Doctor of Philosophy in Physics
- Fall January 10
- Pullman: Yes
- 7.0 IETLS substituted for TOEFL Minimum score
- 80 TOEFL IBT or 214 TOEFL Computerized
- General GRE Required
- Subject Physics GRE Strongly Recommended
Degree Description:
The Department of Physics and Astronomy doctoral program at Washington State University is designed to produce leaders in industry, in academia, and at national laboratories. The department’s progressive environment seeks to provide an atmosphere that fosters intellectual growth and quantitative reasoning. The program engages students in teaching and research activities that provide the skills, knowledge, and ability for critical thinking that will enable them to be productive members of society. In the process, our goal is to lay the foundations for technological advances that improve our quality of life.
Student Learning Outcomes:
All graduates will be able to:
- Have the preparation to pursue successful careers in industry, government, and university.
- Conduct physics and astronomy research in industry, national laboratories, and academia in collaborative environments.
- Have the training to provide leadership and expertise at local, state, national and international levels for the improvement of physics graduate education.
- Be sensitive to issues of diversity and be able to integrate this sensitivity into their respective professional roles.
- Be effective in consultation, communication, and human relations skills across professional contexts.
Career Opportunities:
While the Department of Physics and Astronomy conducts research in the traditional areas of physics, it has enhanced its program by focusing on three areas of research excellence: Astrophysics, Extreme Matter, and Materials and Optics. Astrophysics seeks to answer some of the most basic questions about the universe and space-time and is in high demand from the students. Materials and Optics, and Extreme Matter are at the forefront of important technological advances.
These research areas are supported by two WSU research units, the Center for Materials Research (CMR) and Institute for Shock Physics (ISP) as well as unique regional facilities such as the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) and the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Observatory (LIGO). Students gain international exposure through conferences and collaborations.
Career Placements:
Postdoctoral positions; Physics research – industrial and applied physics at national labs such as Sandia, Los Alamos, Lawrence Livermore, etc.; engineering physics jobs; university teaching/research positions.
Faculty Members:
Brozik, James, Ph.D.
Serves as: co-chair of graduate committee
Research Interests
Biophysics, Material Science, Biosensors, Instrument Design and Fabrication.
Clays, Koen, Ph.D.
Serves as: co-chair of graduate committee
Research Interests
Optics
Collins, Brian, Ph.D.
Serves as: chair or co-chair of graduate committee
Research Interests
Organic Electronics. Optoelectronic properties of organic materials. Resonant X-ray techniques as they relate to solar cells, transistors, batteries, sensors. Nano-mesoscale structures. Film formation and the origins of emergent optoelectronic properties.
Collins, Gary Scott, Ph.D.
Serves as: chair or co-chair of graduate committee
Research Interests
– Application of nuclear methods to study the local structure of solids.
– Enthalpies of formation and migration of point defects such as vacancies (unoccupied lattice sites) and antisites (atoms on wrong sublattices) in metals and compounds, through application of perturbed angular correlation spectroscopy (PAC).
Duez, Matthew, Ph.D.
Serves as: chair or co-chair of graduate committee
Research Interests
My research focuses on the dynamics of hot nuclear matter in strongly curved spacetime. Most of my published work concerns black hole-neutron star binary mergers, which are potentially important sources of gravitational waves, kilonovae, short duration gamma ray bursts (GRBs), and r-process elements.
Eilers, Hergen, Ph.D.
Serves as: co-chair of graduate committee
Research Interests
Understanding optical properties of materials and developing related applications, including nanophase enhanced optical devices.
Forbes, Michael, Ph.D.
Serves as: chair or co-chair of graduate committee
Gittes, Frederick, Ph.D.
Serves as: co-chair of graduate committee
Hawreliak, James
Serves as: co-chair or member of graduate committee
Lynn, Kelvin G, Ph.D.
Serves as: chair or co-chair of graduate committee
Research Interests
Radiation detectors, positron studies including variable energy beams, crystal growth, defects in semiconductors and metals; photovoltaic materials; thermal stimulated spectroscopies.
Lytel, Richard Saul, Ph.D.
Serves as: co-chair or member of graduate committee
Research Interests
Theoretical high energy physics
McMahon, Jeffrey, Ph.D.
Serves as: chair or co-chair of graduate committee
Mendell, Greg, Ph.D.
Serves as: co-chair or member of graduate committee
Perez-Moreno, Javier, Ph.D.
Serves as: co-chair or member of graduate committee
Saam, Brian, PhD
Serves as: chair, co-chair, or member of graduate committee
Research Interests
Optical Spin Polarization and Magnetic Resonance
Yoo, Choong-Shik, Ph.D.
Serves as: co-chair of graduate committee
Research Interests
Extreme materials research at the pressure-temperature conditions of the Earth’s and Jovian planetary interiors; Discovery and characterization of new and novel materials formed under high pressure.