The department consists of thirty members on the instructional faculty, together with approximately fifteen additional physicists in purely research positions. Our undergraduate program offers a major and minor. Through our graduate program, students pursue a Ph.D. degree. We are home to the Small Hall Makerspace.
Research areas in the department include atomic, molecular, and optical physics, computational physics, condensed matter physics, nuclear and hadronic physics, high energy physics, and plasma and non-linear physics. Related research areas include accelerator physics (in cooperation with Jefferson Lab) and material characterization (in cooperation with NASA-Langley Research Center). The department also has strong links with the interdisciplinary Applied Science department.