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Detailed Information

Program of Study

The Department of Physics offers a program of study leading to the Ph.D. degree. To complete the course requirements for the degree, students are expected to take a set of nine term courses. Students normally take three courses during each of their first three semesters. In addition, all students are required to be proficient and familiar with mathematical methods of physics (such as those necessary to master the material covered in the five core courses) and to be proficient and familiar with advanced laboratory techniques. These requirements can be met either by having had sufficiently advanced prior course work or by taking a course offered by the Department. Those who pass their courses with satisfactory grades and who pass the qualifying exam are admitted to doctoral candidacy for the Ph.D. degree. Dissertation research then becomes the primary activity.

The qualifying exam, normally taken at the beginning of the third semester (although it can be taken earlier), is devoted to graduate-level physics, with special attention to material at the level of courses taken during the first two semesters.

Formal association with a dissertation adviser normally begins in the fourth semester after the qualifying examination has been passed. An adviser from a department other than physics can be chosen in consultation with the Director of Graduate Studies, provided that the dissertation topic is deemed suitable for a physics Ph.D.

The final examination is an oral defense of the dissertation. The average time needed to complete all of the Ph.D. requirements has been six years.

Research areas in the Department of Physics include atomic physics and quantum optics, nuclear physics, particle physics, astrophysics, cosmology, condensed-matter physics, quantum information physics, biological physics, optical physics, and other areas in collaboration with the faculties of engineering and applied science, molecular biophysics and biochemistry, chemistry, mathematics, geology and geophysics, and astronomy.

Research Facilities

The physics department occupies the Sloane Physics Laboratory, part of the J. W. Gibbs Laboratories, and the Wright Nuclear Structure Laboratory. Research on condensed-matter physics is also done in the Becton Laboratory. Sloane has recently constructed laboratories for research in atomic, molecular, optical, and condensed-matter physics. The theoretical physicists are located in Sloane. The Wright Laboratory contains an Extended Stretch Transuranium (ESTU) 20-megavolt tandem electrostatic accelerator, the most powerful of its kind in the world. The Wright and Gibbs Laboratories house design facilities used in supporting high-energy experiments at Brookhaven National Laboratories, Fermilab, the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, and the forthcoming Large Hadron Collider. Experiments are also done at European accelerators, and observations have been taken at South American astronomical observatories. In addition to the centralized University computer system, each research group has its own appropriate computing facilities. There are four libraries of major pertinence to physics–Kline Science, Astronomy, Mathematics, and Engineering and Applied Science.

Financial Aid

Virtually all entering graduate students in the Department of Physics are offered financial aid for the first three terms in the form of a Yale University Fellowship. This is a combination of stipend, teaching fellowship, tuition, and payment for an Assistantship in Research for the summer following the first year. After the third or fourth semester, when a student has begun dissertation research, full financial support is provided by the student’s thesis adviser in the form of an Assistantship in Research. The total support for 2007–08 was $26,670 for twelve months plus full tuition and health and hospitalization coverage. There are also teaching fellowships available to advanced students.

Cost of Study

Tuition and fees are covered for all students who are not supported in full by outside scholarships.

Living and Housing Costs

The rents of dormitory rooms for the 2007–08 academic year ranged from $4970 for a single room to $6760 for a deluxe single room. Three-bedroom suites, which include a study, are also available. Board plans are offered. The cost for an apartment ranged from $820 to $1056 per month. The lease period for graduate housing apartments is usually July 1 through June 30. Off-campus housing in the vicinity of the physics department is plentiful.

Student Group

The total number of students for 2007–08 was 106, all of whom attended full-time. Of these, about 28 percent were international students, and about 18 percent were women. Students with a strong basic undergraduate physics education, together with some research experience, are prime candidates for admission. Advanced commitment to a particular field is not required.

Location

Yale is located in the center of the city of New Haven (population about 125,000; metropolitan area about 400,000). The city offers an unusually wide variety of activities–especially in theater, music, film, fine arts, sports, and international dining. Frequent rail service to New York City and Boston takes less than 2 hours and about 3 hours, respectively.

The University

Chartered in 1701 as the Collegiate School, Yale was named for Elihu Yale, a London merchant who made a modest donation to help the fledgling school. A medical school was added in 1810. The Department of Philosophy and the Arts was organized in 1847, awarding the first three Ph.D. degrees in the United States in 1861 and becoming the Graduate School in 1892. In 1876 Yale awarded the first Ph.D. to an African American, Edward A. Boucher. Women were admitted early in the twentieth century to the graduate and professional schools and to Yale College as undergraduates in 1969.

Applying

All applications are submitted online by accessing the following link: http://www.yale.edu/graduateschool/admissions/index.html. Candidates submitting completed applications and supporting materials before January 2, 2009, are considered for admission in fall 2009. Applications must be accompanied by an application fee of $85. Students are required to take the GRE General Test as well as the GRE Subject Test in physics. Those whose native language is not English must also take the TOEFL; the TSE is recommended. Admission consideration is open to all qualified candidates without regard to race, color, national origin, religion, sex, sexual preference, or handicap.

The Faculty and Their Research

• Robert K. Adair, Professor Emeritus and Senior Research Scientist; Ph.D., Wisconsin, 1951. Elementary particle physics.
• Charles H. Ahn, Associate Professor (joint with Applied Physics); Ph.D., Stanford, 1996. Condensed-matter physics.
• Yoram Alhassid, Professor; Ph.D., Hebrew (Jerusalem), 1979. Nuclear theory.
• Thomas Appelquist, Professor; Ph.D., Cornell, 1968. Particle theory.
• Charles Bailyn, Professor (joint with Astronomy); Ph.D., Harvard, 1987. High-energy astrophysics.
• O. Keith Baker, Professor; Ph.D., Stanford, 1987. Experimental elementary particle physics.
• Charles Baltay, Professor; Ph.D., Yale, 1963. Elementary particle physics.
• Sean E. Barrett, Professor; Ph.D., Illinois, 1992. Condensed-matter physics.
• Cornelius Beausang, Adjunct Professor; Ph.D., SUNY at Stony Brook, 1987. Nuclear physics.
• Jerzy Blawzdziewicz, Associate Professor (joint with Mechanical Engineering); Ph.D., Warsaw (Poland), 1986.
• Sidney B. Cahn, Lecturer and Research Scientist; Ph.D., SUNY at Stony Brook, 1997. Experimental atomic physics.
• Helen L. Caines, Assistant Professor; Ph.D., Birmingham (England), 1996. Experimental nuclear physics.
• Richard Casten, Professor; Ph.D., Yale, 1967. Nuclear physics.
• Richard K. Chang, Professor (joint with Applied Physics); Ph.D., Harvard, 1965. Condensed-matter and laser physics.
• Paolo Coppi, Professor (joint with Astronomy); Ph.D., Caltech, 1990. High-energy astrophysics.
• David P. DeMille, Professor; Ph.D., Berkeley, 1994. Atomic physics.
• Michel Devoret, Professor (joint with Applied Physics); Ph.D., D‘Orsay (France), 1982. Applied physics.
• Satish Dhawan, Senior Research Scientist; Ph.D., Tsukuba (Japan), 1984. Elementary particle physics.
• Eric Dufresne, Assistant Professor (joint with Mechanical Engineering and Chemical Engineering); Ph.D., Chicago, 2000. Experimental soft condensed-matter physics.
• Richard Easther, Assistant Professor; Ph.D., Canterbury, 1994. Particle theory and cosmology.
• Bonnie Fleming, Assistant Professor; Ph.D., Columbia, 2001. High-energy physics.
• Paul A. Fleury, Professor (joint with Engineering and Applied Physics); Ph.D., MIT, 1965. Applied physics.
• Moshe Gai, Adjunct Professor; Ph.D., SUNY at Stony Brook, 1980. Nuclear physics.
• Steven M. Girvin, Professor (joint with Applied Physics); Ph.D., Princeton, 1977. Theoretical condensed-matter physics.
• Leonid Glazman, Professor; Ph.D., Kharkov State (Ukraine), 1979.
• Walter Goldberger, Assistant Professor; Ph.D., Caltech, 2001. Theoretical particle physics.
• Robert D. Grober, Professor (joint with Applied Physics); Ph.D., Maryland, 1991. Condensed-matter physics.
• Martin Gutzwiller, Adjunct Professor; Ph.D., Kansas, 1953. Condensed-matter theory.
• Jack Harris, Assistant Professor (joint with Applied Physics); Ph.D., California, Santa Barbara, 2000. Atomic physics.
• John Harris, Professor; Ph.D., SUNY at Stony Brook, 1978. Relativistic heavy-ion physics.
• Andreas Heinz, Assistant Professor; Ph.D., GSI Darmstadt (Germany), 1998. Nuclear physics.
• Victor E. Henrich, Professor (joint with Applied Physics); Ph.D., Michigan, 1967. Condensed-matter physics.
• Jay L. Hirshfield, Adjunct Professor; Ph.D., MIT, 1960. Beam physics.
• Francesco Iachello, Professor (joint with Chemistry); Ph.D., MIT, 1969. Nuclear theory.
• Stephen Irons, Lecturer; Ph.D., California, Davis, 1996. Condensed-matter physics.
• Sohrab Ismail-Beigi, Assistant Professor (joint with Applied Physics); Ph.D., MIT, 2002. Condensed-matter physics.
• Steve K. Lamoreaux, Professor; Ph.D., Washington (Seattle), 1986. Experimental elementary particle physics, atomic physics, experimental nuclear physics, experimental condensed-matter physics.
• Karyn Le Hur, Associate Professor; Ph.D., Paris XI (South), 1998. Condensed-matter physics.
• Richard D. Majka, Senior Research Scientist; Ph.D., Yale, 1974. Elementary particle physics.
• William J. Marciano, Adjunct Professor; Ph.D., NYU, 1957. Particle theory.
• Daniel McKinsey, Assistant Professor; Ph.D., Harvard, 2002. Atomic physics.
• Simon Mochrie, Professor (joint with Applied Physics); Ph.D., MIT, 1985. Condensed matter.
• Vincent E. Moncrief, Professor (joint with Mathematics); Ph.D., Maryland, 1972. Gravitation and cosmology.
• Priyamvada Natarajan, Associate Professor (joint with Astronomy); Ph.D., Cambridge, 1998. Astrophysics.
• Jill North, Assistant Professor (joint with Philosophy); Ph.D., Rutgers, 2004.
• Corey O’Hern, Assistant Professor (joint with Mechanical Engineering); Ph.D., Pennsylvania, 1999. Theoretical soft condensed matter.
• Peter D. M. Parker, Professor; Ph.D., Caltech, 1963. Experimental nuclear physics and nuclear astrophysics.
• Daniel E. Prober, Professor (joint with Applied Physics); Ph.D., Harvard, 1975. Condensed-matter physics.
• Nicholas Read, Professor (joint with Applied Physics); Ph.D., London, 1986. Condensed-matter theory.
• A. Elizabeth Rhodes, Assistant Professor; Ph.D., Michigan, 2001.
• Vladimir Rokhlin, Professor (joint with Computer Science and Math); Ph.D., Rice, 1983. Scientific computation.
• Jack Sandweiss, Professor; Ph.D., Berkeley, 1957. Elementary particle physics.
• Robert J. Schoelkopf, Professor (joint with Applied Physics); Ph.D., Caltech, 1995. Experimental condensed-matter physics.
• Ramamurti Shankar, Professor (joint with Applied Physics); Ph.D., Berkeley, 1974. Condensed-matter theory and statistical physics.
• Witold Skiba, Associate Professor; Ph.D., MIT, 1997. Particle theory.
• A. Douglas Stone, Professor (joint with Applied Physics); Ph.D., MIT, 1983. Condensed-matter theory.
• Andrew Szymkowiak, Senior Research Scientist; Ph.D., Maryland, 1984. Astrophysics.
• Paul L. Tipton, Professor; Ph.D., Rochester, 1987. Experimental elementary particle physics.
• John C. Tully, Professor (joint with Chemistry); Ph.D., Chicago, 1968. Theoretical chemical physics.
• Thomas Ullrich, Adjunct Professor; Ph.D., Heidelberg, 1994. Relativistic heavy-ion physics.
• C. Megan Urry, Professor; Ph.D., Johns Hopkins, 1984. Astrophysics.
• Peter van Dokkum, Professor; Ph.D., Groningen (Netherlands), 1999.
• Volker Werner, Assistant Professor; Ph.D., Cologne (Germany), 2004. Experimental nuclear physics.
• John Wettlaufer, Professor (joint with Geophysics); Ph.D., Washington (Seattle), 1991. Geophysics.
• Michael E. Zeller, Professor; Ph.D., UCLA, 1968. Elementary particle physics.

Correspondence and Information

Yale University
Director of Graduate Studies
Department of Physics
P.O. Box 208120
New Haven, Connecticut 06520-8120
Telephone: 203-432-3607
Fax: 203-432-6175
Email: graduatephysics@yale.edu