In January 1988, the University received State approval to start a Ph.D. program in physics, and the first doctoral students were admitted in August 1988. The Department is continuing to expand its faculty and research laboratories for this program. the M.S.T. in Physics is also offered and is designed to train physics teachers at the secondary and junior levels.
The Physics Department moved to the new Science and Engineering building in May 1990. It has modern electronics and machine shops staffed by a full-time electronics technician and two full-time machinists.
The experimental program is presently concentrated in condensed matter physics and spectroscopy. Facilities are available for the preparation and fabrication of metallic alloy crystals, superconducting powders, and semiconducting materials.
Facilities are available to study and characterize these materials using Auger, LEED, UV and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, x-ray diffraction, and by optical methods such as Brillouin and Raman scattering techniques.
Activities in theoretical physics include programs in astrophysics with an emphasis on stellar evolution, condensed matter, and mathematical physics. On the astrophysics side, there are ongoing efforts of studying neutron star and black hole binaries via numerical simulations of Einstein's equations of General Relativity. Electronic structure calculations form the basis of the theoretical work on metallic alloys and superconductivity.
Over the past few years, graduate students have spent some of their graduate careers carrying out their research off-site. A number of students have used the facilities and worked with personnel at the National Synchrotron Light Source (Brookhaven National Laboratory); at CAMD (Louisiana State University); at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory; at the Daresbury Laboratory, England. Students are able therefore to use state-of-the-art facilities and to interact with internationally known experts in their field of study.
In May 2010, the Board of Trustees at Florida Atlantic University approved to start a Professional Science Master in Medical Physics (PSMMP) program.
Graduate Teaching Assistantships are available to qualifying doctoral students at the rate of about $26,000 per year. Assistantships generally include tuition waivers.
For further details about graduate, admissions visit the Graduate Admissions page or email our admissions officer for the Ph.D. and MST programs (physicsadmissions@fau.edu) or for the PSMMP program (medphycsadmissions@fau.edu) and CC the Medical Physics Program Director leventou@fau.edu.
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