About the Department

The Cornell University Department of Physics, known for the versatility of its program and the breadth of its training, is unsurpassed in many areas. The presence on campus of a particle accelerator, one of just a few of its magnitude anywhere in the world, contributes to Cornell’s reputation in particle and accelerator physics. Other unique research facilities on campus include the Cornell NanoScale Science and Technology Facility (CNF) and the Cornell High Energy Synchrotron Source. Cornell is also famous for its Nobel Prize-winning work in low-temperature physics and theoretical astrophysics. The Physics Department continues to pave the way in these areas and in new fields within physics, including X-ray physics, biological physics, and nanostructure physics.

The department has more than 40 active professors and approximately 180 graduate students and 65 undergraduate majors. The department offers a full range of university-level work in physics, from general education courses for nonscientists to doctoral-level independent research.

Research in the department is overseen by its two component organizations: the Laboratory of Atomic and Solid State Physics (LASSP) and the Laboratory for Elementary-Particle Physics (LEPP). The links below give an overview of their research and facilities.
LASSP (Laboratory for Atomic and Solid State Physics)
LEPP (Laboratory for Elementary Particle Physics)

  • Spotlight

    Maxim Sheinin is a graduate student in Michelle Wang's single molecule biophysics lab. He is using angular optical trap, a unique instrument recently developed in the lab, to probe the influence of torsion on single biomolecules, such as DNA. Torsion is essential in the life of the cell, as DNA and chromatin are constantly being twisted by the action of various molecular machines, during transcription, replication etc. Angular optical trap provides the opportunity to directly measure torques that arise as ...
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