---

Physics at the University of Arizona

The University of Arizona is one of the top research universities in the western United States. As one of only 50 universities nationwide with a coveted "Research 1" designation, we are ranked #15 amongst all public institutions in the United States in terms of research funding, and #22 amongst all research institutions, both public and private. This includes substantial grant funding from the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy, NASA, as well as numerous other public and private sources.

This high level of funding enables the Department of Physics to support a broad spectrum of investigations in the physical sciences, and to continually develop new areas of research. Indeed, many of our programs are internationally renowned for their research excellence, including top-five nationally ranked programs in theoretical astrophysics, optical sciences, and applied mathematics.

As a result, physics research at the University of Arizona pushes all the major frontiers of basic and applied physics, stretching from atom trapping to superstring theory, from nanophysics to big-bang cosmology, from atomic force microscopy to the quark-gluon plasma, from top quarks, neutrinos, and nuclei to supermassive black holes, from spin glasses and superconductors to quantum cryptography, and from non-linear dynamics and pattern formation all the way to the biophysics of life itself. We have also recently developed an exciting new program in physics education, studying how students come to develop and understand concepts in physics. Moreover, research in our Department is conducted at a wide variety of locations, including laboratories within the Physics Department itself, observatories on the mountaintops throughout southern Arizona, and international laboratories such as Fermilab (Chicago), Los Alamos (New Mexico), Livermore (northern California), Brookhaven (New York), and CERN (Switzerland). We are, therefore, an active and dynamic Department in which top-notch research is carried out in a variety of disciplines at a variety of locations.

Within theoretical high-energy physics, current research spans a a broad range, including lattice gauge theory, hadronic physics, perturbative QCD, neutrino physics and astrophysics, string theory, string phenomenology, and physics in extra dimensions. Our Department also has strong programs in related areas such as experimental high-energy physics; theoretical astrophysics; nuclear, heavy-ion, and RHIC-related physics; and applied mathematics.

The Department of Physics is currently engaged in a successful, aggressive, multi-year plan of hiring outstanding new faculty members in all branches of physics. Within just the past five years, more than ten new faculty members have been hired in all branches of physics, including theoretical and experimental high energy physics, nuclear physics, condensed-matter physics, biophysics, theoretical astrophysics, and physics education research. Our plan is to sustain and further enhance our strengths in all of these areas.

For further information, please visit: