Department of Physics College of Science Northeastern University

Department of Physics at Northeastern University

Graduate students at the Physics Department at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts engage in scholarship and research with internationally recognized faculty members within a hub of high tech research centers and government laboratories that bring a flow of well-known scholars into the department's seminars and colloquia. Graduate students at the Physics Department at Northeastern have access to state-of-the-art facilities both within the department and at affiliated research laboratories.

The department offers both a full-time and part-time Master of Science (MS) program as well as a full-time PhD program. Graduate students can complete experimental or theoretical programs in biological biophysics, medical physics, elementary and particle physics, or condensed matter physics.

An Internationally Recognized Faculty

The physics faculty at Northeastern University is world renowned. Professor Fa-Yueh Wu originally won international fame for his solution, along with E. H. Lieb, of the one-dimensional Hubbard model and for his review of the Potts model. He serves as the NSF Director of the Condensed Matter Theory Program and is a Fellow of the American Physics Society.

Matthews Distinguished University Professor Pran Nath co-authored the first supergravity theory with Richard Arnowitt and subsequently developed the field of supergravity grand unification, and in particular the mSUGRA model, which are leading candidates for discovery at CERN and Fermilab.

Distinguished Professor Srinivas Sridhar's work in left-handed metamaterials has earned considerable acclaim. His group's paper in "Nature" on flat lens imaging was cited as one of the major breakthroughs of 2003 by "Science" and by the American Physical Society. He currently serves as the Director of the IGERT Nanomedicine Science and Technology NCI/NSF Program and Director of the Electronic Materials Research Institute.

In addition, other faculty members have received prestigious awards, such as the National Science Foundation (NSF) Young Investigator Award, the NSF Career Awards, and many others.

Flexible MS Programs for Full-Time Students and Working Professionals

The Physics Department at Northeastern University offers a 32 semester hour Master of Science (MS) for full-time and part-time graduate students. Students can choose between 2 options: a standard physics MS with or without a thesis, in which the thesis replaces 8 semester hours of coursework; or an MS degree with a concentration in materials physics, engineering physics, biophysics, applied physics, chemical physics, mathematical physics, or computational physics.

More information is available regarding graduate applications and graduate studies at Northeastern University.

A Rigorous Physics Doctoral Program

The Physics Department also offers a 5-year full-time PhD program in Physics with concentrations in subfields, such as condensed matter physics, elementary particle physics, and biological physics. Students complete a qualifying exam, required coursework, a preliminary research seminar, a dissertation, and a dissertation defense.

Doctoral students qualify for research and teaching assistantships cover tuition, medical coverage, and a generous stipend.

Conferences, Colloquia, and Seminars

The elementary particle theory group at Physics Department at Northeastern initiated the PArticles, Strings and COSmology (PASCOS) conferences which drew such well-regarded participants as Stephen Hawking. The group also initiated the SUperSYmmetry and Unification of Fundamental Interactions (SUSY) conference series in 1993, originally at Northeastern, but which since has been held at the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor), the Ecole Polytechnique (Paris), the Fermilab, CERN, and other prominent locations.

In addition to talks by visiting scholars and meetings of the graduate journal club and other groups within the department, the Physics Colloquium meets regularly several times a month. The colloquia are hosted by a consortium that includes Northeastern, Harvard, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston University, Tufts, Brandeis, and Boston College. These colloquia give graduate students the opportunity to engage with top researchers from all over the world.

State-of-the Art Research Facilities

The Egan Engineering/Science Research Center has semiconductor, molecular biophysics, and new materials science laboratories. These labs include a broad range of spectroscopic instrumentation spanning the electromagnetic spectrum, Fourier transform interferometers, a 14 Tesla superconducting magnet, a SQUID magnometer, an MBE for crystal growth, an Ultrahigh Vacuum, Scanning Electron Microscopy, and other state-of-the-art equipment.

The department also houses laboratories, a large machine shop, and conference rooms, and offices at the Dana Research Center. The Advanced Scientific Computation Center (ASCC) houses 32 Itanium2 processor server with 100 GB RAM and a 2TB disk system.

In addition, graduate students and faculty conduct research at large scale centers such as the Pierre Auger Observatory in Argentina, Fermilab, CERN, Los Alamos National Laboratory, the Brookhaven National Laboratories, and the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory in Tallahassee, Florida.

Wide-Ranging Research

Graduate students and faculty members conduct wide-ranging research, bringing them to the forefront of research in many fields. In the field of experimental condensed matter, faculty members are investigating nanomagnetism, nanotechnology, nanoparticle synthesis, spintronics, superconductors, semiconductors, ferromagnets, left-handed metamaterials, mesoscopic physics, and quantum chaos. Theoretical condensed matter research is carried out in close cooperation with experimental condensed matter physics and molecular biophysics.

Molecular biophysics researchers are exploring the structure and function of macromolecules, focusing on heme-containing molecules, green fluorescent protein, and DNA-protein interactions. Researchers in elementary particle physics have created models, such as the SUGRA models, to overcome the limitations of the standards model of the strong and electro-weak interactions. Northeastern physics faculty members and graduate students are also involved in experimental high-energy physics at Fermilab, CERN, and the Pierre Auger Observatory.

In addition, the Physics Department is strongly connected to the Center for Complex Network Research, which explores complex networks in metabolism, genetics, ecology, and other systems.

A Leading University in a Medical and Biotechnology Center

Northeastern University is a leading experiential research institute located in Boston, a city that serves as high tech center with many of the top hospitals and prominent research institutions.

The university has an undergraduate population of almost 16,000, while the number of graduate students exceeds 3,500. The school's unique co-op program places students with large corporations such as Google and Turner Entertainment Networks International, engineering firms such as Vanasse Hangen Brustlin, financial institutions such as Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley, and non-profits and government institutions, such as the Geneva Center for Security Policy and the U.S. Department of Justice.

• Degrees Offered
• Major Degree Levels Offered
• Master of Science (MS)
  Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

• Degrees Awarded
• Master's Degrees 9
• Doctoral Degrees 5
• First Professional Degrees Not reported
• Other Advanced Degrees Not reported
• * Shows the number of degrees awarded for the last academic year that data was reported.

• Earning Your Degree
• Part-time study available? Yes
• Evening/weekend programs available? No
• Distance learning programs available? No
• Terminal master's degree available? Yes

• Degree Requirements
• Master's Degrees Optional
• Doctoral Degrees Required and qualifying exam
• First Professional Degrees Not reported
• Other Advanced Degrees Not reported

• Acceptance Rate
• Applied143
• Accepted58
• Acceptance Rate40%
• Enrolled14
• Applying
• Application Fee - Domestic $50
• Application Fee - International $50
• Electronic applications accepted? Not Reported
• Applications processed on a rolling basis? Not Reported
• Application Deadlines
• Type Domestic International Priority Date
• Fall deadline February 1st February 1st Yes
• Winter deadline Not Reported Not Reported Not Reported
• Spring deadline Not Reported Not Reported Not Reported
• Entrance Requirements
• Master's DegreesGRE General Test, GRE Subject Test
• Doctoral's DegreesGRE General Test, GRE Subject Test
• First-Professional's DegreesNot Reported
• Other Advanced DegreesNot Reported
• International DegreesNot Reported

• Tuition & Fees
• In-state tuition *Not Reported
• Out-of-state tuition *Not Reported
• International student tuitionNot Reported
• * Tuition for full-time graduate student per academic year
• Fees
• Per-academic year feesNot Reported
• Per-term feesNot Reported
• One-time feeNot Reported
• * Fees for full-time graduate students
• Financial Support
• Financial award applicants must submitFAFSA
• Application deadlines for financial awardsMarch 1
• Types of financial support availableResearch Assitantships, Teaching Assistantships, Tuition Waivers, Federal Work-Study, Graduate Assistantships

• Gender
• Total Graduate Students52
• Female Percentage19%
• Male Percentage81%
• Participation
• Total Graduate Students52
• Part-time Percentage0%
• Full-time Percentage100%
• Ethnicity
• Hispanic / LatinoNot Reported
• Black / African AmericanNot Reported
• White / CaucasianNot Reported
• American Indian / Alaskan NativeNot Reported
• AsianNot Reported
• Native Hawaiian / Other Pacific IslanderNot Reported
• Two or more racesNot Reported
• UnknownNot Reported

• Existing Research
• Focus of faculty researchElementary particles and astroparticle physics, nanophysics and condensed matter physics, biological and biomedical physics
• Externally sponsored research expenditures last yearNot Reported