Program: Physics, PhD - Clark University - Modern Campus Catalog™

Graduate Physics Overview

Graduate Program

The department offers the master’s degree and the doctor of philosophy degree in physics. Research is concentrated in experimental and theoretical studies of condensed matter, including organic superconductivity, molecular magnetic materials, granular matter, complex materials and nonlinear physics, scanning tunneling microscopy studies, biological physics, computer simulations, and biomolecules.

Further information on the research interests of the faculty and research opportunities for graduate students can be found at the department’s Web site, http://physics.clarku.edu.

Application forms for admission and financial aid may be requested from the chair of the department. Financial support is available in the form of tuition remissions, teaching assistantships and research assistantships. The department considers the financial support of its graduate students an important responsibility.

Graduate Requirements

The academic requirements are flexible with emphasis on early student participation in research and informal student evaluation. A distinctive part of each student’s course work is a research apprenticeship, PHYS 303 , which introduces students to different research groups beginning in the first year of graduate studies.

The M.S. degree is awarded to those students enrolled in the Accelerated B.A./Master’s Degree program. The M.A. degree is awarded to students who complete their Master’s degree requirements en route to the Ph.D. degree.

Master’s degree students must satisfy the general University residence and course requirements, and pass four of the core graduate courses (PHYS 301 , PHYS 302 , PHYS 305 , PHYS 306 , PHYS 309 and PHYS 310 ) and one semester of PHYS 303 with a grade of B– or better. Master’s degree candidates also must complete a thesis based on original research.

Ph.D. degree students must fulfill residence and course requirements, pass the core graduate courses (PHYS 301 , PHYS 302 , PHYS 305 , PHYS 306 , PHYS 309 and PHYS 310 ) with a grade of B or higher, and complete three semesters of PHYS 303 . The department does not rely on a formal written qualifying examination to evaluate student readiness for the Ph.D. Instead, students must pass four oral examinations that stress qualitative, as well as quantitative aspects of the subject matter of the core graduate courses. Students are required to pass an additional graduate course (approved by the graduate student adviser) in a subject that is outside the area of their dissertation concentration. The course may be in physics, the other sciences, mathematics, computer science or in another appropriate field. Ph.D. candidates also complete a dissertation based on original research. Students entering with advanced standing and transferable credit are encouraged to demonstrate proficiency in the core graduate courses through oral examinations.

Graduate students in both the M.A. and Ph.D. programs are required to gain supervised teaching experience either as teaching assistants or teaching fellows in the department, or elsewhere if approved by the department.

More information about the requirements for the Ph.D. and Master’s degrees in physics is available from the Graduate Student Handbook. Copies are available upon request from the graduate-student adviser.

Physics Faculty

Program

Charles Agosta, Ph.D.
S. Leslie Blatt, Ph.D.
Michael Boyer, Ph.D.
Harvey Gould, Ph.D.
Arshad Kudrolli, Ph.D.
Christopher P. Landee, Ph.D.
Ranjan Mukhopadhyay, Ph.D.

Adjunct

Shuanghong Huo, Ph.D.

Visiting

Louis Colonna-Romano, M.S., MBA

Emeriti

Roy Andersen, Ph.D.
Roger P. Kohin, Ph.D.