A Letter to Prospective Graduate Students

The Physics Department provides an outstanding graduate education at the leading edge of physics research. At Carnegie Mellon, you have the chance to study traditional core areas of high energy and medium energy particle physics, astrophysics, or condensed matter physics, or to do interdisciplinary work at the boundaries of chemistry, biology, materials science, or engineering.

Our department has leading research groups in a variety of fields. Our particle experimentalists participate in international collaborations for experiments at CERN, Brookhaven, Fermilab, and the Jefferson Lab. Condensed matter research in the department ranges from studies of nanocrystals and semiconductors to biological physics and wetting phenomena. Our astrophysics group concentrates on issues in cosmology using data from the Hubble Space Telescope, the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, and the Viper telescope which observes cosmic background radiation at the South Pole. We have strong theoretical groups in high energy and medium energy particle physics, astrophysics, quantum theory, statistical mechanics, condensed matter and biological physics. Both theoretical and experimental efforts are supported by outstanding computational facilities, including the Pittsburgh Supercomputer Center.

We have a strong record of placing our alumni as they begin their research careers. You can find this record on individual research group web sites. In today's world of research, graduate degree holders confront a broad spectrum of activities in universities, industry and government institutions. Graduate education in the Department of Physics is aimed to prepare you for that world and your future in it.

We are proud of the graduate program in physics at Carnegie Mellon and dedicate ourselves to giving you both an exciting course of study and a solid basis for a successful career.

Fred Gilman
Department Head