Duke Physics

Physics is a cornerstone of the natural sciences. It involves the study of interactions of matter at their fundamental level from subatomic to cosmic scales, including many materials and phenomena of great importance to human culture.  Physics has been very successful in revealing many of nature's profound secrets and has played key roles in the development of many other disciplines, such as chemistry, biology, medicine, and engineering.

The central mission of the undergraduate physics program is to teach students approaches for understanding a broad range of physical phenomena by integrating analytical knowledge based on fundamental principles with experimental knowledge gained by learning how to carry out measurements and analyze resulting data. Through these approaches, students will appreciate why physics is such an active and intellectually exciting endeavor, and why physics is so useful to many other areas of science and engineering.

The department strives to offer educational opportunities consistent with the broader principles of the School of Arts and Sciences. For our majors, who can earn either an A.B. or B.S. degree, the undergraduate program should provide a solid and challenging education, preparing them to excel in any career path where critical thinking and analytical and scientific skills are useful. These paths include graduate work, research or physics education in any science and engineering disciplines.

For non-majors taking introductory physics as a part of their liberal arts or engineering program, the courses should develop the conceptual and problem-solving skills needed to appreciate the physicist’s approach describing the world and to succeed in their chosen course of study.  Depending on their interest, students can choose different introductory physics sequences: one for students with a major in the school of Arts and Sciences, and one for engineering students.  Each sequence should be designed to help students deepen their intuition about the physical world, to develop their logic and quantitative reasoning skills, and to help them appreciate the relevance of physics in their future studies and everyday lives.


For majors:

1. Provide the necessary courses and training for students to acquire a deep physics foundation in their undergraduate education. Students should attain a rigorous understanding of generally recognized core materials as well as a mastery of a few advanced topics covered in upper level courses. The training should also include an extensive laboratory component for validating concepts discussed in the classroom, learning experimental techniques, experiencing the discovery of new phenomena, and matching analytical or numerical models to observations.
2. Develop analytical and problem solving abilities. Complex problem solving through logical and critical thinking is broadly useful and should be strongly emphasized at all course levels.  Students should also obtain some exposure to numerical calculations and computer simulations.
3. Provide research experiences through Independent Study courses. The department considers research experience to be a highly effective educational tool, showing students firsthand how physicists conduct scientific investigations and fostering independent and critical thinking. The department should provide excellent research opportunities covering the full range of sub-disciplines represented by its faculty, and strongly encourage all to engage in research and write a senior thesis.
4. Provide career preparation. In addition to the traditional physics career path of pursuing graduate programs, physics majors have many other choices in interdisciplinary fields, such as medicine, biophysics, computer science, finance, law, engineering, and others. The department should provide direct guidance to students interested in careers familiar to the faculty, and should be prepared to help students interested in other career paths find appropriate counselors on campus.
    
For non-physics majors:

1. Help students to develop an appreciation of the conceptual framework physicists use in analyzing physical systems and to learn how to obtain complete solutions to problems in their relevant subject domain.  Students should be challenged to apply learned concepts to new systems or situations, with a focus on mastering concepts and problem solving techniques.
2. Provide laboratory experience. Physics is an experimental science, and it is important to demonstrate that the principles and concepts apply to real world situations through hands-on experiments. The department should provide laboratory components that are effective in engaging students, reinforcing classroom lessons, and emphasizing the relevance of idealized models for understanding real phenomena.
3. Provide useful and interesting courses accessible to students with majors outside science and engineering.  The department should offer freshman seminars and general interest courses emphasizing the impact of physics on human lives through its explanatory power, its intellectual impact on modern ways of thinking about the world, and its contributions to culture and technology.