Undergraduate Education
The Department of Physics offers undergraduate programs leading to the following degrees:
- BS, Physics
- BS, Physics with Specialization in Astrophysics
- BS, Physics with Specialization in Biophysics
- BS, Physics with Specialization in Computational Physics
- BS, Physics with Specialization in Earth Sciences
- BS, Physics with Specialization in Materials Physics
- BA, General Physics
- BA, General Physics/Secondary Education
The physics major provides a core of basic education in several principal areas of physics, with sufficient flexibility to allow students to prepare either for graduate school or a career in industry. Since in preparing for either goal, more than the required core courses are necessary, it is important for students to meet with a physics department adviser in deciding a schedule.
The Undergraduate Program
The Department of Physics was established in 1960 as the first new department of the UC San Diego campus. Since then it has developed a strong faculty and student body with unusually diversified interests that lie primarily in the following areas:
- Physics of elementary particles
- Quantum liquids and superconductivity
- Solid-state and statistical physics
- Plasma physics
- Astrophysics and space physics
- Atomic and molecular collision and structure
- Biophysics
- Geophysics
- Nonlinear dynamics
- Computational physics
In addition to on-campus research facilities, the high-energy program uses accelerators at SLAC, CERN, and Fermi Laboratory. The astrophysics program uses facilities at Keck, Lick, and Kitt Peak Observatories.