Make a Quantum Leap in Learning

If you love experiments, if Stephen Hawking is your hero, if you consider mathematics problems an interesting challenge and not a dreaded chore—this is the major for you. Study the universe at a university that has award-winning professors who encourage undergraduates to stake out a place in the lab and make discoveries alongside them.

Thinkers, tinkerers, and theoretical mathematicians gravitate to physics to explore the laws of nature and the relationship between energy and matter. A degree in physics from the University of Oregon will give you a solid foundation to continue graduate studies in astrophysics, engineering, teaching, astronomy, medicine, and a host of other disciplines. The habits of mind acquired by a rigorous course of study in physics equip a graduate to think logically, methodically, and be able to stand a problem on its head. These skills are essential once you reach the job market.

One piece of advice: Steven Kevan, the head of the department, says high school calculus can give an entering a freshman a head start, though it’s not necessary. There are two introductory physics classes at the UO—one that uses calculus and one that doesn’t. “Certainly, more important than high school physics is high school calculus,” he says. Kevan’s research, by the way, focuses on experimental studies of the electronic, structural, and dynamical properties of natural and synthetic low-dimensional material systems. Come learn what it’s all about.

The physics building contains 136,000 square feet of laboratory, office, and classroom space. UO physics students attend frequent colloquia presented by professors from around the country and the world. Listen to speakers on topics such as, “Perturbative Quantum Chromodynamics,” or “Laboratory Models of Planetary Cores.” Or attend one of the seminars on optics, molecular biology, or physical chemistry. There’s so much going on, your choices will seem infinite.

• The Department of Physics has made undergraduate research a priority, with more than 50 percent of physics juniors and seniors involved in research experience
• Take physics classes from faculty members who bring their research interests to the classroom. These classes typically have 15 to 25 students, which is an optimal size to guarantee individual attention
• The UO physics department has thirty-four faculty members, whose areas of expertise range from astrophysics to materials science. The faculty is awarded more than $4 million in external research grants each year
• Willamette Hall houses the physics department and features physics laboratories that are equipped with microcomputers to aid students in data acquisition and analysis
• You may graduate with honors in the physics department’s Physics Honors Baccalaureate program by maintaining a high upper-division physics G.P.A. and writing and defending a thesis on a research project

Sample Courses

Practical Learning

The UO and the National Science Foundation sponsor a ten-week summer undergraduate research program for physics and chemistry majors to participate in a wide variety of exciting research projects.

Undergraduate students can help set up the many demonstrations that accompany lectures. In the optics and electronics laboratories, students use state-of-the-art equipment to reinforce concepts learned in class and to undertake individual research projects.

The physics department runs a Science Outreach Program with funding from the National Science Foundation. The program sends UO physics majors into elementary school and middle school classrooms to teach physics concepts.

Join the Society of Physics Students chapter on campus. The national society sponsors student internships and other opportunities for undergraduates.

Interdisciplinary Opportunities

The UO physics department exposes students to diverse philosophies and fields. Many students are interested in chemistry and become double majors in both chemistry and physics. The university encourages cross-discipline partnership through organizations such as the Materials Science Institute, the Institute of Molecular Biology, and the Institute of Neuroscience. The Institute of Molecular Biology, for example, brings together young scientists from the departments of biology, chemistry, and physics.

Attend PolyCamp, a weeklong program for chemistry and physics students interested in the fundamentals and industrial applications of polymer science. RockCamp, meanwhile, incorporates materials synthesis and characterization lectures and labs to prepare students to excel in solid-state inorganic chemistry and materials research. There are infinite possibilities.

Student Work

Rick Suhr is majoring in physics, mathematics, and computer science. He’s working alongside Assistant Professor Raghuveer Parthasarathy in the lab, helping to develop a computer program for a project on reflection interference contrast microscopy. Suhr is in the McNair Scholars Program, which prepares qualified juniors and seniors for graduate study. In his spare time, he’s a math tutor.

Dylan Fast is working with assistant Associate professor Professor Miriam Deutsch in the lab on optics and photonics projects. Specifically, he worked to manufacture iridescent synthetic opals as part of a plasmotics project. “It’s really nice to have someone to work with academically and in the lab,” he says. “By far, working in the lab is the best opportunity. That’s something that you can’t get at a lot of huge universities.”

Selected Faculty Work

Professor Davison Soper specializes in theoretical high-energy physics and has research interests in quantum chromodynamics and calculational tools for particle physics. Soper is a corecipient of the 2009 J.J. Sakurai Prize for Theoretical Particle Physics. The American Physical Society praised his “work in perturbative quantum chromodynamics, including applications to problems pivotal to the interpretation of high-energy particle collisions.”

Miriam Deutsch, associate professor of physics, specializes in optical physics. Her research interests include fabrication and the study of self-assembled photonic crystals. Deutsch is a part of the Oregon Center for Optics and is in charge of the Deutsch Group. The group seeks to understand the optical properties of materials patterned on a hierarchy of length scales and the large-scale fabrication of such materials.

Assistant Professor Raghuveer Parthasarathy teaches foundations of physics classes and a class titled Physics of Energy and the Environment. He runs the Parthasarathy Lab, which conducts experiments that explore a variety of topics in biophysics and soft condensed-matter physics. One of his major areas of interest is the biophysics of tuberculosis.

Professor David Strom is an experimental particle physicist whose research interests include z-pair production in electron-positron collisions, precision electroweak measurements, and the detection of gravity waves associated with gamma ray bursts. Strom continues to work on data from OPAL, one of the major particle physics experiments at the European Organization for Nuclear Research, which is the world’s largest particle physics laboratory.

Career Opportunities

There are a host of opportunities for those with an undergraduate physics major. You can do cutting-edge research in computer science and electronics, or you can pass on your knowledge to students by becoming a teacher. Physics and mathematics also are key components of engineering. “A lot of our graduates go into professional schools, law school to become patent lawyers, something like that,” says department head Steven Kevan. With a background in physics, you can pursue careers in finance and business administration. A physics background also is great preparation for careers in astronomy and space technology. In physics, the universe is your laboratory.

Contact Information
(541) 346-4751
(541) 346-5861 fax