About the Department
The physics department has been an integral part of UTD since 1961 and resides in Founders, the first building on campus. We take pride in our status as one of the original departments housed in the building dedicated to university founders Eugene McDermott, Cecil Green, and J. Erik Jonsson.
The department grew from the Southwest Center for Advanced Studies, a research institute started by Texas Instruments scientists and engineers. Close ties to TI continue to this day as evidenced by the Natural Science and Engineering Research Laboratory, a 192,000-square-foot research facility designed in cooperation with TI.
With research roots firmly established, the physics department offers degree plans at the undergraduate and graduate levels in areas of study relevant to the challenges scientists face. We enroll approximately 170 physics majors.
The Master of Science in Applied Physics Program aims to broaden your horizons, increase your earning power and enhance your career opportunities, making physics a more relevant contributor to the high technology business sector.
Our faculty presently consists of 21 members – including a Nobel Prize-winning professor and endowed chairs. They provide students with a quality education, directing internationally recognized programs in an intimate setting that allows ample student-faculty interaction.
Among the department's three research centers is the William B. Hanson Center for Space Sciences, which continues to work on many National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) projects. Our scientists collaborated on the exciting Mars Lander Project. Their mass spectrometer will search for traces of water when the Phoenix lands on Mars in May 2008.
In the field of high energy physics, our faculty and researchers pursue particle discoveries and search for new physics using the Babar Detector.
So go ahead and probe robust career areas such as nanotechnology; materials science; space sciences; cosmology, relativity and astrophysics; experimental particle physics; and sun and climate studies. These fields spur our best and brightest to make the next breakthrough discoveries.
Key to your physics education is an interdisciplinary approach that underscores our view that "physics is the liberal arts education of the technological world." We enjoy close and enthusiastic collaborations with the departments of electrical engineering, chemistry, geosciences, biology, computer science, and the School of Management.
