other fields or even other departments. So pay attention to what needs to be covered based on what kind of thesis committee that you will be facing.

When it comes to the actual writing process, this is where you will need (i) your institution’s thesis guidelines and (ii) copies of the thesis that have already been written. The first one should be available from the graduate school program at your school. Read it carefully. It will tell you a number of things you must follow, including (i) thesis formatting/typesetting requirement (ii) the format and order of the thesis (iii) thesis committee requirements. Pay attention to how your thesis should be written, especially in terms of figures(*), captions, bibliography format, section titles, etc. In some schools, they might even have a read-made template for you to use with your favorite word processor (or even Tex editor) that can make your life easier. Looking at older thesis from your department will give you specific examples of what can and cannot be done. Chances are, your adviser will give you examples of already-approved thesis, or you may even have been referring to one already. So look at all of those as guides. Do not relegate this as something trivial. Your thesis will be looked at by a thesis examiner, who can and will reject it if it does not conform to the format required, and thereby possibly delaying your graduation. Note also that in many schools, the graduate program often has a short briefing on those who intend to submit their thesis in that particular semester. This can be either a 1-hour class or an individual meeting with the thesis examiner. Make sure you attend this and be aware of what is required.

How long a thesis should be is highly subjective. I’ve seen advisers who don’t care how long it is, while others who don’t want it longer than, say 150 pages. I’d say that it should be as long as it needs to be. Don’t ramble on and on and turn it into War and Peace, but you also do not want it to be lacking in details, because these are the details that probably no one else has worked on.

As you are writing it, pay attention to the deadlines that your school has listed if you wish to graduate at the end of a particular year or semester. This is very important because missing it could mean that your graduation will be delayed. If you wish to graduate at the end of the semester, look at first and foremost, when your thesis is due for submission to the graduate program. Now work backward. Move that date two weeks earlier. Why? This is because you want to be sure that if there are unanticipated problems with your thesis, that there’s plenty of time to correct it. So that two-weeks-early date should be the latest you should hand it in. Note that this is your planned FINAL SUBMISSION. This should NOT be the first time you have shown your thesis to the thesis examiner. So you should plan on a meeting with the thesis examiner even earlier than this two-week-early date. For the sake of illustration, let’s put this like 4 weeks early than the final deadline. So 4 week’s before the graduate school’s published deadline, you should meet the thesis examiner for the very first examination of your thesis. There’s a very good chance that you will need to make modifications, hopefully, minor ones if you have paid close attention to the required format. This will give you two weeks left to make the correction and to make your final submission two weeks before the graduate school deadline. Confusing? Hopefully, not.

So it does mean that if you wish to have a completed form 4 weeks before the hard deadline, you need to already have done your thesis defense by then. This means you have incorporated comments you received during your thesis defense into your written thesis, AND have received final approval from all your thesis committee members [thesis defense process will be discussed in the next chapter]. This again takes time. This means that you should schedule your thesis defense at least 2 months before the graduate school’s hard deadline (I would even suggest a little longer). This will give you time to make changes, to send the corrected version to all the committee members, to allow for more changes, and then to get their approval. These things can be time-consuming, trust me!

So if you have to schedule your thesis defense 2 months before the hard deadline, then you should need to contact your thesis committee members before then to schedule your defense. Sometimes it can be a chore to get a suitable date, so plan ahead. It also means that you now have a good idea of when you should be done with the writing of your thesis! So pay attention to that date! It is the clearest indicator that, if you want to graduate at the end of that semester, you must be done writing by that date! Your thesis committee members will need to have your thesis in their hands at least a week before you can call for your defense. So if you work this backward again, you should have a good idea of the date where you should be all done. Knowing this, it will guide you on when you should start writing your thesis, and how fast you have to work to be done by that date.

Note that, depending on how involved your adviser wants to be, he or she may want to see the progress of your thesis as you are writing it. You may also want to consult with him/her along the way as you are progressing. This may save major revisions afterward especially if both you and your adviser don’t see eye-to-eye. Fine as this may be, you should always keep in mind that the thesis should be your own work and not expect your adviser or anyone else to write parts of it for you.

Hopefully, this guide will give you an idea of what to expect, especially on time management. The last thing you want to have is sleeping deprivation while writing your thesis simply because of things you haven’t anticipated, or you didn’t give yourself ample time.

(*) The issue of how figures can be displayed in a thesis can be a major headache. Most thesis requirements do not allow for color figures because your thesis will be sent to a service that will archive it as microfilm. This destroys all color effects. In some schools, they will allow you to make two versions of your thesis – one with a color figure that can be used as the distribution/department/library copies, while another for microfilm archive.

PhD Physics

Accelerator physics, photocathodes, field-enhancement. tunneling spectroscopy, superconductivity

You might also like

He corrected that spelling below. didn't you see "… writing your thesis/dessertation and defending it." It was a trifling mistake :-)

Desertation ?

"Desertation" is German for desertion. Interesting typo.

Leave a Reply

Leave a reply cancel reply.

You must be logged in to post a comment.

• Utility Menu

Apply   |   Contact Us   |   Carol Davis Fund   Anonymous Feedback to the Physics Chair

Harvard phd theses in physics, 2001-.

BAILEY, STEPHEN JOHN, B.S. (Washington) 1995. A Study of B → J/y K (*)0 X Decays. (Huth)

CHEN, LESTER HAO-LIN, B.S. (Duke) 1995. (Harvard) 1999. Charge-Iimaging Field-Effect Transistors for Scanned Probe Microscopy. (Westervelt)

CHOU, YI, B.S. (National Tsing Hua University) 1988. (National Tsing Hua University) 1990. Developments of EXITE2 and Timing Analysis of Ultra-Compact X-ray Binaries. (Papaliolios/Grindlay)

ERSHOV, ALEXEY, B.S. (Moscow Institute of Physics & Technology) 1996. Beauty Meson Decays to Charmonium. (Feldman)

FOX, DAVID CHARLES, A.B. (Princeton) 1991. (Harvard) 1994. The Structure of Clusters of Galaxies. (Loeb)

FUKUTO, MASAFUMI, B.S. (Oregon) 1994. (Harvard) 1997). Two-Dimensional Structures and Order of Nano-Objects on the Surface of Water: Synchrotron X-ray Scattering Studies. (Pershan)

HILL, MARC, B.S. (Illinois) 1994. Experimental Studies of W-band Accelerator Structures at High Field. (Huth)

KANNAPPAN, SHEILA, A.B. (Harvard) 1991. (Harvard, History of Science) 2001. Kinematic Clues to the Formation and Evolution of Galaxies. (Horowitz)

LAU, CHUN-NING, B.A. (Chicago) 1994. (Harvard) 1997. Quantum Phase Slips in Superconducting Nanowires. (Tinkham)

OSWALD, JOSEPH ANTON, B.S. (Duke) 1992. (Harvard) 1995. Metallo-dielectric Photonic Crystal Filters for Infrared Applications. (Verghese/Tinkham)

SCHAFFER, CHRISTOPHER BRIAN, B.S. (Florida) 1995. Interaction of Femtosecond Laser Pulses with Transparent Materials. (Mazur)

SPRADLIN, MARCUS BENJAMIN, B.A. (Princeton) 1996. (Harvard) 1999. AdS 2 Black Holes and Soliton Moduli Spaces. (Strominger)

WU, CLAUDIA, Diplom (Hannover) 1991. (Harvard) 1995. Femtosecond Laser-Gas-Solid Interactions. (Mazur)

BOZOVIC, DOLORES, B.S. ( Stanford University ) 1995. (Harvard) 1997. Defect Formation and Electron Transport in Carbon Nanotubes. (Tinkham)

BRITTO-PACUMIO, RUTH ALEXANDRA, B.S. (MIT) 1996. (Harvard) 1998. Bound States of Supersymmetric Black Holes. (Strominger)

CACHAZO, FREDDY ALEXANDER, B.S. (Simon Bolivar University) 1996. Dualities in Field Theory from Geometric Transitions in String Theory. (Vafa)

CHOU, YI, B.S. ( National Tsing Hua University ) 1988. ( National Tsing Hua University ) 1990. Developments of EXITE2 and Timing Analysis of Ultra-Compact X-ray Binaries. (Papaliolios/Grindlay)

COLDWELL, CHARLES MICHAEL, A.B. (Harvard) 1992. A Search for Interstellar Communications at Optical Wavelengths. (Horowitz)

DUTTON, ZACHARY JOHN, B.A. (University of California Berkeley) 1996. (Harvard) 2002. Ultra-slow Stopped, and Compressed Light in Bose-Einstein Condensates. (Hau)

FOX, DAVID CHARLES, A.B. ( Princeton ) 1991. (Harvard) 1994. The Structure of Clusters of Galaxies. (Shapiro)

GOEL, ANITA, B.S. (Stanford) 1995. Single Molecule Dynamics of Motor Enzymes Along DNA. (Herschbach/ Wilson)

HALL, CARTER, B.S. (Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State Univ.) 1996. Measurement of the isolated direct photon cross section with conversions in proton-antiproton collisions at sqrt (s) = 1.8 TeV. (Franklin)

JANZEN, PAUL HENRY, B. Sc., (University of Windsor) 1992. (Harvard) 1994. An Experiment to Measure Electron Impact Excitation of Ions that have Metastable States. (Horowitz/Kohl)

KIM, Daniel Young-Joon, AB/AM (Harvard) 1995. Properties of Inclusive B → psi Production. (Wilson/Brandenburg)

LANDHUIS, DAVID PAUL, B.S. (Stanford) 1994. (Harvard) 1997. Studies with Ultracold Metastable Hydrogen. (Gabrielse/Kleppner)  

LAU, CHUN-NING, B.A. ( Chicago ) 1994. (Harvard) 1997. Quantum Phase Slips in Superconducting Nanowires . (Tinkham)

LEE, CHUNGSOK, B.A. ( University of California , Berkeley ) 1995. ( Harvard University ) 2002. Control and Manipulation of Magnetic Nanoparticles and Cold Atoms Using Micro-electromagnets. (Westervelt)

 LUBENSKY, DAVID KOSLAN, A.B. ( Princeton University ) 1994. (Harvard) 1997. Theoretical Studies of Polynucleotide Biophysics. (Nelson)

MATTONI, CARLO EGON HEINRICH, A.B. ( Harvard College ) 1995. (Harvard University ) 1998. Magnetic Trapping of Ultracold Neutrons Produced Using a Monochromatic Cold Neutron Beam. (Doyle)

MCKINSEY, DANIEL NICHOLAS, B.S. (University of Michigan) 1995. (Harvard) 1998. Detecting Magnetically Trapped Neutrons: Liquid Helium As a Scintillator. (Doyle)

OZEL, FERYAL, B.S. (Columbia University) 1996. The Effects of Strong Magnetic and Gravitational Fields on Emission Properties of Neutron Stars. (Narayan)

PAUTOT, SOPHIE, B.S. (University of Bordeaux I and II) 1995. (University of Bordeaux I and II) 1996. Lipids behavior at dodecane-water interface. (Weitz)  

PRASAD, VIKRAM, B. Tech. (Indian Institute of Technology) 1996. ( University of Pennsylvania ) 1999. Weakly interacting colloid-polymer mixtures. (Weitz)

SALWEN, NATHAN KALMAN, A.B. (Harvard) 1994. Non-perturbative Methods in Modal Field Theory. (Coleman)

SCHWARZ, JENNIFER MARIE, B.S., B.A. (University of Maryland) 1994. Depinning with Elastic Waves: Criticality, Hysteresis, and Even Pseudo-Hysteresis. (Fisher)

SHAW, SCOT ELMER JAMES, B.A. (Lawrence University) 1998. Propagation in Smooth Random Potentials. [PDF: ~7.44MB] ( Heller)

SQUIRES, TODD MICHAEL, B.S. (UCLA) 1995. Hydrodynamics and Electrokinetics in Colloidal and Microfluidic Systems. (Fisher/Brenner)

VOLOVICH, ANASTASIA, A.M. (Moscow State) 1998. Holography for Coset Spaces and Noncommutative Solitions. (Strominger)

WEINSTEIN, JONATHAN DAVID, B.S. (Caltech) 1995. (Harvard) 1998. Magnetic Trapping of Atomic Chromium and Molecular Calcium Monohydride. (Doyle)  

 WONG, GLENN PATRICK, B.S. (Stanford) 1993. (Harvard) 1995. Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Experiments Using Laser-Polarized Noble Gas . (Shapiro)

YESLEY, PETER SPOOR, B.S. (MIT) 1995. The Road to Antihydrogen. (Gabrielse)

 *YOUNKIN, REBECCA JANE, A.B. ( Mt. Holyoke ) 1993. (Harvard) 1996. Surface Studies and Microstructure Fabrication Using Femtosecond. (Mazur)

ASHCOM, JONATHAN BENJAMIN, B.S. (Brown University) 1996. (Harvard) 2000. The role of focusing in the interaction of femtosecond laser pulses with transparent materials. (Mazur)

CHAN, IAN HIN-YUN , B.S. ( Sanford University ) 1994. Quantum dot circuits: single-electron switch and few-electron quantum dots . (Westervelt)

CREMERS, JACOB NICO HENDRIK JAN, B.S. (MIT) 1994. (Harvard) 2002. Pumping and Spin-Orbit Coupling in Quantum Dots. (Halperin)

deCARVALHO, ROBERT, B.S. (University of Arizona) 1996. (Harvard) 1999. Inelastic Scattering of Magnetically Trapped Atomic Chromium. (Doyle)

D’URSO, BRIAN RICHARD, B.S. (California Institute of Technology) 1998. Cooling and Self-Excitation of a One-Electron Oscillator. (Gabrielse)

FIETE, GREGORY ALAN, B.S. (Purdue University) 1997. (Harvard) 1999. Theory of Kondo Effect in Nanoscale Systems and Studies of III-V Diluated Magnetic Semiconductors. (Heller)

GABEL, CHRISTOPHER VAUGHN, A.B. (Princeton University) 1996. The speed of the flagellar rotary motor of Escherichia coli varies linearly with protonmotive force. (Berg)

GORDON, VERNITA DIANE, B.S. (Vanderbilt University) 1996. (Harvard) 2001. Measuring and Engineering Microscale Mechanical Responses and Properties of Bio-Relevant Materials. (Weitz)

HAILU, GIRMA, B.S. (Addis Ababa University). (Addis Ababa University) 1992. (Harvard) 1999. Chiral orbifold Construction of Field Theories with Extra Dimensions. (Georgi)

HEADRICK, MATTHEW PETER, B.A. (Princeton University) 1994. (Harvard) 1998. Noncummutative Solitons and Closed String Tachyons. (Minwalla)

HUMPHREY, MARC ANDREW, B.S. (Western Michigan University). 1997 (Harvard) 2000. Precision measurements with atomic hydrogen masers. (Walsworth)

LEPORE, NATASHA, B.S. (University of Montreal) Diffraction and Localization in Quantum Billiards. [Postscript: ~5.8MB] (Heller)

LEROY, BRIAN JAMES, Imaging Coherent Electron Flow Through Semiconductor Nanostructures. [PDF: ~10.17MB] (Westervelt)

LOPATNIKOVA, ANNA, B.S. (MIT) 1997. Spontaneously symmetry-broken states in the quantum Hall regime. (Halperin/Wen)

MADRAK, ROBYN LEIGH, B.A. (Cornell University) 1995 Measurement of the LambdaB Lifetime in the Decay Mode LambdaB-> Jpsi Lambda . (Franklin)

MALONEY, ALEXANDER DEWITT, Time-Dependent Backgrounds of String Theory . [PDF: ~6.73MB] (Strominger)

MAOZ, LIAT, B.S. (Hebrew University) 1995. Supersymmetric Configurations in the Rotating D1-D5 System and PP-Waves. [PDF: ~7.16 MB] (Maldacena/ Strominger)

MARINELLI, LUCA, Laurea ( University of Genova ) 1995. ( Harvard University ) 1997. Analysis of quasiparticles in the mixed state of a d-wave superconductor and NMR in pores with surface relaxation. (Halperin)

REFAEL, GIL, B.S. (Tel Aviv University) 1997. (Harvard) 2001. Randomness, Dissipation, and Quantum Fluctuations in Spin Chains and Mesoscopic Superconductor Arrays. (Fisher/Demler)

SHEN, NAN, B.A. (Rhode Island College) 1996. Photodisruption in biological tissues using femtosecond laser pulses . (Mazur)

TSERKOVNYAK, YAROSLAV, (University of British Columbia) 1999. (Harvard) 2001. Spin and Charge Transfer in Selected Nanostructures. [PDF: ~6.96MB] (Halperin)

VALENTINE, MEGAN THERESA, B.S. (Leigh University) 1997. (University of Pennsylvania) 1999. Mechanical and Microstructural Properties of Biological Materials . [PDF: ~3.5 MB] (Weitz)

VANICEK, JIRI JOSEPH LADISLAV, A.B. (Harvard College). (Harvard) 2000. Uniform semiclassical approximations and their applications . [PDF: 936 KB] (Heller)

WIJNHOLT, MARTIJN PAUL, B.S. (University of Warwick) 1996. Investigations in the physics of solitons in string theory. (Vafa)

ZABOW, GARY, B.S. (University of Cape Town) 1994. Charged-particle optics for neutral particles. (Prentiss)

ZIELINSKI, LUKASZ JOZEF, B.S. (Stanford University) 1997. Restriction and inhomogeneous magnetic fields in the nuclear magnetic resonance study of diffusion. (Halperin/Sen)

ABRAHAM, MATHEW CHEERAN, B.S. (Haverford College) 1997 (Harvard University) 2000. Hot Electron Transpoort and Current Sensing. (Westervelt)

BOWDEN, NATHANIEL SEAN, B.S., M.S. (University of Auckland) 1996. Production of Cold Antihydrogen During the Positron Cooling of Antiprotons. (Gabrielse)

CHANG, SPENCER, B.S. (Stanford University) 1999. (Harvard) 2001. Topics in Little Higgs Physics . [PDF: 467 KB] (Georgi)

DZHOSYUK, SERGEI N., B.S.(Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology)1995.(Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology)1997. M agnetic trapping of neutrons for measurement of the neutron lifetime. (Doyle)

EGOROV, DMITRO MIKHAILOVICH, B.S. (Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology) 1998. Buffer-Gas Cooling of Diatomic Molecules . [PDF: ~4.1 MB] (Doyle)

FIETE, ILA RANI, B.S. (University of Michigan) 1997. (Harvard University) 2000. Learning and coding in biological neural networks . (Fisher/Seung)

GARDEL, MARGARET LISE, B.A. (Brown University) 1998. (Harvard University) 2003. Elasticity of F-actin Networks. (Weitz)

HSU, MING F., A.B. ( Princeton University) 1999. Charged Colloidal Particles in Non-polar Solvents and Self-assembled Colloidal Model Systems . (Weitz)

KING, GAVIN MCLEAN, B.S. (Bates College) 1997 (Dartmouth college) 2001. Probing the Longitudinal Resolution of a Solid State nanopore Microscope with Nanotubes. (Golovchenko)

MANLEY, SULIANA, B.A.(Rice University) 1997. (Harvard University) 2001. Mechanical stability of fractal colloid gels. (Weitz)

MICHNIAK,JR.,ROBERT ALLEN, B.S. (University of Michigan) 1997. (Harvard University) 2001. Enhanced Buffer Gas Loading: Cooling and Trapping of Atoms with Low Effective Magnetic Moments. (Doyle)

MODY, AREEZ MINOO, B.S. (Caltech) 1994. Thermodynamics of ultracold singly charged particles. (Heller)

ODOM, BRIAN CARL, B.S. (Stanford University) 1995. (Harvard University) 1999. Measurement of the Electron g-Factor in a Sub-Kelvin Cylindrical Cavity . (Gabrielse)

OXLEY, PAUL KEVIN, B.A. (Oxford University) 1994. Production of Slow Antihydrogen from Cold Antimatter Plasmas . [PDF: ~5.9 MB](Gabrielse)

ROESER, CHRISTOPHER ALLAN DEWALD, B.A. (University of Chicago) 1998. Ultrafast Dynamics and Optical Control of Coherent Phonons in Tellurium. (Mazur)

SHPYRKO, OLEG GRIGORY, B.S. (Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology) 1995. Experimental X-Ray Studies of Liquid Surfaces. (Pershan)

SON, JOHN SANG WON, B.A. (Columbia University) 1996. Superstring Theory in AdS_3 and Plane Waves . [PDF: ~450 KB](Minwalla)

ZELEVINSKY, TANYA, S.B. (MIT) 1999. (Harvard University) 2001. Helium 2^3 P Fine Structure Measurement in a Discharge Cell. (Gabrielse)

ZUMBÜHL, DOMINIK MAX, Diploma, M.S. (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology), 1998. Coherence and Spin in GaAs Quantum Dots . [PDF: ~2.7 MB] (Marcus)

ANDRÉ, AXEL PHILIPPE, M.S. (Imperial College) 1997. (HarvardUniversity) 1999. Nonclassical States of Light and Atomic Ensembles: Generation and New Applications. (Lukin)

BIERCUK, MICHAEL JORDAN, Local Gate Control in Carbon Nanotube Quantum Devices. (Marcus)

CHEN, HAOYU HENRY, (University Maryland) 1998. (Harvard University) 2000. Surfaces in Solid Dynamics and Fluid Statics . [PDF: ~2.5 MB] (Brenner)

CONRAD, JACINTA CARMEL, S.B. (University of Chicago) 1999. ( Harvard University) 2002. Mechanical Response and Dynamic Arrest in Colloidal Glasses and Gels. (Weitz)

DASGUPTA, BIVASH R., B.S.C. (Presidency College) 1995. (Indian Institute of Technology) 1997. Microrheology and Dynamic Light Scattering Studies of Polymer Solutions. (Weitz)

HANCOX, CINDY IRENE, B.A. (University of California, Berkeley) 1997. ( Harvard University) 2002. Magnetic trapping of transition-metal and rare-earth atoms using buffer-gas loading. (Doyle)

HOUCK, ANDREW A., B.S.E. (Princeton University) 2000. Novel Techniques Towards Nuclear Spin Detection. (Marcus/Chuang)

LEE, HAK-HO, B.S. (Seoul National University) 1998. Microelectronic/Microfluidic Hybrid System for the Manipulation of Biological Cells. (Westervelt).

NEITZKE, ANDREW M., A.B. (Princeton University) 1998. Toward a Nonperturbative Topological String. (Vafa)

PODOLSKY, DANIEL, B.S. ( Stanford University) 1998. (Harvard University) 2000. Interplay of Magnetism and Superconductivity in Strongly Correlated Electron Systems. (Demler)  

RAPPOCCIO, SALVATORE ROCCO, B.A. (Boston University ) 2000. Measurement of the ttbar Production Cross Section in ppbar Collisions at sqrt (s) = 1.96 TeV. (Foland)

SPECK, ANDREW J., (Williams College) 2000. (Harvard) 2002. Two Techniques Produce Slow Antihydrogen . [PDF: ~9.2 MB] (Gabrielse)

TEE, SHANG YOU, B.S. ( Columbia University) 1995. (Stevens Institute of Technology) 1997. Velocity Fluctuations in Sedimentation and Fluidized Beds. (Weitz)

THOMPSON, DAVID MATTOON, (Yale) 1999 B.S./M.S. Holography and Related Topics in String Theory . [PDF: ~440 KB] (Strominger)

ZHU, CHENG, B.S. ( Tsinghua University) 1996. (Chinese Science and Technology University) 1997. Gas phase atomic and molecular process . (Lukin/Dalgarno)

BABICH, DANIEL MICHAEL, A.B. ( Princeton University) 2002. ( Harvard University) 2005. Cosmological Non-Gaussianity and Reionization . (Loeb)

BARNETT, RYAN LEE, B.S. ( Ohio State University) 2000. ( Harvard University) 2002. Studies of Strongly correlated Systems: From First Principles Computations to Effective Hamiltonians and Novel Quantum Phases. (Demler)

BOWLES, ANITA MARIE, B.S. ( University of Colorado) 1996. ( Harvard University) 1998. Stress Evolution in Thin Films of a Polymer . (Weitz/Spaepen)

CHIJIOKE, AKOBUIJE DOUGLAS EZIANI, B.S.E. ( Duke University) 1996. (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) 1998. Infrared absorption of compressed hydrogen deuteride and calibration of the ruby pressure gauge . [PDF: ~2.6 MB](Silvera)  

CYRIER, MICHELLE CHRISTINE, B.S. ( University of California , Berkeley) 2000. Physics From Geometry: Non-Kahler Compactifications, Black Rings and dS/CFT. (Strominger)

DESAI, MICHAEL MANISH, B.A. ( Princeton University ) 1999. ( University of Cambridge ) 2000. Evolution in Large Asexual Populations. (Murray/Fisher)

EISAMAN, MATTHEW D, A.B. (Princeton) 2000. (Harvard University) 2004. Generation, Storage and Retrieval of Nonclassical States of Light Using Atomic Ensembles . [PDF: ~7 MB] (Lukin)

HOLLOWAY, AYANA TAMU, A.B. ( Princeton University) 1998. The First Direct Limit on the t Quark Lifetime. ( Franklin)

HOWARD, ANDREW WILLIAM, S.B. (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) 1998. (Harvard University) 2001. Astronomical Searches for Nanosecond Optical Pulses. (Horowitz)

HUANG, JIAN, BS (Jilin University, P.R.China)1998. Theories of Imaging Electrons in Nanostructures . [PDF: ~8.4 MB] (Heller)

JONES, GREGORY CHAPMAN, B.S. (University of Missouri, Columbia) 2001. Time-dependent solutions in gravity . (Strominger)

KILIC, CAN, B.S. ( Bogazici University) 2000. Naturalness of Unknown Physics: Theoretical Models and Experimental Signatures. (Arkani-Hamed)  

 LAKADAMYALI, MELIKE, B.S. ( University of Texas , Austin ) 2001. Real-Time Imaging of Viral Infection and Intracellular Transport in Live Cells. (Zhuang)

MAHBUBANI, RAKHI, MSci (University of Bristol) 2000. Beyond the Standard Model: The Pragmatic Approach to the Gauge Hierarchy Problem . [PDF: ~1.5 MB] (Arkani-Hamed)

MARSANO, JOSEPH DANIEL, B.S. (University of Michigan) 2001. (Harvard University) 2004. The Phase Structure of Yang-Mills Theories and their Gravity Duals. (Minwalla)

NGUYEN, SCOTT VINH, B.S. (University of Texan, Austin) 2000. Buffer gas loading and evaporative cooling in the multi-partial-wave regeime. (Doyle)  

PAPADODIMAS, KYRIAKOS, B.A. ( University of Athens ) 2000. Phase Transitions in Large N Gauge Theories and String Theory Duals. (Minwalla)

PARROTT, ROBERT ELLIS, B.A. (Dartmouth College) 1997. (Dartmouth College) 1999. Topics in Electron Dynamics in Moderate Magnetic Fields . (Heller)  

POTOK, RONALD MICHAEL, B.S. ( University of Texas Austin) 2000. Probing Many Body Effects in Semiconductor Nanostructures. (Goldhaber-Gordon/Marcus)

RUST, MICHAEL JOSEPH, B.S. ( Harvey Mudd College ). Fluorescence Techniques for Single Virus Particle Tracking and Sub-Diffraction Limit Imaging. (Zhuang)

SAGE, JENNIFER NICOLE FUES, B.A. ( Washington University ) 1997. ( Harvard University ) 2000. Measurements of Lateral Boron Diffusion in Silicon and Stress Effects on Epitaxial Growth . (Aziz/Kaxiras)

TAYLOR, JACOB MASON, A.B. ( Harvard College ) 2000. Hyperfine Interactions and Quantum Information Processing in Quantum Dots. (Lukin)

THALER, JESSE KEMPNER, S.B. (Brown University). ( Harvard University) 2004. Symmetry Breaking at the Energy Frontier . (Arkani-Hamed)

THAMBYAHPILLAI, SHIYAMALA NAYAGI, M.S. (Imperial College) 1999. Brane Worlds and Deconstruction. (Randall)

VAISHNAV, JAY Y., B.S. (University of Maryland) 2000. ( Harvard University) 2002. Topics in Low Energy Quantum Scattering Theory. [PDF:  ~3.8 MB] (Heller)

VITELLI, VINCENZO, B.S. (Imperial College) 2000. Crystals , Liquid Crystals and Superfluid Helium on Curved Surfaces. (Nelson)  

WALKER, DEVIN GEORGE EDWARD, B.S. (Hampton University) 1998. ( Harvard University ) 2001. Theories on the Origin of Mass and Dark Matter. (Arkani-Hamed/Georgi)

WHITE, OLIVIA LAWRENCE, B.S. ( Stanford University ) 1997. Towards Real Spin Glasses: Ground States and Dynamics. (Fisher)

YIN, XI, B.S. (University of Science and Technology of China) 2001. Black Holes, Anti de Sitter Space, and Topological Strings. (Strominger)

YANG, LIANG, B.S. (Yale University) 1999. ( Harvard University) 2002. Towards Precision Measurement of the Neutron Lifetime using Magnetically Trapped Neutrons. (Doyle)

YAVIN, ITAY, B. Sc. (York University, Ontario) 2002. Spin Determination at the Large Hadron Collider. [PDF: ~662 KB] (Arkani-Hamed)

CHILDRESS, LILIAN ISABEL, B.A. (Harvard College) 2001. Coherent manipulation of single quantum systems in the solid state . (Lukin)

CLARK, DAMON ALISTAIR Biophysical Analysis of Thermostatic Behavior in C. elegans . (Samuel) 

ERNEBJERG, MORTEN, MPhys (University of Oxford) 2002. Field Theory Methods in Two-Dimensional and Heterotic String Theories . (Strominger)

FARKAS, DANIEL MARTIN, B.S. (Yale University) 2000. An Optical Reference and Frequency Comb for Improved Spectroscopy of Helium . (Gabrielse)

GINSBERG, NAOMI SHAUNA, B.A. (University of Toronto) 2000. (Harvard University) 2002. Manipulations with spatially compressed slow light pulses in Bose-Einstein condensates. (Hau)

HOFFMAN, LAUREN K., B.S. (California Institute of Technology) 2002. Orbital Dynamics in Galaxy Mergers . (Loeb)

HUANG, LISA LI FANG, B.S. (UCLA) 1999. Black Hole Attractors and Gauge Theories . (Strominger)

HUNT, THOMAS PETER, B.S. (Stanford University) 2000. Integrated Circuit / Microfluidic Chips for Dielectric Manipulation . (Westervelt)

IMAMBEKOV, ADILET, B.S. (Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology) 2002. Strongly Correlated Phenomena with Ultracold Atomic Gases . (Demler)

JAFFERIS, DANIEL LOUIS, B.S. (Yale) 2001. Topological String Theory from D-Brane Bound States . (Vafa)

JENKS, ROBERT A., B.A. (Williams College) 1998. Mechanical and neural representations of tactile information in the awake behaving rat somatosensory system . (Stanley/Weitz)

LEBEDEV, ANDRE, B.S. (University of Virginia) 1999. Ratio of Pion Kaon Production in Proton Carbon Interactions . (Feldman) 

LIU, JIAYU, B.S. (Nanjing University of China) 2002. (Harvard) 2004. Microscopic origin of the elasticity of F-actin networks . (Weitz)

MATHEY, LUDWIG GUENTER, Vordiplom (University of Heidelberg) 1998. Quantum phases of low-dimensional ultra-cold atom systems. (Castro-Neto/Halperin)

MAXWELL, STEPHEN EDWARD Buffer Gas Cooled Atoms and Molecules: Production, Collisional Studies, and Applications. (Doyle)

MO, YINA, B.S. (University of Science and Technology China) 2002. Theoretical Studies of Growth Processes and Electronic Properties of Nanostructures on Surfaces. (Kaxiras)

PARUCHURI, SRINIVAS S., B. S. (Cornell) 2000. (Harvard University) 2002. Deformations of Free Jets . (Brenner//Weitz)

QIAN, JIANG Localization in a Finite Inhomogeneous Quantum Wire and Diffusion through Random Spheres with Partially Absorbing Surfaces. (Halperin)

RITTER, WILLIAM GORDON, B.A. (University of Chicago) 1999. Euclidean Quantum Field Theory: Curved Spacetimes and Gauge Fields. (Jaffe)

SARAIKIN, KIRILL ANATOLYEVICH, B.S. (Moscow Institute for Physics and Technology) 1999. Black Holes, Entropy Functionals, and Topological Strings. (Vafa)

SCHULZ, ALEXIA EIRINN, B.A. (Boston University ) 1998. (Harvard University) 2000. Astrophysical Probes of Dark Energy. (White/Huth)

SCHUSTER, PHILIP CHRISTIAN, S.B. (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) 2003. ( Harvard University ) 2006. Uncovering the New Standard Model at the LHC . (Arkani-Hamed)

SEUN, SIN MAN, B.A. (Smith College) 2000.  B.E. (Dartmouth College) 2000. Measurement of p-K Ratios from the NuMI Target . (Feldman)

SHERMAN, DANIEL JOSEPH, B.A. (University of Pennsylvania ) 2001. Measurement of the Top Quark Pair Production Cross Section with 1.12 fb -1 of pp Collisions at sqrt (s) = 1.96 TeV. ( Franklin )

SIMONS, AARON, B.S. (California Institute of Technology) 2002. Black Hole Superconformal Quantum Mechanics. (Strominger)

SLOWE, CHRISTOPHER BRIAN, AB/AM (Harvard University). Experiments and Simulations in Cooling and Trapping of a High Flux Rubidium Beam. (Hau)

STRIEHL, PIERRE SEBASTIAN, Diploma (University of Heidelberg) 2004. A high-flux cold-atom source for area-enclosing atom interferometry. (Prentiss)

TORO, NATALIA, S.B. (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) 2003. Fundamental Physics at the Threshold of Discovery . (Arkani-Hamed) 

WISSNER-GROSS, ALEXANDER DAVID, S.B. (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) 2003. (Harvard University ) 2004. Physically Programmable Surfaces. (Kaxiras)

WONG, WESLEY PHILIP, B.S. (University of British Columbia) 1999. Exploring single-molecule interactions through 3D optical trapping and tracking: from thermal noise to protein refolding . (Evans/Nelson)

ZAW, INGYIN, B.A. (Harvard College) 2001.  (Harvard University) 2003. Search for the Flavor Changing Neutral Current Decay t → qZ in  pp Collisions at √s = 1.96 TeV. (Franklin)

BRAHMS, NATHANIEL CHARLES, Sc.B. (Brown University) 2001. Trapping of 1 μ β Atoms Using Buffer Gas Loading . (Doyle, Greytak)

BURBANK, KENDRA S., B.A. (Bryn Mawr College) 2000. (Harvard University) 2004. Self-organization mechanisms in the assembly and maintenance of bipolar spindles. (Fisher/Mitchison)

CAMPBELL, WESLEY C., B.S. (Trinity University) 2001. Magnetic Trapping of Imidogen Molecules . (Doyle)

CHAISANGUANTHUM, KRIS SOMBOON, B.S. (Harvard University ) 2001. An Enquiry Concerning Charmless Semileptonic Decays of Bottom Mesons . (Morii)

CHANG, DARRICK, B.S. (Stanford University) 2001. Controlling atom-photon interactions in nano-structured media. (Lukin)

CHOU, JOHN PAUL, A.B. (Princeton University) 2002. (Harvard University) 2006. Production Cross Section Measurement using Soft Electron Tagging in pp Collisions at √s  = 1.96 TeV . (Franklin)

DEL MAESTRO, ADRIAN GIUSEPPE, B.S. (University of Waterloo) 2002,  (University of Waterloo) 2003. The Superconductor-Metal Quantum Phase Transition in Ultra-Narrow Wires . (Sachdev)

DI CARLO, LEONARDO, B.S. (Stanford University) 1999. (Stanford University) 2000. Mesocopic Electronics Beyond DC Transport . (Marcus)

DUNKEL, EMILY REBECCA, B.S. (University of California Los Angeles) 2001. Quantum Phenomena in Condensed Phase Systems . (Sachdev/Coker)

FINKLER, ILYA GRIGORYEVICH, B.S. (Ohio State University) 2001. Nonlinear Phenomena in Two-Dimensional and Quasi-Two-Dimensional Electron Systems. (Halperin)

FITZPATRICK, ANDREW LIAM, B.S. (University of Chicago) 2004. (Harvard University) 2005. Broken Symmetries and Signatures . (Randall)

GARG, ARTI, A.B., B.S. (Stanford University) 2000. (Stanford University) 2001. (University of Washington) 2002. Microlensing Candidate Selection and Detection Efficiency for the Super MACHO Dark Matter Search . (Stubbs)

GERSHOW, MARC HERMAN, B.S. (Stanford University) 2001. Trapping Single Molecules with a Solid State Nanopore . (Golovchenko)

GRANT, LARS, B.S. (McGill University) 2001. Aspects of Quantization in AdS/CFT . (Vafa/Minwalla)

GUICA, MONICA MARIA, B.A. (University of Chicago) 2003. Supersymmetric Attractors, Topological Strings, and the M5-Brane CFT . (Strominger)

HANNEKE, DAVID ANDREW, B.S. (Case Western) 2001. (Harvard University) 2003. Cavity Control in a Single-Electron Quantum Cyclotron: An Improved Measurement of the Electron Magnetic Moment. (Gabrielse) 

HATCH, KRISTI RENEE, B.S. (Brigham Young University) 2004 Probing the mechanical stability of DNA by unzipping and rezipping the DNA at constant force. (Prentiss)

HOHLFELD, EVAN BENJAMIN, B.S. (Stanford University) 2001. Creasing, Point-bifurcations, and the Spontaneous Breakdown of Scale-invariance . (Weitz/Mahadevan)

KATIFORI, ELENI, Ptichion (University of Athens) 2002.  (Harvard University) 2004. Vortices, rings and pollen grains: Elasticity and statistical physics in soft matter .  (Nelson)

LAPAN, JOSHUA MICHAEL, B.S. (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) 2002.  (Harvard University) 2006. Topics in Two-Dimensional Field Theory and Heterotic String Theory .  (Strominger)

LE SAGE, DAVID ANTHONY, B.S. (University of California Berkeley) 2002. First Antihydrogen Production within a Combined Penning-Ioffe Trap . (Gabrielse)

LI, WEI, B.S. (Peking University) 1999. (Peking University) 2002. Gauge/Gravity Correspondence and Black Hole Attractors in Various Dimensions . (Strominger)

LU, PETER JAMES, B.A. (Princeton University) 2000.  (Harvard University) 2002. Gelation and Phase Separation of Attractive Colloids . (Weitz)

MUNDAY, JEREMY NATHAN, B.S. (Middle Tennessee State University) 2003.  (Harvard University) 2005. Attractive, repulsive, and rotational QED forces: experiments and calculations . (Hau/Capasso)

RAJU, SUVRAT, B.S. (St. Stephen’s College) 2002.  (Harvard University) 2003. Supersymmetric Partition Functions in the AdS/CFT Conjecture . (Arkani-Hamed/Denef/Minwalla)

RISTROPH, TRYGVE GIBBENS, B.S. (University of Texas at Austin) 1999. Capture and Ionization Detection of Laser-Cooled Rubidium Atoms with a Charged Suspended Carbon Nanotube . (Hau)

SVACHA, GEOFFRY THOMAS, B.S. (University of Michigan) 2002. Nanoscale nonlinear optics using silica nanowires . (Mazur)

TURNER, ARI M., B.A. (Princeton University) 2000. Vortices Vacate Vales and other Singular Tales . (Demler)

BAUMGART, MATTHEW TODD, B.S. (University of Chicago) 2002.  The Use of Effective Variables in High Energy Physics . (Georgi/Arkani-Hamed)

BOEHM, JOSHUA ADAM ALPERN, B.S.E. (Case Western Reserve University) 2003. (Harvard University) 2005. A Measurement of Electron Neutrino Appearance with the MINOS Experimen t. (Feldman)

CHEUNG, CLIFFORD WAYNE, B.S. (Yale University) 2004. (Harvard University) 2006. From the Action to the S-Matrix . (Georgi/Arkani-Hamed)

DORET, STEPHEN CHARLES B.A. (Williams College) 2002, A.M. (Harvard University) 2006. A buffer-gas cooled Bose-Einstein condensate . (Doyle)

FALK, ABRAM LOCKHART, B.A. (Swarthmore College) 2003. (Harvard University) 2004. Electrical Plasmon Detection and Phase Transitions in Nanowires . (Park)

HAFEZI, MOHAMMAD, (Sharif University of Technology, Tehran - Ecole Polytechnique, Paris) 2003. (Harvard University) 2005, Strongly interacting systems in AMO physics . (Lukin)

HECKMAN, JONATHAN JACOB, A.B. (Princeton University) 2004. (Harvard University) 2005 F-theory Approach to Particle Physics . (Vafa)

HICKEN, MALCOLM STUART, B.S. (Brigham Young University) 1999. (Harvard University) 2001. Doubling the Nearby Supernova Type Ia Sample . (Stubbs/Kirshner)

HOHENSEE, MICHAEL ANDREW, B.A. (New York University) 2002. (Harvard University) 2004. Testing Fundamental Lorentz Symmetries of Light . (Walsworth)

JIANG, LIANG, B.S. (California Institute of Technology) 2004.  T owards Scalable Quantum Communication and Computation: Novel Approaches and Realizations . (Lukin)

KAPLAN, JARED DANIEL, B.S. (Stanford University) 2005. Aspects of Holography . (Georgi/Arkani-Hamed)

KLEIN, MASON JOSEPH, B.S. (Calvin College) 2002. Slow and Stored Light in Atomic Vapor Cells . (Walsworth)

KRICH, JACOB JONATHAN, B.A. (Swarthmore College) 2000, MMath (Oxford University) 2003. (Harvard University) 2004. Electron and Nuclear Spins in Semiconductor Quantum Dots . (Halperin)

LAHIRI, SUBHANEIL, M.A. (Oxford University) 2003. Black holes from fluid mechanics. (Yin/Minwalla)

LIN, YI-CHIA, B.S. (National Taiwan Normal University) 1999. (National Tsing Hua University) 2001. Elasticity of Biopolymer Networks. (Weitz)

LUO, LINJIAO, B.S. (University of Science and Technology China) 2003. Thermotactic behavior in C. elegans and Drosophila larvae. (Samuel)

PADI, MEGHA, B.S. (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) 2003. A Black Hole Quartet: New Solutions and Applications to String Theory. (Strominger)

PASTRAS, GEORGIOS, DIPLOMA (University of Patras) 2002. (Harvard University) 2004. Thermal Field Theory Applications in Modern Aspects of High Energy Physics.  (Denef/Arkani-Hamed)

PEPPER, RACHEL E., B.S. (Cambridge) 2004. Splashing, Feeding, Contracting: Drop impact and fluid dynamics of Vorticella (Stone)

SHAFEE, REBECCA, B.S. (California Institute of Technology) 2002. (Harvard University) 2004. Measuring Black Hole Spin. (Narayan/McClintock)

WANG, CHRISTINE YI-TING, B.S. (National Taiwan University) 2002. (Harvard University) 2004. Multiode dynamics in Quantum Cascade Lasers: from coherent instability to mode locking. (Hoffman/Capasso)

ZHANG, YIMING, B.S. (Peking University) 2003. (Harvard University) 2006. Waves, Particles, and Interactions in Reduced Dimensions . (Marcus)

BARTHEL, CHRISTIAN, Diploma (University of Kaiserslautern) 2005. Control and Fast Measurement of Spin Qubits . (Marcus)

CAVANAUGH, STEVEN, B.S. (Rutgers College) 2005. (Harvard University) 2006. A Measurement of Electron Neutrino Appearance in the MINOS Experiment after Four Years of Data . (Feldman)

CHERNG, ROBERT, WEN-CHIEH, B.S. (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) 2004. Non-Equilibrium Dynamics and Novel Quantum Phases of Multicomponent Ultracold Atoms . (Demler)

FOLETTI, SANDRA ELISABETTA, Diploma (Federal Institute of Technology Zurich) 2004. Manipulation and Coherence of a Two-Electron Logical Spin Qubit Using GaAs Double Quantum Dots . (Yacoby)

GIRASH, JOHN ANDREW, B.S. (University of Western Ontario) 1990. (University of Western Ontario) 1993. A Fokker-Planck Study of Dense Rotating Stellar Clusters . (Stubbs/Field)

GOODSELL, ANNE LAUREL, B.A. (Bryn Mawr College) 2002. (Harvard University) 2004. Capture of Laser-Cooled Atoms with a Carbon Nanotube . (Hau)

GORSHKOV, ALEXEY VYACHESLAVOVICH, A.B. (Harvard College) 2004. (Harvard University) 2006. Novel Systems and Methods for Quantum Communication, Quantum Computation, and Quantum Simulation . (Lukin)

GUISE, NICHOLAS DAMIEN SUN-WO, B.S. (California Institute of Technology) 2003. Spin-Flip Resolution Achieved with a One-Proton Self-Excited Oscillator. (Gabrielse)

HARTMAN, THOMAS EDWARD, A.B. (Princeton University) 2004. Extreme Black Hole Holography. (Strominger)

HIGH, FREDRICK WILLIAM, B.A. (University of California Berkeley) 2004. The Dawn of Wide-Field Sunyaev-Zel’dovich Cluster Surveys: Efficient Optical Follow-Up. (Stubbs)

HOOGERHEIDE, DAVID PAUL, B.S. (Western Michigan University) 2004. Stochastic Processes in Solid State Nanoporers. (Golovchenko)

HUMMON, MATTHEW TAYLOR, B.A. (Amherst College) 2002, (Harvard University) 2005. Magnetic trapping of atomic nitrogen and cotrapping of NH. (Doyle)

KATS, YEVGENY, B.S. (Bar-Ilan University) 2003. (Bar-Ilan University) 2005. Physics of Conformal Field Theories. (Georgi/Arkani-Hamed)

KOROLEV, KIRILL SERGEEVICH, B.S. (Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology) 2004. Statistical Physics of Topological Emulsions and Expanding Populations. (Nelson)

LAIRD, EDWARD ALEXANDER, M.Phys (University of Oxford) 2002. (Harvard University) 2005. Electrical Control of Quantum Dot Spin Qubits . (Marcus)

LAROCHELLE, PHILIPPE, B.S. (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) 2003. Machines and Methods for Trapping Antihydrogen. (Gabrielse)

LI, GENE-WEI, B.S. (National Tsinghua University) 2004. Single-Molecule Spatiotemporal Dynamics in Living Bacteria. (Nelson/Xie)

MAZE RIOS, JERONIMO, B.S. (Pont Catholic University), 2002. (Pont Catholic University) 2004. Quantum Manipulation of Nitrogen-Vacancy Centers in Diamond: from Basic Properties to Applications. (Lukin)

PATTERSON, DAVID, A.B. (Harvard College) 1997. Buffer Gas Cooled Beams and Cold Molecular Collisions. (Doyle)  

PENG, AMY WAN-CHIH, B.Sc. (University of Auckland), (Australian National University) 2005. Optical Lattices with Quantum Gas Microscope . (Greiner)

QI, YANG, B.S. (Tsinghua University) 2005. Spin and Charge Fluctuations in Strongly Correlated Systems . (Sachdev)

ROJAS, ENRIQUE ROBERTSON, B.A. (University of Pennsylvania) 2003. The Physics of Tip-Growing Cells. (Nelson/Dumais)

SEO, JIHYE, B.S. (Korea Adv. Inst. of Science & Technology) 2003. (Harvard University) 2010. D-Branes, Supersymmetry Breaking, and Neutrinos . (Vafa)

SIMON, JONATHAN, B.S. (California Institute of Technology) 2004. Cavity QED with Atomic Ensembles. (Lukin/Vuletic)

SLATYER, TRACY ROBYN, Ph.B. (Australian National University) 2005. (Harvard University) 2008. Signatures of a New Force in the Dark Matter Sector. (Finkbeiner)

TAFVIZI, ANAHITA, B.S. (Sharif University of Technology) 2004. Single-Molecule and Computational Studies of Protein-DNA Interactions. (Cohen/Mirny/van Oijen)

WINKLER, MARK THOMAS, B.S.E. (Case Western Reserve) 2004. Non-Equilibrium Chalcogen Concentrations in Silicon: Physical Structure, Electronic Transport, and Photovoltaic Potential. (Mazur)

ANNINOS, DIONYSIOS Theodoros,B.A. (Cornell University) 2006, (Harvard University) 2008. Classical and Quantum Symmetries of de Sitter Space . (Strominger) >

BAKR, WASEEM S., B.S. (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) 2005. Microscopic studies of quantum phase transitions in optical lattices . (Greiner)

BARAK, GILAD, B.S. (Hebrew University) 2000, (Tel Aviv University) 2006. Momentum resolved tunneling study of interaction effects in ID electron systems .(Yacoby)

BARANDES, JACOB AARON, B.A. (ColumbiaUniversity) 2004. Exploring Supergravity Landscapes . (Denef)

BISWAS, RUDRO RANA, B.S. (Calcutta University) 2003, (Harvard University) 2011. Explorations in Dirac Fermions and Spin Liquids . (Sachdev)

CHEN, PEIQIU, B.S. (University of Science and Technology China) 2004, (Harvard University) 2005. Molecular evolution and thermal adaptation . (Nelson/Shakhnovich)

FREUDIGER, CHRISTIAN WILHELM, Diploma (Technische Universitat of München) 2005, (Harvard University) 2007. Stimulated Raman Scattering (SRS) Microscopy . (Zhuang/Xie)

GALLICCHIO, JASON RICHARD, B.S. (University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign) 1999, (University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign) 2001. A Multivariate Approach to Jet Substructure and Jet Superstructure . (Schwartz)

GLENDAY, ALEXANDER, B.A. (Williams College) 2002. Progress in Tests of Fundamental Physics Using  a 3He and 129Xe Zeeman Maser . (Stubbs/Walsworth)

GOLDMAN, JOSHUA DAVID, A.B. (Cornell University) 2002, (University of Cambridge) 2003, (Imperial College London) 2004. Planar Penning Traps with Anharmonicity Compensation for Single-Electron Qubits. (Gabrielse)

HUH, YEJIN, B.S. (Yale University) 2006, (Harvard University) 2008. Quantum Phase Transitions in d-wave Superconductors and Antiferromagnetic Kagome Lattices . (Sachdev)

KASHIF, LASHKAR, B.S. (Yale University) 2003. Measurement of the Z boson cross-section in the dimuon channel in pp collisions at sqrt{s} = 7 TeV . (Huth)

KAZ, DAVID MARTIN, B.S. (University of Arizona) 2003, (Harvard University) 2008. Colloidal Particles and Liquid Interfaces: A Spectrum of Interactions. (Manoharan)

KOLTHAMMER, WILLIAM STEVEN, B.S. (Harvey Mudd College) 2004, (Harvard University) 2006. Antimatter Plasmas Within a Penning-Ioffe Trap . (Gabrielse)

LEE-BOEHM, CORRY LOUISE, B.S.E. (University of Colorado) 2004, (Harvard University) 2011. B0 Meson Decays to rho0 K*0, f0 K*0, and rho- K*+, Including Higher K* Resonances . (Morii)

MARTINEZ-OUTSCHOORN, VERENA INGRID, B.A. (Harvard University) 2004, (Harvard University) 2007. Measurement of the Charge Asymmetry of W Bosons Produced in pp Collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV with the ATLAS Detector . (Guimaraes da Costa)

MCCONNELL, ROBERT PURYEAR, B.S. (Stanford University) 2005, (Harvard University) 2007. Laser-Controlled Charge-Exchange Production of Antihydrogen . (Gabrielse)

MCGORTY, RYAN, B.S. (University of Massachusetts) 2005, (Harvard University) 2008. Colloidal Particles at Fluid Interfaces and the Interface of Colloidal Fluids . (Manoharan)

METLITSKI, MAXIM A., B.Sc. (University of British Columbia) 2003, (University of British Columbia) 2005. Aspects of Critical Behavior of Two Dimensional Electron Systems . (Sachdev)

MOON, EUN GOOK, B.S. (Seoul National University) 2005 Superfluidity in Strongly Correlated Systems . (Sachdev)

PETERSON, COURTNEY MARIE, B.S. (Georgetown University) 2002,(University of Cambridge) 2003, (Imperial College London) 2004, (Harvard University) 2007. Testing Multi-Field Inflation . (Stubbs/Tegmark)

PIELAWA, SUSANNE, Diploma (UNIVERSITY OF ULM) 2006, (Harvard University) 2009. Metastable Phases and Dynamics of Low-DimensionalStrongly-Correlated Atomic Quantum Gases . (Sachdev)

PRASAD, SRIVAS, A.B. (Princeton University) 2005, (Harvard University) 2007. Measurement of the Cross-Section of W Bosons Produced in pp Collisions at √s=7 TeV With the ATLAS Detector . (Guimaraes da Costa)

ROMANOWSKY, MARK, B.A. (Swarthmore College) 2003. High Throughput Microfluidics for Materials Synthesis . (Weitz)

SMITH, BEN CAMPBELL, B.A. (Harvard University) 2005. Measurement of the Transverse Momentum Spectrum of W Bosons Produced at √s = 7 TeV using the ATLAS Detector . (Morii)

TANJI, HARUKA, B.S. (University of Tokyo) 2002, (University of Tokyo) 2005, (Harvard University) 2009. Few-Photon Nonlinearity with an Atomic Ensemble in an Optical Cavity . (Lukin/Vuletic)

TRODAHL, HALVAR JOSEPH, B. Sc. (Victoria University) 2005, (Harvard University) 2008. Low Temperature Scanning Probe Microscope for Imaging Nanometer Scale Electronic Devices. (Westervelt)

WILLIAMS, TESS, B.Sc. (Stanford University) 2005. Nanoscale Electronic Structure of Cuprate Superconductors Investigated with Scanning Tunneling Spectroscopy. (Hoffman)

ANDERSEN, JOSEPH, B.S. (Univ. of Queensland) 1999. Investigations of the Convectively Coupled Equatorial Waves and the Madden-Julian Oscillation. (Huth)

BREDBERG, IRENE, M.PHYS., M.Sc. (Univ. of Oxford) 2006, 2007. The Einstein and the Navier-Stokes Equations:  Connecting the Two . (Strominger)

CHURCHILL, HUGH, B.A., B.M. (Oberlin College) 2006. Quantum Dots in Gated Nanowires and Nanotubes. (Marcus)

CONNOLLY, COLIN Inelastic Collisions of Atomic Antimony, Aluminum, Eerbium and Thulium Below . (Doyle)

CORDOVA, CLAY, B.A. (Columbia University) 2007. Supersymmetric Spectroscopy. (Vafa)

DILLARD, COLIN, S.B. (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) 2006. Quasiparticle Tunneling and High Bias Breakdown in the Fractional Quantum Hall Effect. (Kastner/Silvera)

DOWD, JASON, A.B. (Washington Univ.) 2006;(Harvard Univ.) 2008. Interpreting Assessments of Student Learning in the Introductory Physics Classroom and Laboratory. (Mazur)

GOLDSTEIN, GARRY Applications of Many Body Dynamics of Solid State Systems to Quantum Metrology and Computation (Chamon/Sachdev)

GUREVICH, YULIA, B.S. (Yale University) 2005. Preliminary Measurements for an Electron EDM Experiment in ThO. (Gabrielse)

KAGAN, MICHAEL, B.S. (Univ. of Michigan) 2006; (Harvard Univ.) 2008. Measurement of the W ± Z production cross section and limits on anomalous triple gauge couplings at √S = 7 TeV using the ATLAS detector. (Morii)

LIN, TONGYAN, S.B. (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) 2007; (Harvard Univ.) 2009. Signals of Particle Dark Matter. (Finkbeiner)

McCLURE, DOUGLAS, B.A. (Harvard University) 2006; (Harvard University) 2008. Interferometer-Based Studies of Quantum Hall Phenomena. (Marcus)

MAIN, ELIZABETH, B.S.(Harvey Mudd College) 2004; (Harvard Univ.) 2006. Investigating Atomic Scale Disordered Stripes in the Cuprate Superconductors with Scanning Tunneling Microscopy. (Hoffman)

MASON, DOUGLAS Toward a Design Principle in Mesoscopic Systems . (Heller/Kaxiras)

MULUNEH, MELAKU, B.A. (Swarthmore College) 2003. Soft colloids from p(NIPAm-co-AAc): packing dynamics and structure. (Weitz)

PIVONKA, ADAM Nanoscale Imaging of Phase Transitions with Scanning Force Microscopy . (Hoffman)

REAL, ESTEBAN, A.B. (Harvard University) 2002; (Harvard University) 2007. Models of visual processing by the retina. (Meister/Franklin)

RICHERME, PHILIP, S.B. (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) 2006; (Harvard University) 2008. Trapped Antihydrogen in Its Ground State. (Gabrielse)

SANTOS, LUIZ, B.S. (Univ. Fed. Do Espito Santo) 2004. Topological Properties of Interacting Fermionic Systems. (Chamon/Halperin)

SCHLAFLY, EDWARD, B.S. (Stanford University) 2007; (Harvard University) 2011. Dust in Large Optical Surveys. (Finkbeiner)

SETIAWAN, WIDAGDO, B.S. (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) 2007. Fermi Gas Microscope . (Greiner)

SHUVE, BRIAN, B.A.Sc. (University of Toronto) 2007; (Harvard University) 2011. Dark and Light: Unifying the Origins of Dark and Visible Matter. (Randall)

SIMMONS-DUFFIN, DAVID, A.B., A.M. (Harvard University) 2006. Carving Out the Space of Conformal Field Theories. (Randall)

TEMPEL, DAVID, B.A. (Hunter College) 2007. Time-dependent density functional theory for open quantum systems and quantum computation. (Aspuru-Guzik/Cohen)  

VENKATCHALAM, VIVEK, S.B. (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) 2006. Single Electron Probes of Fractional Quantum Hall States. (Yacoby)  

VLASSAREV, DIMITAR, B.S. (William and Mary) 2005; (Harvard University) 2007. DNA Characterization with Solid-State Nanopores and Combined Carbon Nanotube across Solid-State Nanopore Sensors . (Golovchenko)  

WANG, WENQIN, B.S. (Univ. of Science and Technology of China) 2006. Structures and dynamics in live bacteria revealed by super-resolution fluorescence microscopy. (Zhuang)

WANG, YIHUA Laser-Based Angle-Resolved Photoemission Spectroscopy of Topological Insulators. (Gedik / Hoffman)

WISSNER-GROSS, ZACHARY Symmetry Breaking in Neuronal Development. (Yanik /Levine)

YONG, EE HOU, B.Sc. (Stanford University) 2003. Problems at the Nexus of Geometry and Soft Matter: Rings, Ribbons and Shells. (Mahadevan)

ANOUS, TAREK Explorations in de Sitter Space and Amorphous Black Hole Bound States in String Theory . (Strominger)

BABADI, MEHRTASH Non-Equilibrium Dynamics of Artificial Quantum Matter . (Demler)

BRUNEAUX, LUKE Multiple Unnecessary Protein Sources and Cost to Growth Rate in E.coli. (Prentiss)

CHIEN, YANG TING Jet Physics at High Energy Colliders Matthew . (Schwartz)

CHOE, HWAN SUNG Choe Modulated Nanowire Structures for Exploring New Nanoprocessor Architectures and Approaches to Biosensing. (Lieber/Cohen)

COPETE, ANTONIO BAT Slew Survey (BATSS): Slew Data Analysis for the Swift-BAT Coded Aperture Imaging Telescope . (Stubbs)

DATTA, SUJIT Getting Out of a Tight Spot: Physics of Flow Through Porous Materials . (Weitz)

DISCIACCA, JACK First Single Particle Measurements of the Proton and Antiproton Magnetic Moments . (Gabrielse)

DORR, JOSHUA Quantum Jump Spectroscopy of a Single Electron in a New and Improved Apparatus . (Gabrielse )

DZYABURA, VASILY Pathways to a Metallic Hydrogen . (Silvera)

ESPAHBODI, SAM 4d Spectra from BPS Quiver Dualities. (Vafa)

FANG, JIEPING New Methods to Create Multielectron Bubbles in Liquid Helium . (Silvera)

FELDMAN, BEN Measurements of Interaction-Driven States in Monolayer and Bilayer Graphene . (Yacoby)

FOGWELL HOOGERHEIDE, SHANNON Trapped Positrons for High-Precision Magnetic Moment Measurements . (Gabrielse)

FUNG, JEROME Measuring the 3D Dynamics of Multiple Colloidal Particles with Digital Holographic Microscopy . (Manoharan)

GULLANS, MICHAEL Controlling Atomic, Solid-State and Hybrid Systems for Quantum Information Processing. (Lukin)

JAWERTH, LOUISE MARIE The Mechanics of Fibrin Networks and their Alterations by Platelets . (Weitz)

JEANTY, LAURA Measurement of the WZ Production Cross Section in Proton-Proton Collision at √s = 7 TeV and Limits on Anomalous Triple Gauge Couplings with the ATLAS Detector . (Franklin)

JENSEN, KATHERINE Structure and Defects of Hard-Sphere Colloidal Crystals and Glasses . (Weitz)

KAHAWALA, DILANI S Topics on Hadron Collider Physics . (Randall)

KITAGAWA, TAKUYA New Phenomena in Non-Equilibrium Quantum Physics . (Demler)

KOU, ANGELA Microscopic Properties of the Fractional Quantum Hall Effect . (Halperin)

LIN, TINA Dynamics of Charged Colloids in Nonpolar Solvents . (Weitz)

MCCORMICK, ANDREW Discrete Differential Geometry and Physics of Elastic Curves . (Mahadevan)

REDDING, JAMES Medford Spin Qubits in Double and Triple Quantum Dots . (Marcus/Yacoby)

NARAYAN, GAUTHAM Light Curves of Type Ia Supernovae and Preliminary Cosmological Constraints from the ESSENCE Survey . (Stubbs)

PAN, TONY Properties of Unusually Luminous Supernovae . (Loeb)

RASTOGI, ASHWIN Brane Constructions and BPS Spectra . (Vafa)

RUEL, JONATHAN Optical Spectroscopy and Velocity Dispersions of SZ-selected Galaxy Clusters . (Stubbs)

SHER, MENG JU Intermediate Band Properties of Femtosecond-Laser Hyperdoped Silicon . (Mazur)

TANG, YIQIAO Chirality of Light and Its Interaction with Chiral Matter . (Cohen)

TAYCHATANAPAT, THITI From Hopping to Ballistic Transport in Graphene-Based Electronic Devices . (Jarillo-Herrero/Yacoby)

VISBAL, ELI  Future Probes of Cosmology and the High-Redshift Universe . (Loeb)

ZELJKOVIC, ILIJA Visualizing the Interplay of Structural and Electronic Disorders in High-Temperature Superconductors using Scanning Tunneling Microscopy . (Hoffman)

ZEVI DELLA PORTA, GIOVANNI Measurement of the Cross-Section for W Boson Production in Association With B-Jets in Proton-Proton Collisions at √S = 7 Tev at the LHC Using the ATLAS Detector . (Franklin)

AU, YAT SHAN LinkInelastic collisions of atomic thorium and molecular thorium monoxide with cold helium-3. (Doyle)

BARR, MATTHEW Coherent Scattering in Two Dimensions: Graphene and Quantum Corrals . (Heller)

CHANG, CHI-MING Higher Spin Holography. (Yin)

CHU, YIWEN Quantum optics with atom-like systems in diamond. (Lukin)

GATANOV, TIMUR Data-Driven Analysis of Mitotic Spindles . (Needleman/Kaxiras)

GRINOLDS, MICHAEL Nanoscale magnetic resonance imaging and magnetic sensing using atomic defects in diamond. (Yacoby)

GUERRA, RODRIGO Elasticity of Compressed Emulsions . (Weitz)

HERRING, PATRICK LinkLow Dimensional Carbon Electronics. (Jarillo-Herrero/Yacoby)

HESS, PAUL W. LinkImproving the Limit on the Electron EDM: Data Acquisition and Systematics Studies in the ACME Experiment. (Gabrielse)

HOU, JENNIFER Dynamics in Biological Soft Materials . (Cohen)

HUBER, FLORIAN Site-Resolved Imaging with the Fermi Gas Microscope. (Greiner)

HUTZLER, NICHOLAS A New Limit on the Electron Electric Dipole Moment . (Doyle)

KESTIN, GREG Light-Shell Theory Foundations. (Georgi)

LYSOV, VYACHESLAV From Petrov-Einstein to Navier-Stokes. (Strominger)

MA, RUICHAO Engineered Potentials and Dynamics of Ultracold Quantum Gases under the Microscope. (Greiner)

MAURER, PETER Coherent control of diamond defects for quantum information science and quantum sensing. (Lukin)

NG, GIM SENG Aspects of Symmetry in de Sitter Space. (Strominger)

NICOLAISEN, LAUREN Distortions in Genealogies due to Purifying Selection. (Desai)

NURGALIEV, DANIYAR A Study of the Radial and Azimuthal Gas Distribution in Massive Galaxy Clusters. (Stubbs)

RUBIN, DOUGLAS Properties of Dark Matter Halos and Novel Signatures of Baryons in Them . (Loeb)

RUSSELL, EMILY Structure and Properties of Charged Colloidal Systems. (Weitz)

SHIELDS, BRENDAN Diamond Platforms for Nanoscale Photonics and Metrology. (Lukin)

SPAUN, BENJAMIN A Ten-Fold Improvement to the Limit of the Electron Electric Dipole Moment. (Gabrielse)

YAO, NORMAN Topology, Localization, and Quantum Information in Atomic, Molecular and Optical Systems. (Lukin)

YEE, MICHAEL Scanning Tunneling Spectroscopy of Topological Insulators and Cuprate Superconductors. (Hoffman)

BENJAMIN, DAVID ISAIAH Impurity Physics in Resonant X-Ray Scattering and Ultracold Atomic Gases . (Demler)

BEN-SHACH, GILAD Theoretical Considerations for Experiments to Create and Detect Localised Majorana Modes in Electronic Systems. (Halperin/Yacoby)

CHANG, WILLY Superconducting Proximity Effect in InAs Nanowires . (Marcus/Yacoby)

CHUNG, HYEYOUN Exploring Black Hole Dynamics . (Randall)

INCORVIA, JEAN ANNE CURRIVAN Nanoscale Magnetic Materials for Energy-Efficient Spin Based Transistors. (Westervelt)

FEIGE, ILYA ERIC ALEXANDER Factorization and Precision Calculations in Particle Physics. (Schwartz)

FRENZEL, ALEX Terahertz Electrodynamics of Dirac Fermions in Graphene. (Hoffman)

HSU, CHIA WEI Novel Trapping and Scattering of Light in Resonant Nanophotonic Structures. (Cohen)

JORGOLLI, MARSELA Integrated nanoscale tools for interrogating living cells. (Park)

KALRA, RITA RANI An Improved Antihydrogen Trap. (Gabrielse)

KOLKOWITZ, SHIMON JACOB Nanoscale Sensing with Individual Nitrogen-Vacancy Centers in Diamond. (Lukin)

LAVRENTOVICH, MAXIM OLEGOVICH Diffusion, Absorbing States, and Nonequilibrium Phase Transitions in Range Expansions and Evolution. (Nelson)

LIU, BO Selected Topics in Scattering Theory: From Chaos to Resonance. (Heller)

LOCKHART, GUGLIELMO PAUL Self-Dual Strings of Six-Dimensional SCFTs . (Vafa)

MAGKIRIADOU, SOFIA Structural Color from Colloidal Glasses. (Manoharan)

MCIVER, JAMES W. Nonlinear Optical and Optoelectronic Studies of Topological Insulator Surfaces. (Hoffman)

MEISNER, AARON MICHAEL Full-sky, High-resolution Maps of Interstellar Dust. (Finkbeiner)

MERCURIO, KEVIN MICHAEL A Search for the Higgs Boson Produced in Association with a Vector Boson Using the ATLAS Detector at the LHC. (Huth)

NOWOJEWSKI, ANDRZEJ KAZIMIERZ Pathogen Avoidance by Caenorhabditis Elegans is a Pheromone-Mediated Collective Behavior. (Levine)

PISKORSKI, JULIA HEGE Cooling, Collisions and non-Sticking of Polyatomic Molecules in a Cryogenic Buffer Gas Cell. (Doyle)

SAJJAD, AQIL An Effective Theory on the Light Shell. (Georgi)

SCHADE, NICHOLAS BENJAMIN Self-Assembly of Plasmonic Nanoclusters for Optical Metafluids. (Manoharan)

SHULMAN, MICHAEL DEAN Entanglement and Metrology with Singlet-Triplet Qubits. (Yacoby)

SPEARMAN, WILLIAM R. Measurement of the Mass and Width of the Higgs Boson in the H to ZZ to 4l Decay Channel Using Per-Event Response Information. (Guimaraes da Costa)

THOMPSON, JEFFREY DOUGLAS A Quantum Interface Between Single Atoms and Nanophotonic Structures. (Lukin)

WANG, TOUT TAOTAO Small Diatomic Alkali Molecules at Ultracold Temperatures. (Doyle)

WONG, CHIN LIN Beam Characterization and Systematics of the Bicep2 and Keck Array Cosmic Microwave Background Polarization Experiments. (Kovac)

AGARWAL, KARTIEK Slow Dynamics in Quantum Matter: the Role of Dimensionality, Disorder and Dissipation. (Demler)

ALLEN, MONICA Quantum electronic transport in mesoscopic graphene devices. (Yacoby)

CHAE, EUNMI Laser Slowing of CaF Molecules and Progress towards a Dual-MOT for Li and CaF. (Doyle)

CHOTIBUT, THIPARAT Aspects of Statistical Fluctuations in Evolutionary and Population Dynamics. (Nelson)

CHOWDHURY, DEBANJAN Interplay of Broken Symmetries and Quantum Criticality in Correlated Electronic Systems. (Sachdev)

CLARK, BRIAN Search for New Physics in Dijet Invariant Mass Spectrum. (Huth)

FARHI, DAVID Jets and Metastability in Quantum Mechanics and Quantum Field Theory. (Schwartz)

FORSYTHE, MARTIN Advances in Ab Initio Modeling of the Many-Body Effects of Dispersion Interactions in Functional Organic Materials. (Aspuru-Guzik/Ni)

GOOD, BENJAMIN Molecular evolution in rapidly evolving populations. (Desai)

HART, SEAN Electronic Phenomena in Two-Dimensional Topological Insulators. (Yacoby)

HE, YANG Scanning Tunneling Microscopy Study on Strongly Correlated Materials. (Hoffman)

HIGGINBOTHAM, ANDREW Quantum Dots for Conventional and Topological Qubits. (Marcus/Westervelt)

HUANG, DENNIS Nanoscale Investigations of High-Temperature Superconductivity in a Single Atomic Layer of Iron Selenide. (Hoffman)

ISAKOV, ALEXANDER The Collective Action Problem in a Social and a Biophysical System. (Mahadevan)

KLALES, ANNA A classical perspective on non-diffractive disorder. (Heller)

KOBY, TIMOTHY Development of a Trajectory Model for the Analysis of Stratospheric Water Vapor. (Anderson/Heller)

KOMAR, PETER Quantum Information Science and Quantum Metrology: Novel Systems and Applications. (Lukin)

KUCSCKO, GEORG Coupled Spins in Diamond: From Quantum Control to Metrology and Many-Body Physics. (Lukin)

LAZOVICH, TOMO Observation of the Higgs boson in the WW* channel and search for Higgs boson pair production in the bb ̅bb ̅ channel with the ATLAS detector. (Franklin)

LEE, JUNHYUN Novel quantum phase transitions in low-dimensional systems. (Sachdev)

LIN, YING-HSUAN Conformal Bootstrap in Two Dimensions. (Yin)

LUCAS, ANDREW Transport and hydrodynamics in holography, strange metals and graphene. (Sachdev)

MACLAURIN, DOUGAL Modeling, Inference and Optimization with Composable Differentiable Procedures. (Adams/Cohen)

PARSONS, MAXWELL Probing the Hubbard Model with Single-Site Resolution. (Greiner)

PATEJ, ANNA Distributions of Gas and Galaxies from Galaxy Clusters to Larger Scales. (Eisenstein/Loeb/Finkbeiner)

PITTMAN, SUZANNE The Classical-Quantum Correspondence of Polyatomic Molecules. (Heller)

POPA, CRISTINA Simulating the Cosmic Gas: From Globular Clusters to the Most Massive Haloes. (Randall)

PORFYRIADIS, ACHILLEAS Gravitational waves from the Kerr/CFT correspondence . (Strominger)

PREISS, PHILIPP Atomic Bose-Hubbard systems with single-particle control. (Greiner)

SHAO, SHU-HENG Supersymmetric Particles in Four Dimensions. (Yin)

YEN, ANDY Search for Weak Gaugino Production in Final States with One Lepton, Two b-jets Consistent with a Higgs Boson, and Missing Transverse Momentum with the ATLAS detector. (Huth)

BERCK, MATTHEW ELI Reconstructing and Analyzing the Wiring Diagram of the Drosophila Larva Olfactory System. (Samuel)

COUGHLIN, MICHAEL WILLIAM Gravitational Wave Astronomy in the LSST Era. (Stubbs)

DIMIDUK, THOMAS Holographic Microscopy for Soft Matter and Biophysics. (Manoharan)

FROST, WILLIAM THOMAS Tunneling in Quantum Field Theory and the Fate of the Universe. (Schwartz)

JERISON, ELIZABETH Epistasis and Pleiotropy in Evolving Populations. (Desai)

KAFKA, GARETH A Search for Sterile Neutrinos at the NOνA Far Detector. (Feldman)

KOSHELEVA, EKATERINA Genetic Draft and Linked Selection in Rapidly Adapting Populations. (Desai)

KOSTINSKI, SARAH VALERIE Geometrical Aspects of Soft Matter and Optical Systems. (Brenner)

KOZYRYEV, IVAN Laser Cooling and Inelastic Collisions of the Polyatomic Radical SrOH. (Doyle)

KRALL, REBECCA Studies of Dark Matter and Supersymmetry. (Reece)

KRAMER, ERIC DAVID Observational Constraints on Dissipative Dark Matter. (Randall)

LEE, LUCY EUNJU Network Analysis of Transcriptome to Reveal Interactions Among Genes and Signaling Pathways. (Levine)

LOVCHINSKY, IGOR Nanoscale Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy Using Individual Spin Qubits. (Lukin)

LUPSASCA, ALEXANDRU The Maximally Rotating Black Hole as a Critical Point in Astronomy. (Strominger)

MANSURIPUR, TOBIAS The Effect of Intracavity Field Variation on the Emission Properties of Quantum Cascade Lasers. (Capasso/Yacoby)

MARANTAN, ANDREW WILLIAM The Roles of Randomness in Biophysics: From Cell Growth to Behavioral Control. (Mahadevan)

MASHIAN, NATALIE Modeling the Constituents of the Early Universe. (Loeb/Stubbs)

MAZURENKO, ANTON Probing Long Range Antiferromagnetism and Dynamics in the Fermi-Hubbard Model. (Greiner)

MITRA, PRAHAR Asymptotic Symmetries in Four Dimensional Gauge and Gravity Theories. (Strominger)

NEAGU, IULIA ALEXANDRA Evolutionary Dynamics of Infection. (Nowak/Prentiss)

PETRIK WEST, ELIZABETH A Thermochemical Cryogenic Buffer Gas Beam Source of ThO for Measuring the Electric Dipole Moment of the Electron. (Doyle)

RUDELIUS, THOMAS Topics in the String Landscape and the Swampland. (Vafa)

SAKLAYEN, NABIHA Laser-Activated Plasmonic Substrates for Intracellular Delivery. (Mazur)

SIPAHIGIL, ALP Quantum Optics with Diamond Color Centers Coupled to Nanophotonic Devices. (Lukin)

SUN, SIYUAN Search for the Supersymmetric Partner to the Top Quark Using Recoils Against Strong Initial State Radiation. (Franklin)

TAI, MING ERIC Microscopy of Interacting Quantum Systems. (Greiner)

TOLLEY, EMMA Search for Evidence of Dark Matter Production in Monojet Events with the ATLAS Detector. (Morii)

WILSON, ALYSSA MICHELLE New Insights on Neural Circuit Refinement in the Central Nervous System: Climbing Fiber Synapse Elimination in the Developing Mouse Cerebellum Studied with Serial-Section Scanning Electron Microscopy. (Lichtman/Samuel)

BAUCH, ERIK Optimizing Solid-State Spins in Diamond for Nano- to Millimeter scale Magnetic Field Sensing. (Walsworth)

BRACHER, DAVID OLMSTEAD Development of photonic crystal cavities to enhance point defect emission in silicon carbide. (Hu: SEAS)

CHAN, STEPHEN KAM WAH Orthogonal Decompositions of Collision Events and Measurement Combinations in Standard Model $VH\left(b\bar{b}\right)$ Searches with the ATLAS Detector. (Huth)

CHATTERJEE, SHUBHAYU Transport and symmetry breaking in strongly correlated matter with topological order. (Sachdev)

CHOI, SOONWON Quantum Dynamics of Strongly Interacting Many-Body Systems. (Lukin)

CONNORS, JAKE Channel Length Scaling in Microwave Graphene Field Effect Transistors. (Kovac)

DAHLSTROM, ERIN KATRINA Quantifying and modeling dynamics of heat shock detection and response in the intestine of Caenorhabditis elegans. (Levine)

DAYLAN, TANSU A Transdimensional Perspective on Dark Matter. (Finkbeiner)

DOVZHENKO, YULIYA Imaging of Condensed Matter Magnetism Using an Atomic-Sized Sensor. (Yacoby)

EVANS, RUFFIN ELEY An integrated diamond nanophotonics platform for quantum optics. (Lukin)

FLEMING, STEPHEN Probing nanopore - DNA interactions with MspA. (Golovchenko)

FRYE, CHRISTOPHER Understanding Jet Physics at Modern Particle Colliders. (Schwartz)

FU, WENBO The Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev model and matter without quasiparticles. (Sachdev)

GOLDMAN, MICHAEL LURIE Coherent Optical Control of Atom-Like Defects in Diamond: Probing Internal Dynamics and Environmental Interactions. (Lukin)

HE, TEMPLE MU On Soft Theorems and Asymptotic Symmetries in Four Dimensions. (Strominger)

HOYT, ROBERT Understanding Catalysts with Density Functional Theory and Machine Learning. (Kaxiras)

KAPEC, DANIEL STEVEN Aspects of Symmetry in Asymptotically Flat Spacetimes. (Strominger)

LEE, ALBERT Mapping the Relationship Between Interstellar Dust and Radiation in the Milky Way. (Finkbeiner)

LEE, JAEHYEON Prediction and Inference Methods for Modern Astronomical Surveys (Eisenstein, Finkbeiner)

LUKIN, ALEXANDER Entanglement Dynamics in One Dimension -- From Quantum Thermalization to Many-Body Localization (Greiner)

NOVITSKI, ELISE M. Apparatus and Methods for a New Measurement of the Electron and Positron Magnetic Moments. (Gabrielse)

PATHAK, ABHISHEK Holography Beyond AdS/CFT: Explorations in Kerr/CFT and Higher Spin DS/CFT. (Strominger)

PETERMAN, NEIL Sequence-function models of regulatory RNA in E. coli. (Levine)

PICK, ADI Spontaneous Emission in Nanophotonics. (Johnson: MIT)

PO, HOI CHUN Keeping it Real: An Alternative Picture for Symmetry and Topology in Condensed Matter Systems. (Vishwanath)

REN, HECHEN Topological Superconductivity in Two-Dimensional Electronic Systems. (Yacoby)

ROXLO, THOMAS Opening the black box of neural nets: case studies in stop/top discrimination. (Reece)

SHTYK, OLEKSANDR Designing Singularities in Electronic Dispersions (Chamon, Demler)

TONG, BAOJIA Search for pair production of Higgs bosons in the four b quark final state with the ATLAS detector. (Franklin)

WHITSITT, SETH Universal non-local observables at strongly interacting quantum critical points. (Sachdev)

YAN, KAI Factorization in hadron collisions from effective field theory. (Schwartz)

AMATOGRILL, JESSE A Fast 7Li-based Quantum Simulator (Ketterle, Greiner)

BARON, JACOB Tools for Higher Dimensional Study of the Drosophila Larval Olfactory System (Samuel)

BUZA, VICTOR Constraining Primordial Gravitational Waves Using Present and Future CMB Experiments (Kovac)

CHAEL, ANDREW Simulating and Imaging Supermassive Black Hole Accretion Flows (Narayan, Dvorkin)

CHIU, CHRISTIE Quantum Simulation of the Hubbard Model (Greiner)

DIPETRILLO, KARRI Search for Long-Lived, Massive Particles in Events with a Displaced Vertex and a Displaced Muon Using sqrt{s} = 13 TeV pp-Collisions with the ATLAS Detector (Franklin)

FANG, SHIANG Multi-scale Theoretical Modeling of Twisted van der Waals Bilayers (Kaxiras)

GAO, PING Traversable Wormholes and Regenesis (Jafferis)

GONSKI, JULIA Probing Natural Supersymmetry with Initial State Radiation: the Search for Stops and Higgsinos at ATLAS (Morii)

HARVEY, SHANNON Developing Singlet-Triplet Qubits in Gallium Arsenide as a Platform for Quantum Computing (Yacoby)

JEFFERSON, PATRICK Geometric Deconstruction of Supersymmetric Quantum Field Theories (Vafa)

KANG, MONICA JINWOO Two Views on Gravity: F-theory and Holography (Jafferis)

KATES-HARBECK, JULIAN Tackling Complexity and Nonlinearity in Plasmas and Networks Using Artificial Intelligence and Analytical Methods  (Desai, Nowak)

KLEIN, ELLEN Structure and Dynamics of Colloidal Clusters (Manoharan)

LEVIN, ANDREI Single-Electron Probes of Two-Dimensional Materials (Yacoby)

LIU, XIAOMENG Correlated Electron States in Coupled Graphene Double-Layer Heterostructures (Kim)

LIU, LEE Building Single Molecules – Reactions, Collisions, and Spectroscopy of Two Atoms (Ni)

MARABLE, KATHRYN Progress Towards a Sub-ppb Measurement of the Antiproton Magnetic Moment (Gabrielse)

MARSHALL, MASON New Apparatus and Methods for the Measurement of the Proton and Antiproton Magnetic Moments (Gabrielse)

MCNAMARA, HAROLD Synthetic Physiology: Manipulating and Measuring Biological Pattern Formation with Light (Cohen)

MEMET, EDVIN Parking, Puckering, and Peeling in Small Soft Systems (Mahadevan)

MUKHAMETZHANOV, BAURZHAN Bootstrapping High-Energy States in Conformal Field Theories (Jafferis)

OLSON, JOSEPH Plasticity and Firing Rate Dynamics in Leaky Integrate-and-Fire Models of Cortical Circuits (Kreiman)

PANDA, CRISTIAN Order of Magnitude Improved Limit on the Electric Dipole Moment of the Electron (Gabrielse)

PASTERSKI, SABRINA Implications of Superrotations (Strominger)

PATE, MONICA Aspects of Symmetry in the Infrared (Strominger)

PATEL, AAVISHKAR Transport, Criticality, and Chaos in Fermionic Quantum Matter at Nonzero Density (Sachdev)

PHELPS, GREGORY A Dipolar Quantum Gas Microscope (Greiner)

RISPOLI, MATTHEW Microscopy of Correlations at a Non-Equilibrium Phase Transition (Greiner)

ROLOFF, JENNIFER Exploring the Standard Model and beyond with jets from proton-proton collisions at sqrt(s)=13 TeV with the ATLAS Experiment (Huth)

ROWAN, MICHAEL Dissipation of Magnetic Energy in Collisionless Accretion Flows (Narayan and Morii)

SAFIRA, ARTHUR NV Magnetic Noise Sensing and Quantum Information Processing, and Llevitating Micromagnets over Type-II Superconductors (Lukin)

SHI, YICHEN Analytical Steps Towards the Observation of High-Spin Black Holes (Strominger)

THOMSON, ALEXANDRA Emergent Dapless Fermions in Strongly-Correlated Phases of Matter and Quantum Critical Points (Sachdev)

WEBB, TATIANA The Nanoscale Structure of Charge Order in Cuprate Superconductor Bi2201 (Hoffman)

WESSELS, MELISSA Progress Toward a Single-Electron Qubit in an Optimized Planar Penning Trap (Gabrielse)

WILLIAMS, MOBOLAJI Biomolecules, Combinatorics, and Statistical Physics (Shakhnovich, Manoharan)

XIONG, ZHAOXI Classification and Construction of Topological Phases of Quantum Matter (Vishwanath)

ZOU, LIUJUN An Odyssey in Modern Quantum Many-Body Physics (Todadri, Sachdev)

ANDEREGG, LOÏC Ultracold molecules in optical arrays: from laser cooling to molecular collisions (Doyle)

BALTHAZAR, BRUNO 2d String Theory and the Non-Perturbative c=1 Matrix Model (Yin)

BAUM, LOUIS Laser cooling and 1D magneto-optical trapping of calcium monohydroxide (Doyle)

CARR, STEPHEN Moiré patterns in 2D materials (Kaxiras)

COLLIER, SCOTT Aspects of local conformal symmetry in 1+1 dimensions (Yin)

DASGUPTA, ISHITA Algorithmic approaches to ecological rationality in humans and machines (Mahadevan)

DILLAVOU, SAMUEL Hidden Dynamics of Static Friction (Manoharan)

FLAMANT, CEDRIC Methods for Converging Solutions of Differential Equations: Applying Imaginary Time Propagation to Density Functional Theory and Unsupervised Neural Networks to Dynamical Systems (Kaxiras)

HUANG, KO-FAN (KATIE) Superconducting Proximity Effect in Graphene (Kim)

JONES, NATHAN Toward Antihydrogen Spectroscopy (Gabrielse)

KABCENELL, AARON Hybrid Quantum Systems with Nitrogen Vacancy Centers and Mechanical Resonators (Lukin)

KATES-HARBECK, JULIAN Tackling complexity and nonlinearity in plasmas and networks using artificial intelligence and analytical methods (Desai)

KIVLICHAN, IAN Faster quantum simulation of quantum chemistry with tailored algorithms and Hamiltonian s (Aspuru-Guzik, Lukin)

KOSOWSKY, MICHAEL Topological Phenomena in Two-Dimensional Electron Systems (Yacoby)

KUATE DEFO, RODRICK Modeling Formation and Stability of Fluorescent Defects in Wide-Bandgap Semiconductors (Kaxiras)

LEE, JONG YEON Fractionalization, Emergent Gauge Dynamics, and Topology in Quantum Matter (Vishwanath)

MARABLE, KATHRYN Progress towards a sub-ppb measurement of the antiproton magnetic moment (Gabrielse)

MCNAMARA, HAROLD Synthetic Physiology: Manipulating and measuring biological pattern formation with light (Cohen)

MEMET, EDVIN Parking, puckering, and peeling in small soft systems (Mahadevan)

NGUYEN, CHRISTIAN Building quantum networks using diamond nanophotonics (Lukin)

OLSON, JOSEPH Plasticity and Firing Rate Dynamics in Leaky Integrate-and-Fire Models of Cortical Circuits (Samuel)

ORONA, LUCAS Advances In The Singlet-Triplet Spin Qubit (Yacoby)

RACLARIU, ANA-MARIA On Soft Symmetries in Gravity and Gauge Theory (Strominger)

RAVI, AAKASH Topics in precision astrophysical spectroscopy (Dvorkin)

SHI, JING Quantum Hall Effect-Mediated Josephson Junctions in Graphene (Kim)

SHI, ZHUJUN Manipulating light with multifunctional metasurfaces (Capasso, Manoharan)

STEINBERG, JULIA Universal Aspects of Quantum-Critical Dynamics In and Out of Equilibrium  (Sachdev)

WILD, DOMINIK Algorithms and Platforms for Quantum Science and Technology (Lukin)

WU, HAI-YIN Biophysics of Mitotic Spindle Positioning in Caenorhabditis elegans Early Embryos (Needleman)

YU, LI Quantum Dynamics in Various Noise Scenarios (Heller)

BARKLEY, SOLOMON Applying Bayesian Inference to Measurements of Colloidal Dynamics (Manoharan)

BHASKAR, MIHIR Diamond Nanophotonic Quantum Networks (Lukin)

BINTU, BOGDAN Genome-scale imaging: from the subcellular structure of chromatin to the 3D organization of the peripheral olfactory system (Dulac,  Zhuang,  Nelson)

CHEN, MINGYUE On knotted surfaces in R 4   (Taubes,  Vafa)

CHO, MINJAE Aspects of string field theory (Yin)

DIAZ RIVERO, ANA Statistically Exploring Cracks in the Lambda Cold Dark Matter Model (Dvorkin)

DWYER, BO NV centers as local probes of two-dimensional materials (Lukin)

GATES, DELILAH Observational Electromagnetic Signatures of Spinning Black Holes (Strominger)

HANNESDOTTIR, HOFIE Analytic Structure and Finiteness of Scattering Amplitudes (Schwartz)

HART, CONNOR Experimental Realization of Improved Magnetic Sensing and Imaging in Ensembles of Nitrogen Vacancy Centers in Diamond (Walsworth, Park)

HÉBERT, ANNE A Dipolar Erbium Quantum Gas Microscope (Greiner)

JI, GEOFFREY Microscopic control and dynamics of a Fermi-Hubbard system (Greiner)

JOE, ANDREW Interlayer Excitons in Atomically Thin van der Waals Semiconductor Heterostructures (Kim)

KEESLING, ALEXANDER Quantum Simulation and Quantum Information Processing with Programmable Rydberg Atom Arrays (Lukin)

KRAHN, AARON Erbium gas quantum microscope (Greiner)

LANGELLIER, NICHOLAS Analytical and Statistical Models for Laboratory and Astrophysical Precision Measurements (Walsworth, Dvorkin)

LEMMA, BEZIA Hierarchical phases of filamentary active matter  (Dogic, Needleman)

LEVINE, HARRY Quantum Information Processing and Quantum Simulation with Programmable Rydberg Atom Arrays (Lukin)

LEVONIAN, DAVID A Quantum Network Node Based on the Silicon Vacancy Defect in Diamond (Lukin)

LIN, ALBERT Characterizing chemosensory responses of C. elegans with multi-neuronal imaging (Samuel)

LIU, SHANG Symmetry, Topology and Entanglement in Quantum Many-Body Systems (Vishwanath)

LIU, YU Bimolecular chemistry at sub-microkelvin temperatures (Ni)

MACHIELSE, BART Electronic and Nanophotonic Integration of a Quantum Network Node in Diamond (Lukin)

MELISSA, MATTHEW Divergence and diversity in rapidly evolving populations (Desai)

MILBOURNE, TIMOTHY All Features Great and Small: Distinquishing the effects of specific magnetically active features on radial-velocity exoplanet detections  (Walsworth)

MITCHELL, JAMES Investigations into Resinicolous Fungi (Pfister, Samuel)

MONDRIK, NICHOLAS Calibration Hardware and Methodology for Large Photometric Surveys (Stubbs)

NANDE, ANJALIKA Mathematical modeling of drug resistance and the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 (Hill, Desai)

PLUMMER, ABIGAIL Reactions and instabilities in fluid layers and elastic sheets (Nelson)

RODRIGUEZ, VICTOR Perturbative and Non-Perturbative Aspects of Two-Dimensional String Theory (Yin)

ROSENFELD, EMMA Novel techniques for control and transduction of solid-state spin qubits (Lukin)

SAMUTPRAPHOOT, POLNOP A quantum network node based on a nanophotonic interface for atoms in optical tweezers (Lukin)

SCHITTKO, ROBERT A method of preparing individual excited eigenstates of small quantum many-body systems  (Greiner)

SCHNEIDER, ELLIOT Stringy ER = EPR (Jafferis)

SONG, XUE-YANG Emergent and topological phenomena in many-body systems: Quantum spin liquids and beyond  (Vishwanath)

ST. GERMAINE, TYLER Beam Systematics and Primordial Gravitational Wave Constraints from the BICEP/Keck Array CMB Experiments (Kovac)

TORRISI, STEVEN Materials Informatics for Catalyst Stability & Functionality (Kaxiras, Kozinsky)

TURNER, MATTHEW Quantum Diamond Microscopes for Biological Systems and Integrated Circuits (Walsworth)

URBACH, ELANA Nanoscale Magnetometry with Single Spin Qubits in Diamond  (Lukin)

VENKAT, SIDDHARTH Modeling Excitons in Transition Metal Dichalcogenide Monolayers (Heller)

VENKATRAMANI, ADITYA Quantum nonlinear optics: controlling few-photon interactions (Lukin, Vuletić)

WANG, ANN A search for long-lived particles with large ionization energy loss in the ATLAS silicon pixel detector using 139 fb^{−1} of sqrt{s} = 13 TeV pp collisions (Franklin)

WILBURN, GREY An Inverse Statistical Physics Method for Biological Sequence Analysis (Eddy, Nelson)

XU, LINDA Searching for Dark Matter in the Early and Late Universe (Randall)

YI, KEXIN Neural Symbolic Machine Reasoning in the Physical World (Mahadevan, Finkbeiner)

YIN, JUN Improving our view of the Universe using Machine Learning  (Finkbeiner)

YU, YICHAO Coherent Creation of Single Molecules from Single Atoms (Ni)

ZHANG, JESSIE Assembling an array of polar molecules with full quantum-state control (Ni)

ZHAO, FRANK The Physics of High-Temperature Superconducting Cuprates in van der Waals Heterostructures (Kim)

ZHOU, LEO Complexity, Algorithms, and Applications of Programmable Quantum Many-Body Systems (Lukin)

ANDERSEN, TROND Local electronic and optical phenomena in two-dimensional materials (Lukin)

ANDERSON, LAUREL Electrical and thermoelectric transport in mixed-dimensional graphitic mesoscopic systems (Kim)

AUGENBRAUN, BENJAMIN Methods for Direct Laser Cooling of Polyatomic Molecules (Doyle)

BALL, ADAM Aspects of Symmetry in Four Dimensions (Strominger)

BOETTCHER, CHARLOTTE New avenues in circuit QED: from quantum information to quantum sensing (Yacoby)

BORGNIA, DAN The Measure of a Phase (Vishwanath)

BROWNSBERGER, SASHA Modest Methods on the Edge of Cosmic Revolution: Foundational Work to Test Outstanding Peculiarities in the ΛCDM Cosmology (Randall, Stubbs)

BULLARD, BRENDON The first differential cross section measurements of tt̅ produced with a W boson in pp collisions (Morii)

CANATAR, ABDULKADIR Statistical Mechanics of Generalization in Kernel Regression and Wide Neural Networks (Pehlevan)

CESAROTTI, CARI Hints of a Hidden World (Reece)

CHALUPNIK, MICHELLE Quantum and photonic information processing with non-von Neumann architectures (Lončar)

CHEN, YU-TING A Platform for Cavity Quantum Electrodynamics with Rydberg Atom Arrays (Vuletić)

CONWAY, WILL Biophysics of Kinetochore Microtubules in Human Mitotic Spindles (Needleman)

DIETERLE, PAUL Diffusive waves, dynamic instability, and chromosome missegregation: dimensionality, discreteness, stochasticity (Amir)

DORDEVIC, TAMARA A nanophotonic quantum interface for atoms in optical tweezers (Lukin)

ENGELKE, REBECCA Structure and Properties of Moiré Interfaces in Two Dimensional Materials (Kim)

FAN, XING An Improved Measurement of the Electron Magnetic Moment (Gabrielse)

FOPPIANI, NICOLÒ Testing explanations of short baseline neutrino anomalies (Guenette)

GHEORGHE, ANDREI Methods for inferring dynamical systems from biological data with applications to HIV latency and genetic drivers of aging (Hill)

HAEFNER, JONATHAN Improving Kr-83m Calibration and Energy Resolution in NEXT Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay Detectors (Guenette)

KOLCHMEYER, DAVID Toy Models of Quantum Gravity (Jafferis)

MCNAMARA, JAKE The Kinematics of Quantum Gravity (Vafa)

MENKE, TIM Classical and quantum optimization of quantum processors (Aspuru-Guzik, Oliver)

MICHAEL, MARIOS Parametric resonances in Floquet materials (Demler)

OBIED, GEORGES String Theory and its Applications in Cosmology and Particle Physics (Dvorkin, Vafa)

PARIKH, ADITYA Theoretical & Phenomenological Explorations of the Dark Sector (Reece)

PATTI, TAYLOR Quantum Systems for Computation and Vice Versa (Yelin)

PIERCE, ANDREW Local thermodynamic signatures of interaction-driven topological states in graphene (Yacoby)

PIRIE, HARRIS Interacting quantum materials and their acoustic analogs (Hoffman)

REZAI, KRISTINE Probing dynamics of a two-dimensional dipolar spin ensemble (Sushkov)

SAMAJDAR, RHINE Topological and symmetry-breaking phases of strongly correlated systems: From quantum materials to ultracold atoms (Sachdev)

SCURI, GIOVANNI Quantum Optics with Excitons in Atomically Thin Semiconductors (Park)

SHEN, YINAN Mechanics of Interpenetrating Biopolymer Networks in the Cytoskeleton and Biomolecular Condensates (Weitz)

SON, HYUNGMOK Collisional Cooling and Magnetic Control of Reactions in Ultracold Spin-polarized NaLi+Na Mixture (Ketterle)

SUSHKO, ANDREY Structural imaging and electro-optical control of two dimensional semiconductors (Lukin)

TANTIVASADAKARN, NATHANAN Exploring exact dualities in lattice models of topological phases of matter (Vishwanath)

VANDERMAUSE, JONATHAN Active Learning of Bayesian Force Fields (Kozinsky)

ZHOU, HENGYUN Quantum Many-Body Physics and Quantum Metrology with Floquet-Engineered Interacting Spin Systems (Lukin)

ZHU, ZOE Multiscale Models for Incommensurate Layered Two-dimensional Materials (Kaxiras)

AGMON, NATHAN D-instantons and String Field Theory (Yin)

ANG, DANIEL Progress towards an improved measurement of the electric dipole moment of the electron (Gabrielse)

BADEA, ANTHONY Search for massive particles producing all hadronic final states in proton-proton collisions at the LHC with the ATLAS detector (Huth)

BEDROYA, ALEK The Swampland: from macro to micro (Vafa)

BURCHESKY, SEAN Engineered Collisions, Molecular Qubits, and Laser Cooling of Asymmetric Top Molecules (Doyle)

CONG, IRIS Quantum Machine Learning, Error Correction, and Topological Phases of Matter (Lukin)

DAVENPORT, IAN Optimal control and reinforcement learning in simple physical systems (Mahadevan)

DEPORZIO, NICK Dark Begets Light: Exploring Physics Beyond the Standard Model with Cosmology (Dvorkin, Randall)

FAN, RUIHUA Quantum entanglement and dynamics in low-dimensional quantum many-body systems (Vishwanath)

FORTMAN, ANNE Searching for heavy, charged, long-lived particles via ionization energy loss and time-of-flight in the ATLAS detector using 140.1 fb-1 of √s = 13 TeV proton-proton collision data (Franklin)

GABAI, BARAK From the S-matrix to the lattice: bootstrapping QFTs (Yin)

GARCIA, ROY Resource theory of quantum scrambling (Jaffe)

GELLY, RYAN Engineering the excitonic and photonic properties of atomically thin semiconductors (Park)

GUO, HAOYU Novel Transport Phenomena in Quantum Matter (Sachdev)

HIMWICH, MINA Aspects of Symmetry in Classical and Quantum Gravity (Strominger)

HU, YAOWEN Coupled-resonators on thin-film lithium niobate: Photonic multi-level system with electro-optic transition (Lončar)

KHABIBOULLINE, EMIL Quantum Communication and Thermalization, From Theory to Practice (Lukin)

KIM, SOOSHIN Quantum Gas Microscopy of Strongly Correlated Bosons (Greiner)

KING, ELLA Frankenstein's Tiniest Monsters: Inverse Design of Bio-inspired Function in Self-Assembling Materials (Brenner)

LIN, ROBERT Finding and building algebraic structures in finite-dimensional Hilbert spaces for quantum computation and quantum information (Jaffe)

LIU, YU Spin-polarized imaging of interacting fermions in the magnetic phases of Weyl semimetal CeBi (Hoffman)

LU, QIANSHU Cosmic Laboratory of Particle Physics (Reece)

MEISENHELDER, COLE Advances in the Measurement of the Electron Electric Dipole Moment (Gabrielse)

MENDOZA, DOUGLAS Optimization Algorithms for Quantum and Digital Annealers (Aspuru-Guzik)

MILLER, OLIVIA Measuring and Assessing Introductory Students' Physics Problem-Solving Ability (Mazur)

MORRISON, THARON Towards antihydrogen spectroscopy and CW Lyman-alpha via four-wave mixing in mercury (Gabrielse)

NARAYANAN, SRUTHI Soft Travels to the Celestial Sphere (Strominger)

NIU, LAUREN Patterns and Singularities in Elastic Shells (Mahadevan)

OCOLA, PALOMA A nanophotonic device as a quantum network node for atoms in optical tweezers (Lukin)

RABANAL BOLAÑOS, GABRIEL Measuring the production of three massive vector bosons in the four-lepton channel in pp collisions at √s= 13 TeV with the ATLAS experiment at the LHC (Franklin)

SENGUL, CAGAN Studying Dark Matter at Sub-Galactic Scales with Strong Gravitational Lensing (Dvorkin)

SHU, CHI Quantum enhanced metrology in the optical lattice clock (Vuletić)

SPITZIG, ALYSON Using non-contact AFM to study the local doping and damping through the transition in an ultrathin VO2 film (Hoffman)

TARAZI, HOURI UV Completeness: From Quantum Field Theory to Quantum Gravity (Vafa)

WILLIAMS, LANELL What goes right and wrong during virus self assembly? (Manoharan)

YODH, JEREMY Flow of colloidal and living suspensions in confined geometries (Mahadevan)

ZHANG, GRACE Fluctuations, disorder, and geometry in soft matter (Nelson)

AGIA, NICHOLAS On Low-Dimensional Black Holes in String Theory (Jafferis)

BAO, YICHENG Ultracold molecules in an optical tweezer array: From dipolar interaction to ground state cooling (Doyle)

BLOCK, MAXWELL Dynamics of Entanglement with Applications to Quantum Metrology (Yao)

CONTRERAS, TAYLOR Toward Tonne-Scale NEXT Detectors: SiPM Energy-Tracking Planes and Metalenses for Light Collection (Guenette)

DOYLE, SPENCER From Elements to Electronics: Designing Thin Film Perovskite Oxides for Technological Applications (Mundy)

EBADI, SEPEHR Quantum simulation and computation with two-dimensional arrays of neutral atoms (Greiner)

FRASER, KATIE Probing Undiscovered Particles with Theory and Data-Driven Tools (Reece)

GHOSH, SOUMYA Nonlinear Frequency Generation in Periodically Poled Thin Film Lithium Niobate (Lončar)

HAO, ZEYU Emergent Quantum Phases of Electrons in Multilayer Graphene Heterostructures (Kim)

HARTIG, KARA Wintertime Cold Extremes: Mechanisms and Teleconnections with the Stratosphere (Tziperman)

LEE, SEUNG HWAN Spin Waves as New Probes for Graphene Quantum Hall Systems (Yacoby)

LEEMBRUGGEN, MADELYN Buckling, wrinkling, and crumpling of simulated thin sheets (Rycroft)

LI, CHENYUAN Quantum Criticality and Superconductivity in Systems Without Quasiparticles (Sachdev)

MILLER, NOAH Gravity and Lw_{1 + infinity} symmetry (Strominger)

OZTURK, SUKRU FURKAN A New Spin on the Origin of Biological Homochirality (Sasselov)

PAN, GRACE Atomic-scale design and synthesis of unconventional superconductors (Mundy)

POLLACK, DANIEL Synthesis, characterization, and chemical stability analysis of quinones for aqueous organic redox flow batteries (Gordon)

SAYDJARI, ANDREW Statistical Models of the Spatial, Kinematic, and Chemical Complexity of Dust (Finkbeiner)

SHACKLETON, HENRY Fractionalization and disorder in strongly correlated systems (Sachdev)

SKRZYPEK, BARBARA The Case of the Missing Neutrino: Astrophysical Messengers of Planck-Scale Physics (Argüelles-Delgado)

TSANG, ARTHUR Strong Lensing, Dark Perturbers, and Machine Learning (Dvorkin)

XU, MUQING Quantum phases in Fermi Hubbard systems with tunable frustration (Greiner)

YE, BINGTIAN Out-of-equilibrium many-body dynamics in Atomic, Molecular and Optical systems (Yao)

ZAVATONE-VETH, JACOB Statistical mechanics of Bayesian inference and learning in neural networks (Pehlevan)

• GRADUATE STUDIES
• Admissions & Financial Aid
• Admissions FAQs
• Advising Team
• Advising Portal (Graduate)
• Course Requirements
• Other PhD Tracks
• Griffin Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
• GSAS Student Council
• PhD Thesis Help
• Tax Information

Information for Physics Majors & Minors

How to apply.

Students in the College of Arts & Sciences do not declare a major until their sophomore year. Nevertheless, students can indicate their interest in majoring in physics on their application for admission to Cornell University. Information on applying to Cornell can be found at the College of Arts & Sciences and the main Cornell Admissions site .  Please email Professor Tomás Arias, the Director of Undergraduate Studies at [email protected] with any questions about the Physics Major at Cornell.

First-Year Students Interested in Majoring in Physics

Advice about initial course selection

First-year students can request a current junior or senior majoring in physics to serve as an informal peer advisor.  Prospective majors are encouraged to join the student-run Society of Physics Students , and are also welcome to discuss pre-major course selection with the Director of Undergraduate Studies.

Sophomores Declaring the Physics Major

Sophomores meeting the entrance requirements for the major (at least 2 physics and 2 math courses taken at Cornell with an average grade of B- or higher in the aforementioned courses) may apply to the major by following these steps:

1) Download and fill out both sides of the Physics Major Form .    After completing as much of the form as possible, print the form and bring it to the meeting with the DUS, Prof. Tomás Arias to complete their physics major form and admission to the major.

2) After meeting with the Director of Undergraduate Studies (see DUS Office hours below) , new majors will meet virtually with their major advisors to go over their Physics Major Course Plan (2nd page of Physics Major Form).

3) After having their Course Plan approved by their advisor, students will return the Major Form to Sue Sullivan ([email protected]) in the main Physics Office (Clark 117).

Requirements at a Glance

The minimum grade for a course to count towards the physics major is a C-. 

Course Requirements at a Glance  (updated August 2023 to reflect the new labs)

The Physics Core – All physics majors must complete a core of physics and mathematics courses as follows:

Three-semester introductory physics sequence plus special relativity:

Either: PHYS 1112 – Physics I: Mechanics PHYS 1110 – Intro. to Experimental Physics new course PHYS 2213 – Physics II: Heat/Electromagnetism PHYS 2214 – Physics III: Oscillations, Waves, and Quantum Physics PHYS 2216 – Introduction to Special Relativity

Or its more analytic “augmented” version: PHYS 1116 – Physics I: Mechanics and Special Relativity PHYS 1110 – Intro. to Experimental Physics new course PHYS 2217 – Physics II: Electricity and Magnetism PHYS 2218 – Physics III: Waves and Thermal Physics PHYS 2210 – Exploring Experimental Physics  new course

PHYS 2207 students with life/chemical/health science interests who decide to switch to the physics major may complete:

PHYS 2207 – Fundamentals of Physics I PHYS 2213 – Physics II: Heat/Electromagnetism PHYS 2214 – Physics III: Oscillations, Waves, and Quantum Physics PHYS 2216 – Introduction to Special Relativity

*NOTE: A transition from  PHYS 2208  to  PHYS 2214  is also possible for students with very strong math backgrounds.

Mathematics courses covering single and multivariable calculus, linear algebra, series representations, and complex analysis:

MATH 1910 – Calculus for Engineers  or MATH 1120 – Calculus II

Five upper-level courses beyond the three-semester introductory sequence, consisting of:

(1) The two-course sequence in modern physics: PHYS 3316 – Basics of Quantum Mechanics PHYS 3317 – Applications of Quantum Mechanics

(2) At least three semester hours of laboratory work selected from: PHYS 3310 – Intermediate Experimental Physics PHYS 3330 – Modern Experimental Optics  (crosslisted) PHYS 3360 – Electronic Circuits  (crosslisted) PHYS 4410 – Advanced Experimental Physics AEP 3640 – Modern Applied Physics Experimental Design ASTRO 4410 – Experimental Astronomy BEE 4500 – Bioinstrumentation

(3) An intermediate course in classical mechanics: PHYS 3318 – Analytical Mechanics

(4) An intermediate course in electromagnetism: PHYS 3327 – Advanced Electricity and Magnetism

*NOTE: Students who complete the  PHYS 1112 – PHYS 1110 – PHYS 2213 – PHYS 2214  or PHYS 2207 – PHYS 2213 – PHYS 2214  introductory sequence are advised to complete the 1-credit course  PHYS 2216  before taking  PHYS 3316 .

Additional Requirements:

In addition to the core, each physics major must complete at least 15 semester hours of credit in an area of concentration that has been agreed upon by the student and major faculty advisor consistent with the guidelines  found here .

Concentrations

Information on undergraduate physics concentrations .

Honors and Senior Thesis Option

A student may be granted honors in physics upon the recommendation of the Physics Advisors Committee of the physics faculty. There is no particular course structure or thesis requirement for honors.  However, we do have a senior thesis option starting with our current junior class.

Thesis Overview

Below is an overview of the basic timeline that physics majors intending to pursue a senior thesis should follow.

First Steps towards the Senior Thesis

• Students should already be working for faculty in their junior year to be considered as strong candidates for a senior thesis
• Students & faculty advisor must mutually agree  upon a thesis topic before students submit a senior thesis proposal. Faculty are under  no obligation to supervise a senior thesis
• Students submit a one page thesis proposal online to the DUS around April 15 of their junior year
• All physics majors (inside or outside concentrators) can pursue a senior thesis. Any physics faculty (and members of the field of Physics) can supervise a senior thesis. Students pursuing research outside the physics department can pursue a senior thesis, provided the thesis topic is related to physics. The DUS will determine whether thesis topics supervised by faculty outside the physics faculty are appropriate for a senior thesis. 
• After reviewing the thesis proposal, student’s GPA, and any recommendations from the student’s potential thesis advisor & faculty advisor, the DUS will approve students to register for  PHYS 4498 : Senior Thesis I. Students will then enroll in  PHYS 4498  in the fall semester of their senior year and  PHYS 4499: Senior Thesis II in the spring semester.

Eligibility To Pursue Senior Thesis

• Students should have a minimum of a 3.3 GPA in order to pursue the senior thesis
• Students should have completed  all of their Core Requirements by the beginning of the senior year (exceptions made for students having only one Core Requirement remaining)
• Students should fill out their senior thesis proposal around April 15 of their junior year, with the written permission of their faculty major advisor & thesis advisor. All thesis proposals are ultimately decided by the DUS. 
• Students should already be actively engaged in research leading towards their senior thesis by the spring of their junior year
• Students should be pursuing thesis research either within the physics department, or if outside the physics department, that is physics ­related (at the discretion of the DUS)

PHYS 4498 : Senior Year, Fall

• During the semester, students will conduct their thesis research wholly under the supervision of their thesis advisor, in a manner similar to regular independent study / research (4490).
• Near the end of the semester,  students must submit a 1 page written status report  on their thesis research, signed off by their thesis advisor, and to be submitted to the DUS for review.
• At the end of the semester,  students will also give short presentations (10 minutes) or a poster session , attended by other thesis students, to provide an update on the status of their thesis research
• At the end of the fall semester, a grade of “R” is given. That grade of “R” is replaced with the grade for PHYS 4499 when 4499 is also completed.

PHYS 4499 : Senior Year, Spring

• Enrollment for the spring semester of PHYS 4499 is contingent on completion of the 1 page report, participation in the presentation / poster session, and strong performance (A­ or higher) during the Fall semester of PHYS 4498.
• During the semester, students will conduct their thesis research wholly under the supervision of their thesis advisor, in a manner similar to regular independent study / research.
• Sometime in early May, students will present a 15 minute “thesis defense” to other thesis students, faculty, DUS, and any other interested parties. 
• Students will submit their written thesis, approved by their thesis advisor, to the DUS around May 13.

Completion of Senior Thesis

• The written thesis should be a minimum of 25 pages (not counting Abstract, TOC, Acknowledgements, Bibliography, or Appendices).
• The thesis should be written and formatted following the Cornell Thesis and Dissertation Guidelines ( https://test­graduate­school.pantheonsite.io/wp­content/uploads/2018/05/Thesis­and­Dissertation­Guidebook_s p 2018.pdf ) ,  preferably in LaTeX
• With approval of the student & advisor, PDFs of the completed theses will be archived and/or posted.
• If the student’s research work towards a senior thesis has resulted in a peer­ reviewed publication where the student was the lead author, it is acceptable to substitute that publication, together with a brief introduction section, as the written senior thesis (the 25 page minimum is waived). The thesis itself should still be formatted following the Cornell Thesis and Dissertation Guidelines.
• The senior thesis will be considered complete when 1) the oral “thesis defense” is completed, 2) the written thesis is turned in, and 3) at least 6 credits of  PHYS 4498 + PHYS 4499 are completed. 
• Final grades for  PHYS 4499 will be assigned by the DUS, in consultation with the thesis advisor.  

Additional Notes

• A maximum total of 4 credits from all research ­related classes ( PHYS 4490 : Independent Study OR  PHYS 4498 / 4499 : Senior Thesis ) can be used towards the inside or outside concentration. For instance, if a student has already used 4 credits of  PHYS 4490 towards his/her concentration, they may not also use  PHYS 4498/4499 credits towards their concentration. 
• While enrolled in PHYS 4498/9, students are not permitted to also be performing that work for pay. 
• The senior thesis will be factored into the determination of Latin honors at graduation. The thesis will not be the sole determining factor (students graduating without a thesis can graduate with high honors), but it will be factored in to some extent.

Double Majors

Students are welcome to pursue a physics major concurrently with another major; either in the college of Arts and Sciences or in another college through the concurrent degree option .

Courses used to satisfy the physics core requirements may be counted toward the requirements of another major, when permitted by the other department.  Inside concentrators may in addition count toward the requirements of another major any applicable courses used to fulfill the inside concentration requirements, again with permission of the other department.  (The above criteria are often met for inside concentrators who are double majors in Mathematics, as an example.)  However, outside concentrators may not count toward the requirements of another major any of the courses used to fulfill the outside concentration requirement.  Moreover, outside concentrations in the same area as a student's second major will not be approved.

The concepts and methods of physics impact nearly all areas of human endeavor. The Department of Physics offers courses in physics for the entire Cornell community. There are general education courses for non-scientists, well-designed introductory sequences for science and engineering majors, more advanced courses for physics majors, and rigorous programs of graduate study, up to doctoral-level independent research.  Please visit the Physics Enrollment page if you are unable to enroll in a class.     

• Current Course Offerings
• Undergraduate Major Plan
• Courses of Interest in Other Departments
• Courses of Study
• Class Roster
• Evening Prelim Schedule
• Final Exam Schedule
• Course Enrollment
• Cornell Academic Calendar
• Summer Session
• Undergraduate Tutoring Center
• Independent Study 4490

Non-physics majors in all Cornell colleges are eligible to earn a Physics minor.  To apply to the Physics Minor, download the Physics Minor Application here , fill it out, and scan it to [email protected] .  The Undergraduate Coordinator or Director of Undergraduate Studies will email you with the results.  While most applications are accepted on a rolling basis, applications are due for seniors graduating in December no later than December 1, and May 1 for May graduates. 

Admission to the minor requires:

i) An average of B- or better in two of the introductory physics courses

Requirements for the Minor

To earn a minor in physics, a student must complete the following requirements, with a minimum grade of C-, and take all courses for a letter grade: 

1. Completion of one of the 3-course Introductory Sequences (including special relativity, either in 1116 or 2216.  PHYS 2207 and 2208 can be used as replacements for 1112 and 2213 respectively).  Starting fall 2021, PHYS 1110 must be taken with PHYS 1112 or 1116, and PHYS 2210  must be taken if taking PHYS 2218.

2. Quantum Physics I (Physics 3316)*;

3. An intermediate physics lab course, chosen from PHYS 3310, 3360, 4410, AEP 3640, ECE 2100, BEE 4500, or ASTRO 4410.

4. One additional 3000+ level PHYS course of at least 3 credits.

*Students with credit for another quantum mechanics class (such as AEP 3610, CHEM 3890 or ECE 4060) may substitute a different 3000+ level physics course for PHYS 3316.

Undergraduate Awards

Each year the Department of Physics gives five awards to outstanding undergraduate students:

The Yennie Prize An award to the outstanding senior student majoring in Physics who shows unusual promise for future contributions to physics research, and who intends to earn the doctorate.

Professor Yennie was a long-time member of the Cornell Physics faculty, internationally known for his work in theoretical physics, especially in quantum electrodynamics.  He was also known to his students and colleagues as a wise and dedicated teacher.  This prize is endowed in Professor Yennie’s memory by his family and colleagues. The 2024 Yennie Prize was awarded to Brandon Li.

Kieval Prize Prize awarded to a senior Physics student who demonstrates unusual promise for future contributions to the physics research.

The funds for this award were given by the late Harry S. Kieval, Cornell ’36, a long-time professor of mathematics at Humboldt State University in Arcata, California.  The 2024 Kieval Prize was awarded to Devisree Tallapaneni.

Hartman Prize This prize honors Paul Hartman, who was a long-time professor in both departments and who played a crucial role in teaching experimental physics to students in both programs.  The prize is awarded to recognize outstanding work in experimental physics by an undergraduate in Physics and/or Applied and Engineering Physics. The 2024 Hartman Prize was awarded to Andrew DiFabbio in Physics, and Jackie Zheng in Applied and Engineering Physics.

Erik Cassel '90 Prize An award to an undergraduate majoring in physics who has demonstrated exceptional creativity and promise in applying computer programming to a project in physics or related fields. This award was established in memory of Erik Cassel, Cornell '90.

As a physics major, Erik developed the first data analysis software used in the department's introductory physics laboratory experiments. This accomplishment, and an innovative course project integrating physics content with computer graphics, laid the foundation for his successful career as a software engineer in two startups that made extensive use of physics and computer graphics. Erik's family provided the funds for the award.  The 2024 Cassel Prize was awarded to William Wang.

Bethe Thesis Prize An award to a senior undergraduate physics major who has completed an outstanding honors senior thesis.  This prize commemorates Professor Hans Bethe (1906-2005) who performed pathbreaking research in the department from the 1930s to the 1990s.  Funds for this award are provided by Peter Lyman, Cornell class of 1985.

 The 2024 Bethe Thesis Prize was awarded to Maggie Li.

DUS Office Hours

DUS Office Hours are by appointment only during the summer.

Honors in the Major Thesis

The Honors in the Major (HIM) Program, is designed to encourage the best juniors and seniors to undertake original and independent work in their major field. Established in 1989, Honors in the Major is the oldest and most prestigious undergraduate research program at UCF. It is the only undergraduate research program on campus in which students are required to undertake original and innovative research as principal investigators. In this program, students research, write, defend and publish an original Honors thesis that serves as the capstone product of their undergraduate career. This thesis is published through the university library and is available to researchers worldwide through electronic databases.

Find eligibility requirements and application forms at the Office of Research, Burnett Honors College .

View past Honors in the Major thesis in Physics .

Undergraduate Contacts

Student Services Specialist

Director Undergraduate Studies

choosingphysics [at] stanford.edu (Pre-Major Advising)

Physics Major

The mission of the undergraduate program in Physics is to provide students with a strong foundation in both classical and modern physics. The goal of the program is to develop both quantitative problem solving skills and the ability to conceive experiments and analyze and interpret data. These abilities are acquired through both course work and opportunities to conduct independent research. The program prepares students for careers in fields that benefit from quantitative and analytical thinking, including physics, engineering, teaching, medicine, law, science writing, and science policy, in government or the private sector. In some cases, the path to this career will be through an advanced degree in physics or a professional program.

For B.S. in Engineering Physics information use this link

B.S. In Physics

To help in deciding which introductory sequence is most suitable, students considering a major in Physics may contact the undergraduate program coordinator ( elva [at] stanford.edu (elva[at]stanford[dot]edu) ) to arrange an advising appointment with a Physics faculty advisor. Also, see this extensive list of  Physics advising resources , including the  Physics Placement Diagnostic .  Although it is possible to complete the Physics major in three years, students who contemplate starting the major during sophomore year should make an advising appointment to map out their schedule. Students who have had previous college-level courses should make an advising appointment for placement and possible transfer credit. For advanced placement advice, see the  Registrar's website .

To learn more about the Physics major, please refer to the Bulletin information  here .

• Changes to the start of the Physics major and the introductory Physics courses  
• Changes in requirements for the Engineering Physics major  

Home > Sciences and Arts > Dept. of Physics > Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Dept. of Physics Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Explore our collection of dissertations, master's theses and master's reports from the Department of Physics below.

Theses/Dissertations/Reports from 2024 2024

APPLICATIONS OF INDEPENDENT AND IDENTICALLY DISTRIBUTED (IID) RANDOM PROCESSES IN POLARIMETRY AND CLIMATOLOGY , Dan Kestner

DEPENDENCE OF ENERGY TRANSFER ON CURVATURE SIMILARITY IN COLLISIONS INVOLVING CURVED SHOCK FRONTS , Justin Cassell

Study of Particle Accelerators in the Universe with the HAWC Observatory , Rishi Babu

Theses/Dissertations/Reports from 2023 2023

An exploration of cloud droplet growth by condensation and collision-coalescence in a convection-cloud chamber , Jacob T. Kuntzleman

A Search for Compact Object Dark Matter in the Universe Utilizing Gravitational Millilensing of Gamma-ray Bursts , Oindabi Mukherjee

Fabrication and Optical Properties of Two-Dimensional Transition Metal Dichalcogenides , Manpreet Boora

Large cloud droplets and the initiation of ice by pressure fluctuations: Molecular simulations and airborne in-situ observations , Elise Rosky

On Examining Solvation and Dielectric Constants of Polar and Ionic Liquids using the Stockmayer Fluid Model , Cameron J. Shock

PHYSICAL, OPTICAL, AND CHEMICAL PROPERTIES OF LIGHT ABSORBING AEROSOLS AND THEIR CLIMATIC IMPACTS , Susan Mathai

STUDY OF ELECTRONIC AND MAGNETIC PROPERTIES OF BILAYER GRAPHENE NANOFLAKES AND BIMETALLIC CHALCOGENIDES USING FIRST-PRINCIPLES DENSITY FUNCTIONAL THEORY AND MACHINE LEARNING , Dharmendra Pant

SURFACE RECONSTRUCTION IN IRON GARNETS , Sushree Dash

Tracing the Most Powerful Galactic Cosmic-ray Accelerators with the HAWC Observatory , Dezhi Huang

Theses/Dissertations/Reports from 2022 2022

A Combined Spectral and Energy Morphology Analysis of Gamma Ray Source HAWC J2031+415 in the Cygnus Constellation , Ian Herzog

APPLICATION OF ARGON PRESSURE BROADENED RUBIDIUM VAPOR CELLS AS ULTRA-NARROW NOTCH FILTERS , Sam Groetsch

A SURROGATE MODEL OF MOLECULAR DYNAMICS SIMULATIONS FOR POLAR FLUIDS: SUPERVISED LEARNING METHODS FOR MOLECULAR POLARIZATION AND UNSUPERVISED METHODS FOR PHASE CLASSIFICATION , Zackerie W. Hjorth

BORON NITRIDE NANOSTRUCTURES: SYNTHESIS, CHARACTERIZATION, AND APPLICATION IN PHOTOVOLTAICS AND BIOMEDICINE , Sambhawana Sharma

Machine Learning-Driven Surrogate Models for Electrolytes , Tong Gao

OPTICAL AND SINGLE PARTICLE PROPERTIES OF NORTH ATLANTIC FREE TROPOSPHERIC AEROSOLS AND IMPLICATIONS FOR AEROSOL DIRECT RADIATIVE FORCING , Megan Morgenstern

PRELIMINARY STUDIES OF BACKGROUND REJECTION CAPABILITIES FOR THE SOUTHERN WIDE−FIELD GAMMA−RAY OBSERVATORY , Sonali Mohan

SEARCHING FOR ANOMALOUS EXTENSIVE AIR SHOWERS USING THE PIERRE AUGER OBSERVATORY FLUORESCENCE DETECTOR , Andrew Puyleart

THEORETICAL INVESTIGATION ON OPTICAL PROPERTIES OF 2D MATERIALS AND MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF POLYMER COMPOSITES AT MOLECULAR LEVEL , Geeta Sachdeva

THE VARIABILITY OF THE SATURATION RATIO IN CLOUDS , Jesse C. Anderson

TOWARD DEEP LEARNING EMULATORS FOR MODELING THE LARGE-SCALE STRUCTURE OF THE UNIVERSE , Neerav Kaushal

Theses/Dissertations/Reports from 2021 2021

A COMPUTATIONAL STUDY OF PROPERTIES OF CORE-SHELL NANOWIRE HETEROSTRUCTURES USING DENSITY FUNCTIONAL THEORY , Sandip Aryal

ACTIVATION SCAVENGING OF AEROSOL : EFFECT OF TURBULENCE AND AEROSOL-COMPOSITION , Abu Sayeed Md Shawon

APPLICATION OF GRAPHENE-BASED 2D MATERIALS AND EXPLORATION OF LITHIUM POLYSULFIDES SOLID PHASES – FIRST-PRINCIPLES STUDY BASED ON DENSITY FUNCTIONAL THEORY , Qing Guo

Control of spontaneous emission dynamics in microcavities with chiral exceptional surfaces , Amin Hashemi

Investigating ice nucleation at negative pressures using molecular dynamics: A first order approximation of the dependence of ice nucleation rate on pressure , Elise Rosky

Modeling and Numerical Simulations Of The Michigan Tech Convection Cloud Chamber , Subin Thomas

PHYSICOCHEMICAL PROPERTIES OF ATMOSPHERIC AEROSOLS AND THEIR EFFECT ON ICE CLOUD FORMATION , Nurun Nahar Lata

RADIAL BASIS FUNCTION METHOD FOR COMPUTATIONAL PHOTONICS , Seyed Mostafa Rezaei

UNDERSTANDING THE EFFECTS OF WATER VAPOR AND TEMPERATURE ON AEROSOL USING NOVEL MEASUREMENT METHODS , Tyler Jacob Capek

Van der Waals Quantum Dots: Synthesis, Characterization, and Applications , Amit Acharya

Theses/Dissertations/Reports from 2020 2020

Cosmic-Ray Acceleration in the Cygnus OB2 Stellar Association , Binita Hona

OPTICAL DISPERSION RELATIONS FROM THREE-DIMENSIONAL CHIRAL GOLD NANOCUBES IN PERIODIC ARRAYS , Manpreet Boora

Phase Resolved Analysis of Pulsar PSR J2032.2+4126 , Aishwarya Satyawan Dahiwale

Theses/Dissertations/Reports from 2019 2019

Aerosol-Cloud Interactions in Turbulent Clouds: A Combined Cloud Chamber and Theoretical Study , Kamal Kant Chandrakar

Energy Transfer Between Eu2+ and Mn2+ for Na(Sr,Ba)PO4 and Ba2Mg(BO3)2 , Kevin Bertschinger

INVESTIGATION OF LIGHT TRANSPORT AND SCATTERING IN TURBULENT CLOUDS: SIMULATIONS AND LABORATORY MEASUREMENTS , Corey D. Packard

Laser Induced Phase Transformations and Fluorescence Measurements from Nanodiamond Particles , Nick Videtich

Light-matter interactions in plasmonic arrays, two dimensional materials and their hybrid nanostructures , Jinlin Zhang

LIGHT PROPAGATION THROUGH A TURBULENT CLOUD: COMPARISON OF MEASURED AND COMPUTED EXTINCTION , Eduardo Rodriguez-feo Bermudez

LOCATION, ORBIT AND ENERGY OF A METEOROID IMPACTING THE MOON DURING THE LUNAR ECLIPSE OF JANUARY 21, 2019 & TESTING THE WEAK EQUIVALENCE PRINCIPLE WITH COSMOLOGICAL GAMMA RAY BURSTS , Matipon Tangmatitham

Physics and applications of exceptional points , Qi Zhong

Synthetic Saturable Absorber , Armin Kalita

The Solvation Energy of Ions in a Stockmayer Fluid , Cameron John Shock

UNDERSTANDING THE VERY HIGH ENERGY γ-RAY EMISSION FROM A FAST SPINNING NEUTRON STAR ENVIRONMENT , Chad A. Brisbois

Theses/Dissertations/Reports from 2018 2018

ANGLE-RESOLVED OPTICAL SPECTROSCOPY OF PLASMONIC RESONANCES , Aeshah Khudaysh M Muqri

Effects of Ionic Liquid on Lithium Dendrite Growth , Ziwei Qian

EFFECTS OF MASS AND DISTANCE UNCERTAINTIES ON CALCULATIONS OF FLUX FROM GIANT MOLECULAR CLOUDS , Matt Coel

Evaluating the Effectiveness of Current Atmospheric Refraction Models in Predicting Sunrise and Sunset Times , Teresa Wilson

FIRST-PRINCIPLES INVESTIGATION OF THE INTERFACIAL PROPERTIES OF BORON NITRIDE , Kevin Waters

Investigation of microphysical properties of laboratory and atmospheric clouds using digital in-line holography , Neel Desai

MAGNETLESS AND TOPOLOGICAL EDGE MODE-BASED ON-CHIP ISOLATORS AND SPIN-ORBIT COUPLING IN MAGNETO-OPTIC MEDIA , Dolendra Karki

MORPHOLOGY AND MIXING STATE OF SOOT AND TAR BALLS: IMPLICATIONS FOR OPTICAL PROPERTIES AND CLIMATE , Janarjan Bhandari

Novel Faraday Rotation Effects Observed In Ultra-Thin Iron Garnet Films , Brandon Blasiola

PROBING QUANTUM TRANSPORT IN THREE-TERMINAL NANOJUNCTIONS , Meghnath Jaishi

STUDY OF THE CYGNUS REGION WITH FERMI AND HAWC , Andrew Robare

Synthesis and Applications of One and Two-Dimensional Boron Nitride Based Nanomaterials , Shiva Bhandari

SYNTHESIS, CHARACTERIZATION, AND APPLICATION OF 2D TRANSITION METAL DICHALCOGENIDES , Mingxiao Ye

Theses/Dissertations/Reports from 2017 2017

CVD SYNTHESIS, PROCESSING, QUANTIFICATION, AND APPLICATIONS OF BORON NITRIDE NANOTUBES , Bishnu Tiwari

Gamma/Hadron Separation for the HAWC Observatory , Michael J. Gerhardt

LABORATORY, COMPUTATIONAL AND THEORETICAL INVESTIGATIONS OF ICE NUCLEATION AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR MIXED PHASE CLOUDS , Fan Yang

LABORATORY STUDIES OF THE INTERSTITIAL AEROSOL REMOVAL MECHANISMS IN A CLOUD CHAMBER , Sarita Karki

QUANTUM INSPIRED SYMMETRIES IN LASER ENGINEERING , Mohammad Hosain Teimourpour

Search for High-Energy Gamma Rays in the Northern Fermi Bubble Region with the HAWC Observatory , Hugo Alberto Ayala Solares

Synthetic Saturable Absorber Using Non-Uniform Jx Waveguide Array , Ashfiqur Rahman

The Intrinsic Variability of the Water Vapor Saturation Ratio Due to Mixing , Jesse Anderson

Theses/Dissertations/Reports from 2016 2016

FIRST-PRINCIPLES STUDIES OF GROUP IV AND GROUP V RELATED TWO DIMENSIONAL MATERIALS , Gaoxue Wang

INVESTIGATION OF THE RESISTANCE TO DEMAGNETIZATION IN BULK RARE-EARTH MAGNETS COMPRISED OF CRYSTALLOGRAPHICALLY-ALIGNED, SINGLE-DOMAIN CRYSTALLITES WITH MODIFIED INTERGRANULAR PHASE , Jie Li

LABORATORY MEASUREMENTS OF CONTACT NUCLEATION BY MINERAL DUSTS, BACTERIA, AND SOLUBLE SALTS , Joseph Niehaus

Studies of invisibility cloak based on structured dielectric artificial materials , Ran Duan

Testing Lidar-Radar Derived Drop Sizes Against In Situ Measurements , Mary Amanda Shaw

Reports/Theses/Dissertations from 2015 2015

A METHOD FOR DETERMINING THE MASS COMPOSITION OF ULTRA-HIGH ENERGY COSMIC RAYS BY PREDICTING THE DEPTH OF FIRST INTERACTION OF INDIVIDUAL EXTENSIVE AIR SHOWERS , Tolga Yapici

BARIUM CONCENTRATIONS IN ROCK SALT BY LASER INDUCED BREAKDOWN SPECTROSCOPY , Kiley J. Spirito

FUNCTIONALIZED BORON NITRIDE NANOTUBES FOR ELECTRONIC APPLICATIONS , Boyi Hao

GEOMETRY INDUCED MAGNETO-OPTIC EFFECTS IN LPE GROWN MAGNETIC GARNET FILMS , Ashim Chakravarty

LABORATORY AND FIELD INVESTIGATION OF MIXING, MORPHOLOGY AND OPTICAL PROPERTIES OF SOOT AND SECONDARY ORGANIC AEROSOLS , Noopur Sharma

MULTISCALE EXAMINATION AND MODELING OF ELECTRON TRANSPORT IN NANOSCALE MATERIALS AND DEVICES , Douglas R. Banyai

RELATIVISTIC CONFIGURATION INTERACTION CALCULATIONS OF THE ATOMIC PROPERTIES OF SELECTED TRANSITION METAL POSITIVE IONS; NI II, V II AND W II , Marwa Hefny Abdalmoneam

SEARCH FOR LONG-LIVED WEAKLY INTERACTING PARTICLES USING THE PIERRE AUGER OBSERVATORY , Niraj Dhital

Search for TeV Gamma-Ray Sources in the Galactic Plane with the HAWC Observatory , Hao Zhou

STUDY OF NON-RECIPROCAL DICHROISM IN PHOTONIC STRUCTURES , Anindya Majumdar

UNDERSTANDING ELECTRONIC STRUCTURE AND TRANSPORT PROPERTIES IN NANOSCALE JUNCTIONS , Kamal B. Dhungana

Reports/Theses/Dissertations from 2014 2014

A THEORETICAL STUDY OF INTERACTION OF NANOPARTICLES WITH BIOMOLECULE , Chunhui Liu

INVESTIGATING THE ROLE OF THE CONTACT LINE IN HETEROGENEOUS NUCLEATION WITH HIGH SPEED IMAGING , Colin Gurganus

MORPHOLOGY AND MIXING STATE OF ATMOSPHERIC PARTICLES: LINKS TO OPTICAL PROPERTIES AND CLOUD PROCESSING , Swarup China

QUANTUM CORRELATIONS OF LIGHTS IN MACROSCOPIC ENVIRONMENTS , Yong Meng Sua

THE THREE DIMENSIONAL SHAPE AND ROUGHNESS OF MINERAL DUST , Xinxin Woodward

Reports/Theses/Dissertations from 2013 2013

ADVENTURES IN FRIEDMANN COSMOLOGIES---INTERACTION OF POSITIVE ENERGY DENSITIES WITH NEGATIVE ENERGY DENSITIES AND CURVATURE OF THE UNIVERSE , Ravi Joshi

ELECTRON TRANSPORT IN LOW-DIMENSIONAL NANOSTRUCTURES - THEORETICAL STUDY WITH APPLICATION , Xiaoliang Zhong

Investigations of Cloud Microphysical Response to Mixing Using Digital Holography , Matthew Jacob Beals

MAGNETO-PHOTONIC CRYSTALS FOR OPTICAL SENSING APPLICATIONS , Neluka Dissanayake

NONLINEAR EFFECTS IN MAGNETIC GARNET FILMS AND NONRECIPROCAL OPTICAL BLOCH OSCILLATIONS IN WAVEGUIDE ARRAYS , Pradeep Kumar

OPTIMAL SHAPE IN ELECTROMAGNETIC SCATTERING BY SMALL ASPHERICAL PARTICLES , Ajaree Mongkolsittisilp

QUADRUPOLE LEVITATION OF PARTICLES IN A THERMODYNAMICALLY REALISTIC CLOUD ENVIRONMENT , Nicholas A. Black

STOCHASTIC CHARGE TRANSPORT IN MULTI-ISLAND SINGLE-ELECTRON TUNNELING DEVICES , Madhusudan A. Savaikar

Reports/Theses/Dissertations from 2012 2012

Calibration of the HAWC Gamma-Ray Observatory , Nathan C. Kelley-Hoskins

Charge and spin transport in nanoscale junction from first principles , Subhasish Mandal

Measurements of ice nucleation by mineral dusts in the contact mode , Kristopher W. Bunker

• The Van Pelt and Opie Library
• About Digital Commons @ Michigan Tech
• Collections
• Disciplines

Advanced Search

• Notify me via email or RSS

Author Corner

• Content Policy
• Department of Physics

Home | About | FAQ | My Account | Accessibility Statement

Privacy Copyright

Office of Undergraduate Education

University Honors Program

• Honors Requirements
• Major and Thesis Requirements
• Courses & Experiences
• Nova Series
• Honors Courses
• NEXUS Experiences
• Non-Course Experiences
• Faculty-Directed Research and Creative Projects
• Community Engagement and Volunteering
• Internships
• Learning Abroad
• Honors Thesis Guide
• Sample Timeline
• Important Dates and Deadlines
• Requirements and Evaluation Criteria
• Supervision and Approval
• Credit and Honors Experiences
• Style and Formatting
• Submit Your Thesis
• Submit to the Digital Conservancy
• Honors Advising
• Honors Reporting Center
• Get Involved
• University Honors Student Association
• UHSA Executive Board
• Honors Multicultural Network
• Honors Mentor Program
• Honors Community & Housing
• Freshman Invitation
• Post-Freshman Admission
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Faculty Fellows
• Faculty Resources
• Honors Faculty Representatives
• Internal Honors Scholarships
• Office for National and International Scholarships
• Letters of Recommendation
• Personal Statements
• Scholarship Information
• Honors Lecture Series
• Honors Recognition Ceremony
• Make a Donation
• UHP Land Acknowledgment
• UHP Policies

Major Requirements for Students Pursuing Latin Honors

PHYS 1401V Honors Physics 1 (Fall) PHYS 1402V Honors Physics 2 (Spring) PHYS 2503H Honors Physics 3 (Fall) MATH 1571H Honors Calculus 1 (Fall) MATH 1572H Honors Calculus 2 (Fall and Spring) MATH 2573H Honors Calculus 3 (Fall) MATH 2574H Honors Calculus 4 (Spring) MATH 3592H Honors Mathematics 1 (Fall) MATH 3593H Honors Mathematics 2 (Spring)

HCol 3101H or HCol 3102H

Students pursuing a Physics B.A. from the College of Liberal Arts must take PHYS 4052W as the "capstone course." The Honors Thesis is a separate requirement and must be distinct from the B.A. Capstone project; it is not advised to complete the Capstone and Honors Thesis in the same semester. NB: Students pursuing a Physics B.S. from the College of Science and Engineering will still take PHYS 4052W, but CSE does not call this a "Capstone."

Students planning on graduating summa cum laude are required to do a public presentation on their research.

Honors Faculty Representative Info

• Summer Research Opportunities
• Global Seminars and LAC Seminars
• Honors Research in London - Summer 2024

• Skip to Content
• Catalog Home
• Institution Home
• Pay Tuition
• Online Toolkit
• Shuttle Tracker
• Undergraduate Degree Programs
• Graduate Degree Programs
• Undergraduate

Print Options

• College of Science and Engineering
• Department of Physics
• M.S. Major in Physics (Thesis Option)
• General Information
• Admission Information
• Admission Documents
• Registration and Course Credit
• Academic and Grading Policies
• Degree Information
• Graduate Degrees
• Graduate Majors
• Graduate Minors
• Graduate Certificates
• Tuition and Fees
• Additional Fees and Expenses
• Refund of Fees
• College of Applied Arts
• Emmett and Miriam McCoy College of Business
• College of Education
• College of Fine Arts and Communication
• College of Health Professions
• College of Liberal Arts
• Ph.D. Major in Materials Science, Engineering, and Commercialization (Entering with Master's Degree)
• Ph.D. Major in Materials Science, Engineering, and Commercialization (Entering with Bachelor's Degree)
• Department of Biology
• Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
• Department of Computer Science
• Ingram School of Engineering
• Department of Engineering Technology
• Department of Mathematics
• M.S. Major in Physics (Material Physics Concentration)
• M.S. Major in Physics (Non-​thesis Option)
• M.S. Major in Physics (Non-​thesis Science Minor Option)
• M.S. Major in Physics (Thesis Science Minor Option)
• Minor in Materials Physics
• Graduate Faculty

Master of Science (M.S.) Major in Physics (Thesis Option)

Program overview.

A solid physics foundation combined with extensive, hands-on training in state-of-the art nanofabrication and characterization facilities prepares students for careers in the local high-tech industry, science education or advanced studies. Students are engaged in research and gain superior graduate education with individual faculty attention and mentoring.

Application Requirements

The items listed below are required for admission consideration for applicable semesters of entry during the current academic year. Submission instructions, additional details, and changes to admission requirements for semesters other than the current academic year can be found on The Graduate College's website . International students should review the International Admission Documents page for additional requirements.

• completed online application
• $55 nonrefundable application fee

          or

• $90 nonrefundable application fee for applications with international credentials
• baccalaureate degree from a regionally accredited university (Non-U.S. degrees must be equivalent to a four-year U.S. Bachelor’s degree. In most cases, three-year degrees are not considered. Visit our  International FAQs  for more information.)
• official transcripts from  each institution  where course credit was granted
• a 2.75 overall GPA or a 2.75 GPA in the last 60 hours of undergraduate course work (plus any completed graduate courses)
• minimum 3.0 GPA in junior and senior level physics courses in modern physics, mathematical physics or equivalent, classical mechanics, electromagnetic field theory, and quantum mechanics (Leveling courses may be required if student lacks sufficient background course work. Any required leveling course work must be completed with grades of B or better prior to admission.)
• GRE not required*
• statement of purpose
• three letters of recommendation

Approved English Proficiency Exam Scores

Applicants are required to submit an approved English proficiency exam score that meets the minimum program requirements below unless they have earned a bachelor’s degree or higher from a regionally accredited U.S. institution or the equivalent from a country on our  exempt countries list .

• official TOEFL iBT scores required with a 78 overall
• official PTE scores required with a 52 overall
• official IELTS (academic) scores required with a 6.5 overall and minimum individual module scores of 6.0
• official Duolingo Scores required with a 110 overall
• official TOEFL Essentials scores required with an 8.5 overall

This program does  not  offer admission if the scores above are not met.

*Additional Information If the physics GPA falls below the minimum requirement, the student may submit the following to be considered for conditional admission:

• official GRE (general test only) with competitive scores in the verbal reasoning and quantitative reasoning sections

Conditional admission is not available to applicants who require "F" or "J" visas.

Degree Requirements

The Master of Science (M.S.) degree with a major in Physics requires 30 semester credit hours, including a thesis. Students who do not have the appropriate background course work may be required to complete leveling courses.

Course Requirements

Comprehensive Examination Requirements

An oral thesis defense is required and will satisfy the comprehensive examination requirement. If the thesis committee is not satisfied with a graduate student’s oral defense, they will specify all deficiencies the student must resolve. Should the thesis committee decide to hold a second oral defense, the chair of the thesis committee shall not schedule the second defense until the student has resolved all specified deficiencies.

Students who do not successfully complete the requirements for the degree within the timelines specified will be dismissed from the program.

If a student elects to follow the thesis option for the degree, a committee to direct the written thesis will be established. The thesis must demonstrate the student’s capability for research and independent thought. Preparation of the thesis must be in conformity with the  Graduate College Guide to Preparing and Submitting a Thesis or Dissertation .

Thesis Proposal

The student must submit an official  Thesis Proposal Form  and proposal to his or her thesis committee. Thesis proposals vary by department and discipline. Please see your department for proposal guidelines and requirements. After signing the form and obtaining committee members’ signatures, the graduate advisor’s signature if required by the program and the department chair’s signature, the student must submit the Thesis Proposal Form with one copy of the proposal attached to the dean of The Graduate College for approval before proceeding with research on the thesis. If the thesis research involves human subjects, the student must obtain exemption or approval from the Texas State Institutional Review Board prior to submitting the proposal form to The Graduate College. The IRB approval letter should be included with the proposal form. If the thesis research involves vertebrate animals, the proposal form must include the Texas State IACUC approval code. It is recommended that the thesis proposal form be submitted to the dean of The Graduate College by the end of the student’s enrollment in 5399A. Failure to submit the thesis proposal in a timely fashion may result in delayed graduation.

Thesis Committee

The thesis committee must be composed of a minimum of three approved graduate faculty members.

Thesis Enrollment and Credit

The completion of a minimum of six hours of thesis enrollment is required. For a student's initial thesis course enrollment, the student will need to register for thesis course number 5399A.  After that, the student will enroll in thesis B courses, in each subsequent semester until the thesis is defended with the department and approved by The Graduate College. Preliminary discussions regarding the selection of a topic and assignment to a research supervisor will not require enrollment for the thesis course.

Students must be enrolled in thesis credits if they are receiving supervision and/or are using university resources related to their thesis work.  The number of thesis credit hours students enroll in must reflect the amount of work being done on the thesis that semester.  It is the responsibility of the committee chair to ensure that students are making adequate progress toward their degree throughout the thesis process.  Failure to register for the thesis course during a term in which supervision is received may result in postponement of graduation. After initial enrollment in 5399A, the student will continue to enroll in a thesis B course as long as it takes to complete the thesis. Thesis projects are by definition original and individualized projects.  As such, depending on the topic, methodology, and other factors, some projects may take longer than others to complete.  If the thesis requires work beyond the minimum number of thesis credits needed for the degree, the student may enroll in additional thesis credits at the committee chair's discretion. In the rare case when a student has not previously enrolled in thesis and plans to work on and complete the thesis in one term, the student will enroll in both 5399A and 5399B.

The only grades assigned for thesis courses are PR (progress), CR (credit), W (withdrew), and F (failing). If acceptable progress is not being made in a thesis course, the instructor may issue a grade of F. If the student is making acceptable progress, a grade of PR is assigned until the thesis is completed. The minimum number of hours of thesis credit (“CR”) will be awarded only after the thesis has been both approved by The Graduate College and released to Alkek Library.

A student who has selected the thesis option must be registered for the thesis course during the term or Summer I (during the summer, the thesis course runs ten weeks for both sessions) in which the degree will be conferred.

Thesis Deadlines and Approval Process

Thesis deadlines are posted on  The Graduate College  website under "Current Students." The completed thesis must be submitted to the chair of the thesis committee on or before the deadlines listed on The Graduate College website.

The following must be submitted to The Graduate College by the thesis deadline listed on The Graduate College website:

• The Thesis Submission Approval Form bearing original (wet) and/or electronic signatures of the student and all committee members.
• One (1) PDF of the thesis in final form, approved by all committee members, uploaded in the online Vireo submission system.  

After the dean of The Graduate College approves the thesis, Alkek Library will harvest the document from the Vireo submission system for publishing in the Digital Collections database (according to the student's embargo selection).  NOTE: MFA Creative Writing theses will have a permanent embargo and will never be published to Digital Collections.  

While original (wet) signatures are preferred, there may be situations as determined by the chair of the committee in which obtaining original signatures is inefficient or has the potential to delay the student's progress. In those situations, the following methods of signing are acceptable:

• signing and faxing the form
• signing, scanning, and emailing the form
• notifying the department in an email from their university's or institution's email account that the committee chair can sign the form on their behalf
• electronically signing the form using the university's licensed signature platform.

If this process results in more than one document with signatures, all documents need to be submitted to The Graduate College together.

No copies are required to be submitted to Alkek Library. However, the library will bind copies submitted that the student wants bound for personal use. Personal copies are not required to be printed on archival quality paper. The student will take the personal copies to Alkek Library and pay the binding fee for personal copies.

Master's level courses in Physics: PHYS

Courses Offered

Physics (phys).

PHYS 1115. General Physics I Laboratory.

First of two laboratory courses in General Physics for science-related majors. The course introduces students to the basics of measurement. Topics cover mechanics and heat. Corequisite: PHYS 1315 or PHYS 1335 either with a grade of "D" or better.

PHYS 1125. General Physics II Laboratory.

This is the second of two laboratory courses in general Physics. The course introduces the students to experimental measurements and demonstration of principles of electricity, magnetism, optics, modern physics, electromagnetic waves. Corequisite: PHYS 1325 or PHYS 1345 with a grade of "D" or better.

PHYS 1310. Elementary Physics I.

This course is a non-mathematical survey of mechanics, properties of matter, heat, and sound. These topics are described conceptually with applications relating to the world around us. PHYS 1310 and PHYS 1320 are designed for the liberal arts student. The order in which they are taken is not important. They are not recommended for pre-engineering students or majors and minors in science.

PHYS 1315. General Physics I.

This is the first course in a two semester sequence which is a survey of the basic laws and principles of physics and includes the topics of mechanics and heat. The course is designed for students whose program requires technical physics, but who are not pre-engineering students or majors or minors in physics. Prerequisite: [ MATH 1315 or MATH 1317 or MATH 2321 or MATH 2417 or MATH 2471 with a grade of "C" or better] or [ACT Mathematics score of 24 or better] or [New ACT Mathematics score of 25 or better] or [SAT Mathematics score of 520 or better] or [SAT Math section score of 550 or better] or [Next-Generation Advanced Algebra and Functions Test score of 263 or better]. Corequisite: PHYS 1115 with a grade of "D" or better.

PHYS 1320. Elementary Physics II.

This course is a non-mathematical survey of electricity, magnetism, light, relativity, and atomic and nuclear physics. These topics are described conceptually with applications relating to the world around us. PHYS 1310 and PHYS 1320 are designed for the liberal arts student. The order in which they are taken is not important. They are not recommended for pre-engineering students or majors and minors in science.

PHYS 1325. General Physics II.

This is the second course in a two semester sequence which is a survey of the basic laws and principles of physics and includes the topics of waves, light, electricity and magnetism. This course is designed for students whose program requires technical physics, but who are not pre-engineering students or majors or minors in physics. Prerequisites: PHYS 1315 or PHYS 1335 with a grade of "C" or better.

PHYS 1335. General Physics I for Life Sciences Majors.

This is the first course in a two-semester sequence which surveys the fundamental principles of physics. This focus of this first course is on the topics of mechanics, fluids, and heat. The course is designed for biology, pre-health, and life-science majors whose program requires technical physics. Credit for both PHYS 1335 and PHYS 1315 cannot be given. Prerequisite: [ MATH 1315 or MATH 1317 or MATH 2321 or MATH 2417 or MATH 2471 with a grade of "C" or better] or [ACT Mathematics score of 24 or better] or [New ACT Mathematics score of 25 or better] or [SAT Mathematics score of 520 or better] or [SAT Math section score of 550 or better] or [AAF score of 263 - 300]. Corequisite: PHYS 1115 with a grade of "D" or better.

PHYS 1340. Astronomy: Solar System.

A study of the solar system. Topics included are a study of the sun, the planets and their satellites, the comets, and other components of the solar system. Some aspects of telescopes and ancient astronomy will be included also.

PHYS 1345. General Physics II for Life Science Majors.

This is the second course in a two-semester sequence which surveys the fundamental principles of physics. The focus of this second course is on the topics of oscillations, light, and electrical phenomena. This course is deigned for biology, pre-health, and life-science majors whose program requires technical physics. Prerequisite: PHYS 1315 or PHYS 1335 with a grade of "C" or better. Corequisite: PHYS 1125 with a grade of “D” or better.

PHYS 1350. Astronomy: Stars and Galaxies.

A study of the universe beyond the solar system. Topics included are a study of the stars and star clusters, nebulae, galaxies, and an introduction to some aspects of cosmology.

PHYS 1365. Physics for Educators.

This studio-style course introduces physics concepts through active exploration and discussion of physical phenomena. Course content includes developing concepts of force and motion, light, sound, waves, electricity, magnetism, energy, and conservation laws. Focus is on how physics helps make sense of everyday experience, and on the learning and teaching of children in grades K-8.

PHYS 2125. Mechanics Laboratory.

This course introduces students to experimental methods in the study of motion, forces, energy, momentum, and other topics in mechanics. This laboratory course is designed to accompany PHYS 2325 . Corequisite: PHYS 2325 with a grade of "D" or better.

PHYS 2126. Electricity and Magnetism Laboratory.

This course introduces students to experimental methods in the study of electric charges and fields, electric circuits, magnetic materials, and electromagnetic induction. This laboratory course is designed to accompany PHYS 2326 . Corequisite: PHYS 2326 with a grade of "D" or better.

PHYS 2135. Waves and Heat Laboratory.

This course introduces students to experimental methods in the study of geometrical and physical optics and of thermodynamics. This laboratory course is designed to accompany PHYS 2335 . Corequisite: PHYS 2335 with a grade of "D" or better.

PHYS 2150. Professional Development for Beginning Physicists.

This course introduces to physics majors career options and opportunities for internships, scholarships, and research internal and external to the university. The course also develops essential practical skills for job seekers. Prerequisite: PHYS 2326 and PHYS 2126 and PHYS 2335 and PHYS 2135 all with grades of "D" or better.

PHYS 2230. Introduction to Computational Modeling for Physics.

This course is an introduction to computational concepts and tools that physicists use for data analysis, simulation and modeling, and visualization in research and dissemination. Python and its various libraries are emphasized. Prerequisite: PHYS 2325 and PHYS 2125 with grades of "C" or better. Corequisite: [ PHYS 2326 and PHYS 2126 ] or [ PHYS 2335 and PHYS 2135 ] with grades of "C" or better.

PHYS 2325. Mechanics.

This course covers the principles of introductory classical mechanics through problem-solving and research-validated interactive instruction. Corequisite: MATH 2471 with a grade of "C" or better and PHYS 2125 with a grade of "D" or better.

PHYS 2326. Electricity and Magnetism.

This course covers the principles of classical electricity and magnetism through problem-solving and research-validated interactive instruction. Prerequisite: PHYS 2325 and [ MATH 2472 or MATH 2473 ] with grades of "C" or better. Corequisite: PHYS 2126 with a grade of "D" or better.

PHYS 2335. Waves and Heat.

This course covers the principles of thermodynamics, geometric optics, and physical optics through problem solving and research-validated interactive instruction. Prerequisite: MATH 2471 and PHYS 2325 with grades of "C" or better. Corequisite: [ MATH 2472 or MATH 2473 ] with a grade of "C" or better and PHYS 2135 with a grade of "D" or better.

PHYS 3210. Physics Cognition and Pedagogy.

This course is an introduction to physics-specific pedagogy and the methods and results of physics education research (PER). Students will investigate relevant literature in PER and cognitive science, engage in discussions about physics teaching and learning, and reflect on their own teaching practice in the role of Physics Learning Assistants. (WI).

PHYS 3301. Musical Acoustics.

A survey of the physics of sound and acoustic measurement. Special emphasis will be placed on sound production, propagation, and perception as applied to music.

PHYS 3311. Classical Mechanics.

This course discusses the fundamentals of classical mechanics focusing on the physical description of the behavior of single and multiple particle systems. Topics include advanced problem-solving strategies for systems with position and velocity dependent forces, simple harmonic oscillators, and non-inertial reference frames. Prerequisite: PHYS 2335 and PHYS 2135 with grades of "C" or better. Corequisite: PHYS 3320 with a grade of "C" or better.

PHYS 3312. Modern Physics.

This course is an introduction to the foundations of modern physics, including the following topics: relativistic mechanics, foundational experiments in the development of quantum mechanics, light and energy, wave nature of particles, and nuclear physics. Prerequisite: PHYS 2335 and PHYS 2135 with grades of "C" or better.

PHYS 3313. Astrophysics.

This course surveys a variety of issues in astrophysics through problem solving, quantitative measurements, and theoretical reasoning. Topics include celestial mechanics, stellar dynamics and evolution, galaxy evolution, and cosmology. Corequisite: PHYS 3312 with a grade of "D" or better.

PHYS 3315. Thermodynamics.

This course is a fundamental study of thermodynamics and statistical mechanics. Prerequisite: MATH 3323 and [( PHYS 2335 and PHYS 2135 ) or ( ENGR 2300 and PHYS 2326 and PHYS 2126 )] all with grades of "D" or better.

PHYS 3318. Galactic and Extragalactic Astrophysics.

A survey of the physical properties, dynamics, and distribution of galaxies. Topics include the contents, origin, and evolution of the Milky Way and other galaxies; the large-scale distribution of galaxies in groups, clusters and superclusters; interactions between galaxies; dark matter; active galaxies and supermassive black holes; high redshift Universe. Prerequisite: PHYS 3313 with a grade of "D" or better.

PHYS 3320. Introduction to Mathematical Physics.

This course is an introduction to the mathematical methods of theoretical physics with emphasis on development of mathematical tools used in upper division core physics courses. Students will also develop their ability to communicate mathematical ideas in the context of physics. Prerequisite: MATH 2393 and PHYS 2326 and PHYS 2126 all with grades of "C" or better. Corequisite: MATH 3323 with a grade of "C" or better.

PHYS 3411. Advanced Physics Laboratory.

This course is an introduction to experimental modern physics, with emphasis on the design and assembly of physics apparatus and the development of practical skills for controlling and automating data collection. (WI) Prerequisites: PHYS 2326 and PHYS 2126 with grades of "C" or better. Corequisites: PHYS 2335 and PHYS 2135 with grades of "C" or better.

PHYS 3416. Applied Electronics.

This Laboratory/lecture course is an introduction to electronic test bench methods for the construction, operation and analysis of important DC/AC circuits utilizing resistors, capacitors, diodes, BJTs, FETs, and OpAmps. The behavior of the circuits will be modeled in SPICE. Elementary semiconductor device physics and microfabrication methods will be discussed. (WI) Prerequisites: PHYS 2326 and PHYS 2126 and PHYS 2335 and PHYS 2135 all with grades of "C" or better.

PHYS 3417. Optics.

This course is a one-semester survey of geometrical and physical optics accompanied by laboratory experience. Topics covered include electromagnetic waves and their propagation, geometrical optics, polarization, interference, diffraction, Fourier optics, and holography. (WI) Prerequisites: PHYS 2326 and PHYS 2126 and PHYS 2335 and PHYS 2135 all with grades of "C" or better.

PHYS 3418. Methods in Observational Astrophysics.

This course is an introduction to methods and instrumentation used in observational astrophysics. Topics include image processing, data acquisition and analysis, and detectors for data across the electromagnetic spectrum. Prerequisite: PHYS 2326 and PHYS 2126 and PHYS 2335 and PHYS 2135 all with grades "C" or better.

PHYS 4121. Undergraduate Research.

This course represents a student’s research project in physics to be carried out under the supervision of a faculty member. The student must contact a faculty member in advance to arrange the topic and specific course objectives. This course may be repeated for credit. Prerequisite: Instructor approval.

PHYS 4221. Undergraduate Research.

PHYS 4305. Statistical Physics.

Statistical physics is the study of energy flow and energy distributions within systems in equilibrium. Students will explore a range of phenomena including black-body radiation, diffusion, phase transitions, and magnetism. Emphasis will be placed on topics of entropy, probability, free energy, Boltzmann distributions, and the atomic behavior of these systems. Prerequisite: MATH 3323 and PHYS 3312 and PHYS 3320 all with grades of "C" or better.

PHYS 4310. Electromagnetic Field Theory I.

An introduction to the electromagnetic field theory of classical physics for static fields. Topics included will be the electrostatic field, polarization and dielectrics, electrostatic energy, magnetic field of steady currents, magneto static energy, and magnetic properties of matter. Prerequisite: [ MATH 2393 or MATH 3373] and MATH 3323 and PHYS 3320 all with grades of "C" or better.

PHYS 4311. Condensed Matter Physics.

Application of physics principles to solid materials. Topics include crystal structure and the reciprocal lattice, including x-ray diffraction, crystal binding and elastic properties, lattice vibrations, energy bands, semiconductors and metals. Prerequisite: PHYS 3312 and PHYS 3320 both with grades of "C" or better.

PHYS 4312. Quantum Mechanics I.

This course introduces students to quantum mechanics. Topics include mathematical foundations, fundamental postulates, time development, and one dimensional problems. Prerequisite: PHYS 3312 PHYS 3320 both with grades of "C" or better.

PHYS 4315. Electromagnetic Field Theory II.

An introduction to the electromagnetic field theory of classical physics for time varying fields. Topics included will be electromagnetic induction, time varying electric and magnetic fields, Maxwell’s equations, electromagnetic energy, electromagnetic waves and radiation, and a brief introduction to some specialized topics. Prerequisite: PHYS 4310 with a grade of "C" or better.

PHYS 4320. Selected Study in Physics.

Topics are chosen in theoretical and experimental areas of current interest in physics with specific topic to be discussed agreed upon prior to registration. May be repeated once with different emphasis and professor for additional credit. Prerequisite: Instructor approval.

PHYS 4321. Undergraduate Research.

A research project in physics to be carried out under the supervision of a faculty member by upper division physics majors. Student must contact a faculty member in advance to arrange topic and specific course objective. Course may be repeated only as an elective towards the BS or BA in physics. Prerequisite: Instructor approval.

PHYS 4330. Relativity.

This course includes a review of special relativity, an introduction to the mathematics of tensor calculus and differential geometry, and covers such topics from general relativity as the Schwarzschild solution, black holes, tests of general relativity, cosmological models, gravitational waves, and the Einstein equation. Prerequisite: PHYS 3312 and PHYS 3320 with a grade of "C" or better. Corequisite: PHYS 3311 with a grade of "C" or better.

PHYS 4345. Biophysics.

This course applies the principles of physics to the study of living organisms. An emphasis will be placed on the topics of structure, fluids, diffusion, entropy, probabilities, and stochastic processes, as well as on scientific modes of thinking, including modeling, estimation, and data analysis. Prerequisite: PHYS 3320 and PHYS 2230 and PHYS 2335 and PHYS 2135 all with grades of "C" or better.

PHYS 4350F. Astronomical Spectroscopy.

A lecture course introducing students to spectroscopy in astronomy, with particular emphasis on molecular spectroscopy. The course will cover a broad range of aspects including the development of spectroscopy in astronomy, the theory of atomic and molecular spectra, spectra in different astrophysical environments, instrumentation and data reduction.

PHYS 4350G. Nuclear and Particle Physics.

This course covers the theoretical, phenomenological, and experimental foundations of nuclear and particle physics including the fundamental forces, particles, and composites. An emphasis will be on the fundamental structure of nucleus (nuclear masses and nuclear sizes), nuclear interactions (alpha, beta, and gamma radiation), Fission, Fusion, beyond nuclear physics (quarks and leptons as basic constituents of matter), brief introduction to the Standard model: electroweak interactions, Higgs boson, QCD and basic nuclear Astrophysics (nucleosynthesis of stellar particles). Prerequisite: PHYS 2326 and PHYS 2126 and PHYS 3312 all with grades of "C" or better.

PHYS 4350H. Optical Materials and Characterization Methods.

This course is an introduction to optical properties of solids including electronic and vibrational transitions in inorganic and organic thin films and multilayers. Various optical characterization methods and techniques will be reviewed including Raman, FTIR, Photoluminescence, and X-ray Fluorescence spectroscopy. Students will learn to work with those characterization methods and learn how to interpret the various spectra.

PHYS 4360. Physics Cognition and Pedagogy II.

This course addresses historical, philosophical, and cognitive perspectives on the learning, teaching, and discovery of physics, including results from contemporary research on learning. It is recommended for students pursuing teacher certification. Prerequisite: PHYS 3210 with a grade of "C" or better.

PHYS 5100. Professional Development.

This course covers topics related to teaching, research, and employment responsibilities. The completion of this course is required as a condition of employment for graduate assistants. This course does not earn graduate degree credit. Courrse is repeatable with different emphasis.

PHYS 5110. Seminar in Physics.

A course designed to acquaint the graduate student with current research areas in physics. May be repeated twice for total of three semester hour’s credit.

PHYS 5199B. Thesis.

This course represents a student’s continuing thesis enrollments. The student continues to enroll in this course until the thesis is submitted for binding.

PHYS 5200. Professional Development.

This course covers topics related to teaching, research, and employment rights and responsibilities. It provides a brief background on teaching and learning theories and consists of organized practice teaching. Completion is required as a condition of employment for graduate instructional and teaching assistants. This course does not earn graduate degree credit.

PHYS 5299B. Thesis.

PHYS 5302. Electricity and Magnetism.

An introduction to the electromagnetic field theory of classical physics for static fields. Topics included will be the electrostatic field, polarization and dielectrics, electrostatic energy, magnetic field of steady currents, magneto static energy, and magnetic properties of matter. This is a graduate leveling course in Electricity and Magnetism (stacked with PHYS 4310 ). This course does not earn graduate degree credit.

PHYS 5303. Quantum Mechanics.

This course is an introduction to quantum mechanics. Topics include mathematical foundations, fundamental postulates, time development, and one dimensional problems. This is a graduate leveling course in Quantum Mechanics (stacked with PHYS 4312 ). This course does not earn graduate degree credit.

PHYS 5304. Experimental Research Methods.

This is a laboratory based course introducing experimental methods used in physics research with emphasis on quantum effects through materials synthesis and characterization methods. The specific experiments are chosen by department faculty on topics of current research interests. The students are exposed to different research topics through laboratory rotations. Prerequisite: Instructor approval. Corequisite: PHYS 5314 with a grade of "C" or better.

PHYS 5312. Advanced Quantum Mechanics.

This course is a study of quantum mechanics including combination of two or more quantum mechanical systems, addition of angular momentum, time independent perturbation theory, and time dependent perturbation theory.

PHYS 5313. Mathematical Methods of Physics.

This course is a survey of mathematical methods of physics at the graduate level focusing on complex analysis of analytic functions (Laurent expansions and evaluation of residues) and methods of solving both ordinary and partial differential equations (Frobenius' method and Sturm-Liouville theory) with applications to mechanics and electromagnetic theory.

PHYS 5314. Statistical Physics.

This course is an introduction to the laws of statistical physics and their application to realistic problems at the graduate level. The topics include a brief review of equilibrium thermodynamics, Boltzmann and Gibbs distribution, Fermi-Dirac and Bose-Einstein statistics, derivation of Planck's Law and black-body radiation, and heat capacity of solids.

PHYS 5320. Solid State Physics.

This is an introductory course at the graduate level intended for students who have not had a previous course in Solid State Physics. Topics covered include crystal structure, the reciprocal lattice, x-ray diffraction, lattice vibrations, electronic band structure, and optical, transport and magnetic properties of metals and semiconductors including applications. Prerequisite: PHYS 5312 with a grade of "C" or better.

PHYS 5322. Semiconductor Device Microfabrication.

This experimental methods course provides an in-depth overview of the physics and technology of semiconductor device micro and nano fabrication. Topics include materials used in electronic devices, thin film deposition, wet and dry etching, lithography processing, and topics relevant to semiconductor research and devices. Fabrication and characterization techniques will be covered. Corequisite: PHYS 5312 with a grade of "C" or better.

PHYS 5324. Thin Film Synthesis and Characterization Laboratory.

This advanced experimental course is designed as a research group project experience with emphasis on nanoscale device fabrication. All projects are conducted in university facilities with state-of-the-art thin film growth, processing, and characterization facilities. Prerequisite: PHYS 5322 with a grade of "C" or better. Corequisites: PHYS 5312 with a grade of "C" or better.

PHYS 5327. Semiconductor Device Physics.

This course demonstrates how solid state physics applies to describing important examples of thin film device operation with emphasis on semiconductor devices. Additional topics may include photon and phonon effects on electronic properties, quantum phenomena, many body effects in solids, carrier transport properties, micro-electromechanical systems, and materials interface issues. Corequisite: PHYS 5314 with a grade of "C" or better.

PHYS 5328. Advanced Solid State Physics.

Review of models of a solid and energy band theory. Additional topics may include interaction of electromagnetic waves with solids, lattice vibrations and phonons, many body effects in solids, device physics, quantum phenomena, carrier transport properties, current device configurations, and materials interface problems. Prerequisite: PHYS 5320 with a grade of "C" or better.

PHYS 5331. Electromagnetic Field Theory.

This course is an introduction to electrodynamics at the graduate level using rigorous mathematical formulation. Topics include methods of solving problems in electrostatics and magnetostatics, boundary value problems and Green’s Functions, fields in media, and Maxwell’s Equations and time varying fields.

PHYS 5332. Materials Characterization.

This course covers skills and knowledge required for microscopy methods including optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, scanning tunneling electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, and confocal microscopy. Topics covered include x-ray and neutron diffraction techniques including structure analysis, powder and glancing angle diffraction, pole figure, texture analysis, and small angle scattering. Prerequisite: PHYS 5312 with a grade of "C" or better.

PHYS 5334. Relativity.

This course includes a review of special relativity, an introduction to the mathematics of tensor calculus and differential geometry, and such topics from general relativity as the Schwarzschild solution and black holes, tests of general relativity, cosmological models, and applications of relativity in the global positioning system (GPS).

PHYS 5350F. Astrophysics.

This course surveys a variety of issues in astrophysics through problem solving, quantitative measurements, and theoretical reasoning. Topics include celestial mechanics, stellar structure and evolution, star formation, and supernova remnants.

PHYS 5350G. Electrical and Magnetic Characterization Methods.

This course introduces electric and magnetic characterization methods important to metals, magnetic and semiconductor materials and devices. Various measurement techniques and methods will be reviewed. Students will learn to work with characterization tools.

PHYS 5350H. Astronomical Spectroscopy.

A lecture course introducing students to spectroscopy in astronomy, with particular emphasis on molecular spectroscopy. The course will cover a broad range of aspects including the development of spectroscopy in astronomy, the theory of atomic and molecular spectra, spectra in different astrophysical environments, instrumentation and data reduction. Prerequisite: Instructor approval.

PHYS 5350I. Advanced Computational Methods for Physics.

In this course students will learn and practice the Python computer language along with several of its scientific modules to model, visualize & analyze complex physical systems that cannot be described by mathematical equations with analytical solution. Special attention will be paid to programming techniques for data manipulation & analysis of large amounts of data residing in multiple data sets. The Python implementation of the (free) Anaconda distribution will be utilized. No previous knowledge of Python or programming required since a basic training will be provided in the first lectures, which will serve as an introduction or refresher for students.

PHYS 5350J. Optical Materials and Characterization Methods.

PHYS 5360. Physics Education Research: Teaching & Learning.

This course is an introduction to pedagogical issues in physics, including their related philosophical analysis and empirical research studies on student learning. Students will be guided to read, analyze, and present existing scholarly research that justifies approaching certain physics topics from particular perspectives and with particular instructional methods.The course is appropriate for future researchers in physics education and future physics teachers at secondary and post-secondary levels.

PHYS 5370. Problems in Advanced Physics.

Open to graduate students on an individual basis by arrangement with the Department of Physics. May be repeated with prior approval of the department. Prerequisite: Instructor approval.

PHYS 5395. Fundamentals of Research.

Course is available to graduate students only at the invitation of the department. May be repeated with prior approval of the department. Prerequisite: Instructor approval.

PHYS 5398. Industry Internship.

Supervised work experience in an appropriate high tech industry. Students will be required to keep a daily journal and make a final presentation (both written and oral) describing their accomplishments.

PHYS 5399A. Thesis.

This course represents a student’s initial thesis enrollment. No thesis credit is awarded until student has completed the thesis in PHYS 5399B .

PHYS 5399B. Thesis.

This course represents a student’s continuing thesis enrollments. The student continues to enroll in this course until the thesis is submitted for binding. Graded on a credit (CR), progress (PR), no-credit (F) basis.

PHYS 5599B. Thesis.

PHYS 5999B. Thesis.

2024-2025 Catalogs

• About Texas State
• About This Site
• Emergency Info
• Job Opportunities
• Search Texas State

Print this page.

The PDF will include all information unique to this page.

A PDF of the entire 2022-2023 catalog.

• College of Arts & Sciences
• Graduate Division
• College of Liberal and Professional Studies

The Physics & Astronomy Major

Introduction.

• Core Courses
• Concentration in Advanced Physical Theory and Experimental Techniques
• Concentration in Chemical Principles
• Concentration in Computer Techniques
• Concentration in Astrophysics
• Concentration in Business and Technology
• Concentration in Biological Sciences

The Physics Honors Program and Senior Thesis

The master's program in physics, elective courses, undergraduate research, the informal curriculum.

• The Minor Program

Double Majors

How to declare the major.

• Physics Course Roster
• Astronomy Course Roster

We are proud of our undergraduate curriculum. Introductory Physics is taught in several formats, ranging from small, accelerated honors sections, Structured, Active, In-Class Learning (SAIL) sections, to larger lecture courses. (The main criteria for admission to the honors course is a sufficiently advanced math preparation to be able to handle the material at a higher level, and a willingness to work hard). We ask our very best faculty to teach in the introductory program; all of the department's major course offerings are taught by members of the faculty. Once past the year of introductory Physics, upper level courses are all taught in small classes. There are many opportunities for individual contact with the faculty. It is also straightforward to complete a double major. In recent years, students have combined the study of Physics with Mathematics, Economics, Electrical Engineering, and Chemistry. A large proportion of our graduating seniors go on to do graduate work in Physics at top-ranked institutions.

Because most of our faculty of 37 have active research programs, students have ample opportunities to be kept informed of, and participate in, the latest developments in cutting-edge research. Our research interests include Elementary Particle Physics, Condensed Matter Physics, and Astrophysics. We make a serious effort to involve interested undergraduates in the department's research activities, in the form of both independent research projects for academic credit and summer research jobs.

The basic Physics major program provides a solid background in classical and modern Physics. The development follows the historical origins of the subject, starting with mechanics and proceeding to electromagnetism and then to the contribution of the twentieth century, relativity and quantum mechanics. Pedagogically the program is cyclical: after an introductory survey the major provides courses focused on the primary divisions of the subject. Students planning graduate study in Physics will generally take several elective courses in the department while those intending to seek employment in industry, or further study in other fields after graduation, will take electives appropriate to their career objectives.

There are several flavors, or "concentrations" to the Physics major. All start with the same fundamental set of courses, but they differ in the choice of upper-division and elective courses:

• Concentration in Physical Theory and Experimental Technique: This concentration is particularly appropriate for students contemplating graduate study in Physics. It provides a sound basis in Physics and Mathematics, with ample opportunities to take elective or even graduate courses and participate in research.
• Concentration in Chemical Principles: This concentration is particularly appropriate for students planning to enter the health professions. In addition to core Physics courses, two years of Chemistry form an integral part of this concentration.
• Concentration in Computer Techniques: This concentration is particularly appropriate for students contemplating a dual degree in Physics and Computer Science, or for those planning a career in the computer or electronics industries. In addition to core Physics courses, students choose from a selection of courses in Computer Science and computational techniques.
• Concentration in Astrophysics: This concentration is particularly appropriate for students planning to attend graduate school in Astrophysics. In addition to core Physics courses, students choose from a selection of courses in Astronomy and Astrophysics.
• Concentration in Business and Technology: This concentration is particularly appropriate for students whose ultimate goal is a career in modern industry involving both technical and managerial components. A student choosing this concentration will have a solid background in Physics, will be comfortable with both electronics and computers, and will have some appreciation of modern business methods and economics.
• Concentration in Biological Sciences: This concentration reflects increasing contributions of physicists (including members of our Faculty) to implications of Physics to Biological Sciences. Undergraduate students choosing this concentration will prepare themselves for careers in scientific research or professional Medical Physics programs that have been instituted at Penn and other Universities, among other possibilities.

The major in physics is divided into a core requirement plus all of the courses in one of five concentrations: Advanced Physical Theory and Experimental Techniques, Chemical Principles, Computer Techniques, Astrophysics, or Business and Technology.   There is an overall requirement of 17 1/2 or 18 1/2 credit units (c.u.), depending on the concentration chosen. There is also an honors program for ambitious students.  A Master's Program permits qualified students to submatriculate and obtain a master's degree.

With each concentration, we supply a "sample program." There is no single physics program suitable for all, since students arrive at the University with diverse scientific goals and backgrounds. Many students enter Penn with advanced placement credit in physics, mathematics, or both. On occasion, they may wish to substitute courses taken in other departments for physics department courses. Students who have transferred to Penn often require highly individualized programs which maximize their prior coursework while challenging them to explore other areas of the discipline.

Accordingly, the sample programs provided should serve as guides indicating the overall flow of the program, rather than as rigid patterns. It is imperative that all students intending to major in physics consult the undergraduate chair as early as possible in their careers in order to plan their course of study. The planned requirements for a major in Physics include the core courses listed below plus all of the courses in one of the five concentrations.

Core Courses: The following courses must be taken by all Physics majors, no matter what their concentration:

Math 1400, 1140, 2400, and 2410 (Math 104, 114, 240, and 241). Physics 0150 or 0170, Physics 0151 or 0171 (Physics 150 or 170, Physics 151 or 171). Physics 1230, 1250, 3351*, 3361, 3362, and 4411 (Physics 230, 250, 351*, 361, 362, and 411). *Physics 3351 is not required for the Biological Sciences concentration, but it is highly recommended.

Concentration Requirements

• Physics 4401, 4412, and 3364 or 4414
• An additional elective, consisting of one course offered by the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the 3300, 4400, or 5500 level.

• Chemistry 1101 and 1202
• Chemistry 2221 and 2222 or Chemistry 2241 and 2242.
• Physics 4401

18.5 units total For students interested in biological applications of physics, Physics 1280 (Biophysics) is strongly recommended. It recommended, but not required, that students in this concentration also take either Physics 3364 or Physics 4414.

• Physics 3364 or 3414
• Three other courses from the departments of Physics, Computer and Information Science, Electrical Engineering, or Mathematics, that stress computers and computation in the context of Physics-related problems. These courses are to be selected in consultation with the Undergraduate Chair, and should comprise an intellectually coherent sequence.  Possible courses in this list might include: CIS 1100, 1200 and 1210, EE 20000, EE 5390, Math 3200, Physics 1260, 3360, or an independent Physics 1299 or 4499 course incorporating a substantial computational component.

• Astronomy 1211 and 1212, Physics 4401
• Two of the following: Physics 3364, Physics 4414, Astronomy 1250
• One of the following: Physics 4421, Physics 5503, Physics 5505, Physics 5526.

• Physics 3364 or Physics 4414
• One course from the departments of Physics, Computer and Information Science, Electrical Engineering, or Mathematics, to be selected in consultation with the Undergraduate Chair, that stresses computers and computation in the context of Physics-related problems. Possible courses in this list might include: CIS 1100, 1200 and 1210, EE 2000, EE 5390, Math 3200, or an independent Physics 1299 or 4499 course incorporating a substantial computational component.
• Any four electives in business. These courses should provide a coherent course of study and should be chosen by consulting with the undergraduate chair. Recommended electives include: Accounting 1010, 1020; Economics 0010, 0020; Finance 1010, 1020; Legal Studies 2020; Management 1010; Operations Management 2100, 2210.

Concentration in Biological Sciences (19.5 units)

This concentration reflects increasing contributions of physicists (including members of our Faculty) to implications of Physics to Biological Sciences. Undergraduate students choosing this concentration will prepare themselves for careers in scientific research or professional Medical Physics programs that have been instituted at Penn and other Universities, among other possibilities.

The proposed Concentration is distinct from the existing Biophysics Major, although the two share several required courses. The Biophysics Major requires much more chemistry, making it appropriate for students interested in protein science and other topics within the well-established field of Biophysics The Physics major with a Concentration in Biological Science targets students with interests in the emerging field of Biological Physics, where researchers directly apply physical concepts and techniques to investigate biological systems; the emphasis is on developing new insights regarding biological systems from a perspective strongly rooted in Physics.

Concentration requirements (19.5 CU):

In addition to core requirements (NOTE: Physics 240 rather than Phys 250; Physics 351 is not required, but highly recommended):

BIOL 121 – Introduction to Biology and Molecular Biology* * - after consultation with the Undergraduate Chair, students with a strong background in Biology may be allowed to replace BIOL 121 with CHEM 251 or a BIOL elective.

BIOL 204 - Biochemistry or  BIOL 205 - Cell Biology BIOL 221 – Molecular Biology and Genetics PHYS 280 – Physical Models of Biological Systems (or PHYS 580) PHYS 401 – Statistical Mechanics and Thermodynamics

Two additional courses drawn from the following list:

• PHYS 351 – Analytical Mechanics
• PHYS 364 – Electronics Laboratory
• PHYS 421 – Modern Optics
• PHYS 580 – Biological Physics
• PHYS 582 – Medical Radiation Engineering
• PHYS 585 – Theoretical and Computational Neuroscience
• Any BIOL course numbered 200 or higher
• CHEM 251 – Principles of Biological Chemistry
• CHEM 451 – Biological Chemistry I
• CHEM 452 – Biological Chemistry II
• BE 480 – Introduction to Biomedical Imaging
• CIS 537 (BE 537) – Biomedical Image Analysis
• MATH 584 – Mathematics of Medical Imaging and Measurement

Students may propose a relevant course not on this list as an elective by consulting the Undergraduate Chair before taking the class.

Example Curriculum for the proposed Physics Major with a Concentration in Biological Science:

The combination of PHYS 580 and PHYS 585 would provide a solid grounding in concepts of computational neuroscience.

Other suggested coupled electives:

• PHYS 500, BE 480, BE 537 would provide a very strong background in biomedical imaging.
• BIOL 536 Computational Biology and BIOL 537 Advanced Computational Biology.
• BIOL 436 Molecular Physiology and BIOL 410 Advanced Evolution

The department encourages students to enter the honors program. This program augments the regular major with the requirement (2 additional credits) that the student plan and carry out an individualized research project under the guidance of a faculty member. Research experience of this kind is invaluable to a future scientist: research is very different from course work, in that the latter is well-defined and bounded, while the former requires careful pre-planning on the part of the student and always involves an interesting element of risk.

To graduate with honors in physics, a student must achieve a GPA of at least 3.3 in major-related courses, must enroll for an additional 2 c.u. of Physics 4498 Senior Thesis Research (PHYS 5598 if you are submatriculating), and must write a thesis describing his or her research. The addition of these two courses means that the minimum requirement increases by 2 c.u., e.g. depending on the concentration from 17 1/2 c.u.  to 19 1/2 c.u.

The honors program, which is a way of completing the degree in Physics, should not be confused with honors courses, which are accelerated courses in physics for ambitious students. Students hoping for a general honors degree need to take a certain number of honors courses; for more information you should talk to advisors in the College Advising Office. You do not need to be a physics honors major to take the honors courses (although many choose to do so) and you do not need to take the honors courses to be an honor major.

Advanced students may enroll in the Physics submatriculation program.  A total of 8 courses are required for the Master of Science (MS) degree.

All 8 courses must be at the pure graduate level.  Specifically, the requirements are a) 2 from the core grad courses PHYS5500/5516/5531/5532/6611 (PHYS500/516/531/532/611) with a B or better in each course, b) 2 PHYS/ASTR 500+ level courses, c) 4 electives, which can include relevant non-PHYS/ASTR courses as well as 2 credits for the Senior Honors Thesis.  College students can also use up to 4 of these courses as a  College electives  - i.e., the minimum cu requirement for the BA+MS is 40 rather than 44.  Students must apply during the Fall of their junior year between October and December when the graduate application opens.

Students must achieve a minimum GPA of 3.0 in their master's courses.  The application form from can be picked up from the Physics Academic Office on the 2nd floor of DRL (or can be emailed to you electronically).  Courses must be approved by both the undergraduate chair and the graduate chair.

Physics majors are strongly encouraged to take elective courses in physics, astronomy, mathematics, chemistry, or other sciences. The department offers mixed undergraduate and graduate courses in modern optics, condensed matter physics, and nuclear and elementary particle physics, special and general relativity, and astrophysics . And for the really ambitious student, there is the entire set of first-year graduate courses from which to choose. Many students take a course in computer programming (often CSE 110 or ESE 115) or in numerical methods using computers (e.g., Mathematics 320 and 321). Students with a theoretical bent frequently take electives in mathematics. Majors planning a career in the health professions must take courses in chemistry and biology; such students should consult a health professions advisor for advice on the specific courses required by the professional schools.

Pennsylvania is a research university. Physics majors are encouraged to participate in this aspect of the department's activities.

Apart from the individual research done as part of the honors program, students can carry out supervised research projects under the rubric of Physics and Astronomy 299 and 499 . Other students gain valuable research experience participating in summer internships at Penn or other universities and research programs at national facilities and laboratories. Click here for a description of faculty research interests.

In order to receive permission to register for PHYS 299 (independent study) or PHYS 499 (dissertation), students must submit a mini-proposal of estimated length 2-4 pages, including figures and reference s. The "target audience" of the mini-proposal should be a trained physicist who may not be an expert in the specific field of research. This mini-proposal should contain the following elements:

• Title of the Project
• Objective and Significance: what is the primary objective of your project and why is it important?
• Background and Preliminary Results: background information on the field, also preliminary results from student's own work and/or work done in student advisor's lab. The point is to demonstrate that the student has identified is a realistic goal.
• Work Plan: a description of the methods the student will use and sub-projects that will be undertaken in order to attain primary objectives.
• Cited References

At the end of the semester, the student must turn in a final report (or thesis if this is the conclusion of an Honors Project). The estimated length of a final report is 5-10 pages, while a thesis could be substantially longer. The "target audience" is again a trained physicist who may not be an expert in the specific field of research. The report should cover the following:

• Project Title
• Abstract, which should include a summary of the major findings of the work
• Objective and Significance
• Background and state of knowledge before the project started
• Summary of the methods used in the project
• Major findings, results and analysi
• Summary including a discussion of important areas and questions for future research projects.

The Department of Physics and Astronomy endeavors to provide a variety of informal opportunities for undergraduates to acquaint themselves with aspects of current research. For lack of a better term we dub these activities the "informal curriculum." Included in this category are Physics Club activities, departmental colloquia and seminars, and similar activities. The Departmental Colloquium (held nearly every Wednesday) is a forum in which speakers present aspects of their research at a level usually intelligible to advanced undergraduates. The Undergraduate Physics Club sponsors a number of activities, including lectures and discussions, field trips, and other events, specifically addressed to undergraduates. And at the "first-year seminar," a lecture series designed to acquaint graduate students with the various opportunities for thesis research in the department, undergraduates can gain insight into current research interests and problems.

Minor Program

The Physics minor consists of any 6 Physics courses (not units, but courses). No more than two of these can be at the 100 (introductory) level. A recommended minor is Physics 150, 151, 230, 250 and TWO advanced course at the 300 level or above. This program provides an introduction to physics through the 100 level courses, a full survey of the field through the 200 level courses, and advanced training in at least one area through the advanced course. Students may propose other minor programs to be approved by the undergraduate chair (e.g. replacing 200 level courses by more advanced courses.)

It is possible to pursue a major in physics simultaneously with a major in geology, engineering, mathematics, or other subjects. Interested students should consult the undergraduate chair.

You should contact our undergraduate chair Eleni Katifori after meeting with your pre-major advisor.

Skip to Content

• Dissertations & Theses

Liam Martinez, 2022 -- A Model for Describing Enacted and Stated Student Beliefs About Group Work

Aug. 2, 2022

Read more about Liam Martinez, 2022 -- A Model for Describing Enacted and Stated Student Beliefs About Group Work

Katherine Rainey, 2021 -- Upper-Division Thermal Physics Assessment Development and the Impacts of Race & Gender on STEM Participation

Dec. 3, 2021

Read more about Katherine Rainey, 2021 -- Upper-Division Thermal Physics Assessment Development and the Impacts of Race & Gender on STEM Participation

Julian Gifford, 2021 -- Developing and Applying a Categorical Framework for Mathematical Sense Making in Physics

Read more about Julian Gifford, 2021 -- Developing and Applying a Categorical Framework for Mathematical Sense Making in Physics

Alexandra Lau, 2020 -- Faculty Online Learning Communities: A model to support the pedagogical growth of physics faculty

Read more about Alexandra Lau, 2020 -- Faculty Online Learning Communities: A model to support the pedagogical growth of physics faculty

Jessica R. Hoehn, 2019 ▬ Investigating and valuing the messy nature of learning: Ontological, epistemological, and social aspects of student reasoning in quantum mechanics

May 9, 2019

Read more about Jessica R. Hoehn, 2019 ▬ Investigating and valuing the messy nature of learning: Ontological, epistemological, and social aspects of student reasoning in quantum mechanics

Tamia Williams, 2017 ▬ Characterizing the Role of Arts Education on the Physics Identity of Black Individuals

Aug. 17, 2017

Read more about Tamia Williams, 2017 ▬ Characterizing the Role of Arts Education on the Physics Identity of Black Individuals

Elias Euler, 2015 ▬ Beliefs, intentions, actions, & reflections (BIAR): a new way to look at the interactions of teachers and students

May 1, 2015

Read more about Elias Euler, 2015 ▬ Beliefs, intentions, actions, & reflections (BIAR): a new way to look at the interactions of teachers and students

Bethany R. Wilcox, 2015 ▬ New tools for investigating student learning in upper-division electrostatics

Read more about Bethany R. Wilcox, 2015 ▬ New tools for investigating student learning in upper-division electrostatics

Benjamin T. Spike, 2014 ▬ An investigation of the knowledge, beliefs, and practices of physics teaching assistants, with implications for TA preparation

May 1, 2014

Read more about Benjamin T. Spike, 2014 ▬ An investigation of the knowledge, beliefs, and practices of physics teaching assistants, with implications for TA preparation

Lisa Goodhew, 2012—What representations teach us about student reasoning

Aug. 1, 2012

Read more about Lisa Goodhew, 2012—What representations teach us about student reasoning

Productive Failure Learning in Physics Education

The study investigates the effectiveness of productive failure learning using a contrasting-cases design of ill-structured problems followed by well-structured problems. Fifty-one future elementary school teachers, enrolled in an undergraduate physics course were randomly assigned to one of the three conditions: a) ill-structured followed by well-structured problems (IS-WS), b) well-structured followed by well-structured problems (WS-WS), and c) ill-structured followed by ill-structured problems (IS-IS). The study hypothesized that the first condition with a contrasting-case design would outperform the non-contrasting-case design. After solving treatment problems in their respective conditions, all the participants took a post-test that comprised both ill-structured and well-structured problems. The one-way and two-way ANOVA results showed that while productive failure learning (IS-WS) outperformed WS-WS on both procedural and conceptual knowledge in the well-structured post-test, there was no significant difference between the three learning conditions in the ill-structured post-test. The findings indicated that structuring instruction lies on a continuum between highly structured and unstructured. For higher-level physics education, productive failure learning provided the optimum balance of discovery learning via ill-structured problems and guided instruction via well-structured problems to activate prior knowledge, draw attention to critical features of the canonical concept, and facilitate motivation and excitement within learners, resulting in effective learning.

Degree Type

• Master of Science
• Technology Leadership and Innovation

Campus location

• West Lafayette

Advisor/Supervisor/Committee Chair

Advisor/supervisor/committee co-chair, additional committee member 2, usage metrics.

• Physical education and development curriculum and pedagogy
• Science, technology and engineering curriculum and pedagogy

Department of Physics

Interdisciplinary Theses

Thesis advisors from other departments: Each year a number of seniors have faculty members from other departments as their thesis advisors. Most of these theses are well within the realm of physics - it just happens that the best advisor for this topic is in, say, the Geology Department. In these cases, only one special procedure is required. The second reader for the thesis is chosen at the beginning of the year, by the deadline for reporting the thesis topic. This person, who must be in the Physics Department, is consulted as the topic is being finalized. He or she can then make sure that the topic will meet Physics Department requirements and that it is likely to turn into a good thesis.

Interdisciplinary thesis topics: The Department encourages students to follow interests beyond the traditional fields of physics by pursuing interdisciplinary thesis research. Many theses advised by faculty outside the Physics Department (e.g., biophysics, geophysics, various engineering topics) use standard physics methodology and thus require no special considerations. On the other hand, several years ago the Department expanded its thesis guidelines to allow students to choose topics well outside traditional areas. Examples would be: a history of physics thesis where the student's research was primarily on the history itself, rather than physics analysis of a historical topic; an analysis of disposal options for materials from nuclear weapons that focused on policy issues, including but not necessarily emphasizing technical ones. As with the choice of Departmental Courses, choice of such a topic should represent a serious interest, perhaps an area to which you intend to apply your physics training after graduation.

The following guidelines, while applicable to any thesis, are particularly meant to provide guidance to faculty and students who are considering theses in interdisciplinary areas.

• Is there evidence of original research or scholarship? Good examples are actual scientific measurements carried out by the student to verify, say, the claim by Benjamin Franklin that he once roasted a turkey using electrostatics. Similarly, scholarly research including, for instance, the critical examination of source material can also be an important factor in a thesis.
• Is there evidence that the thesis research draws heavily on the training, course work, and academic experience in the 3-year physics undergraduate program? Could the thesis have been written by a student that did not go through the program?
• In an interdisciplinary thesis that involves two fields with rather disparate methodologies or philosophies, is the student sufficiently familiar with the methodology of the other discipline? Is the scientific method that should be expected from a physicist apparent in the work?

The overriding factor, as always, is excellence of academic research. Is the content of the thesis, at least in principle, appropriate for a professional journal? Note, it is understood that the thesis as written is probably not ready for publishing, it is the quality of the content that should be quite substantial. Historically, examples have arisen of ill-contrived theses which turn out poorly because the selected topic did not lend itself easily to excellence in research at the undergraduate level. Theses with an interdisciplinary flavor require frequent contacts between the primary advisor and the student, and a careful choice of the research topic.

How Two Rebel Physicists Changed Quantum Theory

David Bohm and Hugh Everett were once ostracized for challenging the dominant thinking in physics. Now, science accepts their ideas, which are said to enrich our understanding of the universe.

The field of quantum mechanics dates to 1900, the year German scientist Max Planck (1858–1947) discovered that energy could come in discrete packages called quanta. It advanced in 1913, when Danish physicist Niels Bohr (1885–1962) used quantum principles to explain what had until then been inexplicable, the exact wavelengths of light emitted or absorbed by a gas of hydrogen atoms. And since the 1920s, when Werner Heisenberg (1901–1976) and Erwin Schrödinger (1887–1961) built new quantum theories, quantum mechanics has consistently proven its value as the fundamental theory of the nanoscale and as a source of technology, from computer chips and lasers to LED bulbs and solar panels.

One question, however, still puzzles: how does the quantum world relate to the more familiar human-scale one? For a century, the Copenhagen interpretation , chiefly developed by Bohr and Heisenberg in that city, has been the standard answer taught in physics courses. It posits that the quantum scale is indeterminate; that is, operates according to the laws of probability. This world is utterly different from the deterministic and predictable “classical” human scale, yet the Copenhagen interpretation doesn’t clearly explain how reality changes between the two worlds.

Heisenberg and Bohr developed the Copenhagen interpretation amidst the blossoming of new quantum theories in the first half of the twentieth century. In 1927, Heisenberg announced his important uncertainty principle : at the quantum level, certain pairs of quantities, such as momentum and position, cannot be simultaneously measured to any desired degree of precision. The more exactly you measure one, the less well you know the other. Thus, we can never fully know the quantum world, a key feature of the Copenhagen interpretation.

Indeterminism also appears in the Schrödinger wave equation at the heart of the Copenhagen view. Einstein had shown that light waves can act like swarms of particles, later called photons; in 1924, Louis de Broglie assumed the inverse, that tiny particles are also wave-like. In 1926, Schrödinger published his equation for these “matter waves.” Its solution, the “wave function” denoted by the Greek letter Ψ (psi), contains all possible information about a quantum entity such as an electron in an atom. But the information is indeterminate: Ψ is only a list of probable values for all the different physical properties, such as position or momentum, that the electron could have in its particular surroundings. The electron is said be in a superposition , simultaneously present in all its potential states of actual being.

This superposition exists until an observer measures the properties of the electron, which makes its wave function “collapse”; the cloud of possible outcomes yields just one result, a definite value emerging into the classical world. It is as if, asked to pick a card out of a deck, the instant you select the three of hearts, the other fifty-one cards fade away. In this case, we know that the rejected cards still physically exist with definite properties, but in the Copenhagen view, subatomic particles aren’t real until they’re observed. Another problem is that the notion of a sudden wave function collapse seems an arbitrary addition to the Copenhagen interpretation; it contradicts the smooth evolution in time built into the Schrödinger equation.

These troubling features, called “the measurement problem,” were hotly debated in the 1920s. But overwhelming any objections was the fact that the Copenhagen interpretation works! Its results agree precisely with experiments, the final test of any theory, and inspire real devices. Even so, David Joseph Bohm (1917–1992) and Hugh Everett III (1930–1982) sought equally valid theories without any incongruities. In the 1950s, these two American physicists dared to challenge the conventional Copenhagen interpretation with their “pilot wave” and “many-worlds” theories, respectively. Though from different backgrounds, Bohm and Everett shared characteristics that helped them seek answers: mathematical aptitude, necessary to manipulate quantum theory; and unconventional career paths, which separated them from the orthodoxy of academic physics.

Bohm was a second-generation American, born into an immigrant family from Europe that operated a furniture store in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. In high school, where his physics instructor described him as “outstanding” and “brilliant,” Bohm developed his own alternative ideas about Bohr’s hydrogen atom. After undergraduate work at Penn State, he began earning a PhD in nuclear physics in 1941 under J. Robert Oppenheimer (1904–1967) at the University of California, Berkeley. The United States was engaged in World War II at the time and was about to build an atomic bomb. Bohm’s doctoral research was classified, and he was awarded his degree in 1943 without writing a dissertation. Though Oppenheimer wanted Bohm to work with him at Los Alamos, Bohm couldn’t get security clearance as he had briefly been, in the early 1940s, a member of the Communist Party.

In 1947, supported by theorist John Wheeler, Bohm became an assistant professor at Princeton. There he taught quantum mechanics and wrote Quantum Theory (1951), in which he presented the Copenhagen interpretation, only to disavow it the next year, when he published his alternative theory in a pair of papers in the Physical Review (in 1957, he expounded his ideas further in his book Causality and Chance in Modern Physics ).

But in 1951, his life had taken a serious turn. In that Cold War era of McCarthyism, Bohm was brought before the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC). He pleaded the Fifth Amendment against self-incrimination, and he was first indicted and jailed for contempt of Congress and then acquitted when the Supreme Court decriminalized this action. Still, the damage was done. Princeton didn’t renew Bohm’s contract and banned him from campus in June 1951. Unable to obtain a new academic position in the US, he began a life-long exile, taking temporary teaching positions in Brazil and elsewhere. Finally, in 1961, he accepted the offer of a chaired professorship in physics at Birkbeck College, London. He remained in that position until he retired in 1983, continuing to develop his new approach, the “pilot wave” theory.

When de Broglie postulated that tiny particles are also wave-like, he proposed the role of the waves as guiding or piloting the motions of real physical particles. Bohm fleshed out this insight by relating the pilot wave to Schrödinger’s wave function Ψ. In Bohm’s view, Ψ doesn’t collapse, but shepherds real subatomic particles into specific trajectories. This scenario yields the same results as the Schrödinger equation and resolves a great wave-particle quantum paradox. In the famous double-slit experiment , a stream of electrons or photons sent through two slits produces a pattern that could arise only from interfering waves, not particles. Bohm’s solution is that each particle traversing one of the slits rides a wave that pilots it into a complex path and generates an interference pattern from the swarm of particles.

For his part, Everett solved the measurement problem differently, as described by biographer Peter Byrne in an article , and later, a book . Born in Washington, DC, Everett showed an early interest in logical contradictions. At age twelve, he wrote to Einstein about the paradox “irresistible force meets immovable body,” and, as Everett reports, Einstein replied that there is no such paradox, but he noted Everett’s drive in attacking the problem. Everett graduated with honors from Catholic University as an engineer with strong backgrounds in math, operations research, and physics.

In 1953, Everett went to Princeton for graduate work. There he met Bohr, whose visit at the nearby Institute for Advanced Study sparked discussions about quantum mechanics. Later Everett said that the idea for his new theory came during a sherry-fueled session with one of Bohr’s assistants, among others. Everett was soon working out the consequences of his idea in a dissertation under John Wheeler, who had mentored Bohm and also Nobel Laureate Richard Feynman (1918–1988), and who called Everett “highly original.”

In the Copenhagen view, quantum reality as determined by the Schrödinger equation is separate from classical reality. Everett boldly asserted instead that the Schrödinger equation applies to everything, small or big, object or observer. The resulting universal wave function describes a reality without a boundary between microscopic and macroscopic or any need for the wave function to collapse. In his scheme, the measurement problem doesn’t exist.

This, however, comes at the cost of accepting a highly complex universe. If large objects and their observers obey the Schrödinger equation, then the universal wave function includes all observers and objects and their links in superposition. As Byrne explains: if the object could exist at either point A or B, in one branch of the universal wave function the observer sees the measurement result as “A,” and in another branch, a nearly identical person sees the result as “B.” (Everett called different elements of the superposition “branches.”) Further, without the jarring disruption of wave function collapse, the Schrödinger equation tells us that the branches go smoothly forward in time and do not interact, so each observer separately sees a normally unfolding macroscopic world.

In layman’s terms, this means that the universe, instead of being a unity that encompasses all reality, is filled with separate multiverses or bubbles of reality, each believed to be the entire universe by its inhabitants. The observer who saw result “A” now lives in that reality, and the person who saw “B” occupies a separately evolving reality according to their different outcome. Each of these unimaginable numbers of bubbles moves ahead into its own future, forming a totality filled with what have come to be called “parallel worlds.”

Bohr and his group scorned this grandiose idea as an answer to the measurement problem, one of his circle calling it “theology,” and another deriding Everett as “ stupid .” Wheeler had Everett rewrite his dissertation so it didn’t directly criticize the Copenhagen interpretation or its proponents. His thesis was published in 1957 and, according to Byrne, “slipped into instant obscurity.” All this should have been no surprise. As Olival Freire Jr. points out , Bohm’s earlier work—which Everett cited—had also been badly received, even with hostility, in a community dominated by Bohr and champions of the Copenhagen interpretation.

That was to change for both theories. In 1964, a bombshell result from theorist John Bell showed how to experimentally confirm the exceedingly strange quantum effect of entanglement, which Einstein called “ spooky action at a distance ”: the fact that two quantum entities can affect each other over arbitrary distances. Bell, it turns out, was strongly influenced by Bohm’s work, notes Freire. This shows that rethinking the foundations of quantum mechanics, downplayed by some physicists as only a philosophical exercise, can pay off in deep theoretical insights as well as in technology; entanglement today is used in quantum computation, communication, and cryptography.

Everett’s ideas too came to be more appreciated after The Many-Worlds Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics (Bryce DeWitt and Neill Graham, editors) was published in 1973. It included Everett’s original dissertation and related papers. This and DeWitt’s evocative phrase “many-worlds interpretation” brought new interest in Everett’s work and linked it to multiverse theory , which has been developed to solve certain problems in cosmology and as an outcome of string theory. Everett won further recognition—this time in popular culture—in 1976, when his work appeared in Analog , a leading science fiction magazine. (In fact, multiverses and parallel worlds have become staples of popular culture, as the film Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022) and the streaming series Dark Matter (2024), based on the novel by Blake Crouch, make clear.)

By 2023, Bohm’s and Everett’s seminal papers had each amassed tens of thousands of citations in the scientific literature. Surveys have also asked hundreds of physicists which interpretation of quantum mechanics they consider best. Many chose the Copenhagen view, but an equal number favor either the pilot wave or many-worlds interpretation. It’s striking that what in the 1950s were outlaw ideas, met with disbelief and antagonism, today have a significant degree of acceptance and have greatly expanded our view of the quantum world and the universe.

That Bohm and Everett could produce novel theories reflects their special circumstances and their times as well as their abilities. McCarthyism interrupted Bohm’s career but also freed him from conventional views of quantum mechanics. Historian of science Christian Forstner cites a 1981 interview in which Bohm acknowledges the upside to his departure from Princeton. It “liberated me,” Bohm admitted. “I was able to think more easily and more freely…without having to talk the language of other people.” Forstner notes that in exile, the physicist had the freedom to choose like-minded colleagues so that “the US-community and its thought-style lost importance for Bohm.” Indeed, Bohm’s exile was highly productive.

Weekly Newsletter

Get your fix of JSTOR Daily’s best stories in your inbox each Thursday.

Privacy Policy   Contact Us You may unsubscribe at any time by clicking on the provided link on any marketing message.

Everett’s expertise in operations research brought him the offer of a position with the Pentagon’s Weapons Systems Evaluation Group (WSEG) to analyze nuclear warfare after finishing his PhD. Wheeler wanted him to continue at Princeton but also knew, Byrne writes, that the lack of recognition for Everett’s ideas had left him “disappointed, perhaps bitter.” Nor did Everett enjoy truncating his thesis to mollify Bohr, and he must have realized that advocating an unpopular theory would cloud his academic career. In the end, he chose WSEG and never again worked in theoretical physics, but perhaps having this alternate possibility stiffened his resolve in presenting and defending his audacious idea. His talents shone at WSEG, but, according to Byrne, he was an alcoholic and died of a heart attack at age fifty-one.

The co-existing Copenhagen, Bohm, and Everett interpretations give the same results for many different tests of quantum behavior; and so we await the subtle experiment that distinguishes among them, showing which one is physically true and might give philosophers new insight into the nature of reality. Bohm’s and Everett’s sagas provide another valuable lesson. Science prides itself on being self-correcting; wrong theories are eventually made right, as in the old notion of a geocentric universe giving way to the modern view. The Copenhagen interpretation became unquestioned orthodoxy, but Bohm and Everett challenged it even at personal cost. That reflects the highest aspirations of science and deserves to be recognized in 2025, the upcoming International Year of Quantum Science and Technology.

Support JSTOR Daily! Join our membership program on Patreon today.

JSTOR is a digital library for scholars, researchers, and students. JSTOR Daily readers can access the original research behind our articles for free on JSTOR.

Get Our Newsletter

More stories.

Growing Quickly Helped the Earliest Dinosaurs

The Huts of the Appalachian Trail

Saturn’s Ocean Moon Enceladus Is Able to Support Life

Aurorae and the Green of the Night Sky

Recent posts.

• Islands in the Cash Stream 
• Performing as “Red Indians” in Ghana
• Wooden Kings and Winds of Change in Tonga
• Women in the Vijayanagar Empire
• The Long Shadow of the Jolly Bachelors

Support JSTOR Daily

Sign up for our weekly newsletter.

Top Universities in South Africa for Physics Majors

Choosing the right university to pursue a degree in physics is a crucial decision for aspiring physicists. South Africa, with its vibrant academic landscape, offers several institutions renowned for their excellence in physics education and research. Here’s a comprehensive look at some of the top universities in South Africa for physics majors:

1. University of Cape Town (UCT)

The University of Cape Town is consistently ranked among the top universities in Africa and is renowned for its strong emphasis on research and academic excellence. The Department of Physics at UCT offers undergraduate and postgraduate programs that cover a wide range of physics disciplines, including astrophysics, condensed matter physics, and theoretical physics. The university boasts state-of-the-art research facilities and collaborations with international research institutions.

2. University of the Witwatersrand (Wits)

The University of the Witwatersrand, located in Johannesburg, is another prestigious institution known for its rigorous academic programs in physics. The School of Physics at Wits offers undergraduate degrees, Honours, Masters, and PhD programs in various fields of physics, such as nuclear and particle physics, computational physics, and optics. Wits has strong ties to industry and research organizations, providing students with practical experience and research opportunities.

3. Stellenbosch University

Stellenbosch University, situated in the Western Cape province, is renowned for its strong research focus and high academic standards. The Department of Physics at Stellenbosch University offers undergraduate and postgraduate programs that encompass diverse areas of physics, including nanotechnology, biophysics, and laser physics. The university collaborates extensively with international research institutions and industry partners, enhancing opportunities for students to engage in cutting-edge research.

4. University of Pretoria

The University of Pretoria is a leading research-intensive university that offers comprehensive physics programs at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. The Department of Physics at UP focuses on various specialized fields, including medical physics, plasma physics, and computational physics. The university’s strong research culture and partnerships with industry ensure that students receive a well-rounded education and practical experience in their chosen field.

5. Rhodes University

Rhodes University, located in Grahamstown (Makhanda), is known for its small class sizes and personalized approach to education. The Department of Physics and Electronics at Rhodes University offers undergraduate programs in physics, as well as Honours, Masters, and PhD programs in areas such as theoretical physics, materials science, and astronomy. The university’s research facilities and close-knit academic community provide a conducive environment for student development and research collaboration.

6. University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN)

The University of KwaZulu-Natal, with campuses in Durban and Pietermaritzburg, offers robust physics programs that cater to diverse student interests and career goals. The School of Physics at UKZN provides undergraduate degrees, Honours, Masters, and PhD programs in fields such as atmospheric physics, optics, and renewable energy physics. The university’s research initiatives and collaborations with international institutions offer students valuable opportunities for academic growth and research involvement.

7. Nelson Mandela University

Nelson Mandela University, located in Port Elizabeth, offers dynamic physics programs that emphasize both theoretical knowledge and practical skills. The Department of Physics at NMU provides undergraduate degrees and Honours programs in physics, with a focus on applied physics, renewable energy, and materials science. The university’s commitment to research and community engagement enhances students’ learning experiences and prepares them for careers in academia, industry, and research institutions.

Choosing a university for studying physics in South Africa involves considering factors such as academic reputation, research opportunities, faculty expertise, and campus facilities. The institutions listed above are recognized for their commitment to excellence in physics education and research, providing students with a solid foundation and opportunities for specialization in various fields of physics. Whether aspiring physicists are interested in theoretical research, applied physics, or interdisciplinary studies, these universities offer diverse programs and resources to support their academic and professional growth in the field of physics.

Related Articles

The Best Institutions for Chemistry Research in South Africa

Leading Universities in South Africa for Sociology Studies

South Africa’s Top Institutions for Political Science

Best Schools for Economics in South Africa

Adblock detected.

Watch CBS News

105-year-old dons cap and gown, receives overdue degree from Stanford University

Updated on: June 17, 2024 / 2:26 PM PDT / CBS San Francisco

STANFORD -- At age 105, Virginia Hislop has lived a full life with two children, four grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren. She has devoted much of her life to education and has served on school and college boards in central Washington, where she lives.

Despite her success, she says something was missing.

"From time to time, I wished I had finished and gotten my master's (degree)," Hislop said. "Part of it was the fact that I've been a college director for a good number of years and I didn't have the advanced degree that some of the other ones did."

Hislop had taken the required classes at Stanford University but had not yet submitted a master's thesis when the U.S. entered World War II in 1941.

"The Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor," Hislop explained.

She quickly married her college sweetheart before his Army deployment. She assisted in the war effort then focused on her family but never finished her thesis.

"Fast-forward 83 years -- we don't have a thesis requirement anymore so she's actually satisfied the requirements for Master of Arts in the Graduate School of Education," said Daniel Schwartz, dean of the Stanford Graduate School of Education. "So, 83 years later, we're honoring this woman who has done so much."

Sunday afternoon at the education department's commencement ceremony, fellow graduates and Hislop's family, many of whom live in the Bay Area, gave her a standing ovation as she walked onto the stage with a little support from her cane.

"So much gratitude. She's believed in all of us and cheered us on all the way through and we get to cheer her on now. It's pretty cool," said Elizabeth Jensen, Hislop's granddaughter. "I feel like this is the crowning glory of her amazing career. This is her lifetime achievement award."

Hislop received her master's academic hoop and her diploma.

"Very satisfied, very pleased," Hislop beamed.

She was quick to remind people it's never too late to get a college degree. And this one added one more highlight to her many accomplishments.

When asked what she'd do with the diploma, she smiled.

"Add it to the others I have in the basement," she said.

• Senior Citizens

Da Lin is an award-winning journalist at KPIX 5 News. He joined KPIX 5 in 2012, but has been reporting the news in the Bay Area since 2007. Da grew up in Oakland, and before his return to the Bay Area, he spent five years covering the news at three other television stations in Texas, Southern and Central California. He also spent five years reporting at KRON 4.

Featured Local Savings

More from cbs news.

Arrests made after 12-year-old Houston girl found dead in creek

4 killed, 9 wounded in shooting outside Arkansas grocery store

Wild Thang wins world's ugliest dog contest in Petaluma

Kevin Costner says he won't be returning to "Yellowstone"