About

Our professors advise and collaborate with our graduate students, offering the personal attention necessary for students to reach their fullest potential. Physics graduate students have landed positions at highly-prestigious organizations.

Our department provides an attentive, hands-on research and learning community for undergraduate and graduate students up through the PhD level.

Our dynamic and diverse faculty (30% female and 42% persons of color) have major research efforts in stellar astronomy/astrophysics, biophysics, and condensed-matter/materials physics. State-of-the-art instrumentation is available both in the department and through collaborations with nearby national institutes in the region (NIST and NREL, in particular). DU maintains a computer cluster for in-house high-performance computational needs.

Our high percentage of female students (30-50% at both undergraduate and graduate level) among US PhD-granting departments has been consistently recognized by the APS.

Program Requirements

Master's:
MS (with Research Thesis): 45 quarter hours in an approved course of study, up to 10 hours of which may be in Thesis research; Comprehensive Examination; Thesis Defense.
MA (without Thesis): 45 quarter hours in an approved course of study.

Doctorate:
Minimum of three years of full-time study beyond the Baccalaureate degree, with at least 90 quarter hours of approved graduate credit; Comprehensive Examination; Oral Dissertation Research Proposal; Dissertation Defense.
GRE Requirements: Not Required
Physics GRE Requirements: Not Required
TOEFL Requirements: Required

Description of your department culture

The University of Denver is a private university with about 12,000 students located in a thriving metropolis at the base of the Rocky Mountains. The Department of Physics and Astronomy underwent a strong expansion with eight tenure-track and two teaching professor positions filled since 2006. We offer research programs in astrophysics, biophysics and condensed matter physics. Our diverse and dynamic faculty of 12 includes 4 women and come from 7 different countries. We provide an attentive, hands-on research and learning community for undergraduate and graduate students up through the PhD level.