The Department is a friendly and welcoming place, with social activities scheduled throughout the year. Class sizes are small, and students enjoy close interaction with instructors and with each other. Our Department faculty members are campus leaders in research productivity, creating a wealth of opportunities for our students. In addition to a very active research group in experimental and computational condensed matter physics, the department has a very active group of faculty pursuing research in experimental nuclear physics, who are also directly involved in research at the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB), which is an hour's drive from CMU. FRIB is a premier nuclear physics laboratory in the U.S. and our students have opportunities to become involved in this exciting, forefront science.

After earning MS degree in Physics our students have the opportunity to apply to the Physics PhD program or to the interdisciplinary Science of Advanced Materials PhD program. Our MS and PhD graduates have been very successful in the job market, and those who completed MS degree are also competitive in applying to PhD programs in physics or related disciplines at other institutions.