The Physics Department of the University of Akron consists of 10 full-time faculty members. We offer programs leading to the BS and MS degree in physics. Also, in collaboration with the department of chemistry, we offer an interdisciplinary option leading to a PhD in Chemical physics. In addition to the traditional BS degree, which strongly prepares students for graduate work in physics or related fields, we also offer concentrations in chemical physics and polymer physics.

Our faculty are devoted teachers. They are familiar with current pedagogical developments and incorporate proven delivery methods in the classroom to actively engage students. To remain current in the field of science education, several of our faculty participate in on- and off-campus activities and events related to teaching and learning. In our department you will find multimedia enhanced classrooms and teaching laboratories that contain a wide range of equipment for all our students. We have a comprehensive set of course offerings ranging from introductory-level General Education courses for non-science majors all the way up to advanced graduate level specialist courses.

We offer rich opportunities for research spanning all levels from undergraduate to doctoral. All of our faculty have grant-supported research and actively involve students in their research projects. We pay particular attention to undergraduates and try to involve students in research as soon as possible so they can gain valuable experience. Several of our faculty have joint appointments in other PhD granting departments whose research interests overlap with ours. This offers considerable scope for interdisciplinary research. Departments include chemistry, polymer science, and polymer engineering. Physics faculty holding such joint appointments frequently serve as primary research advisor to PhD students in those departments. Some of our faculty are also involved in the early stages of UA’s new Integrative Biology program.

Our research focuses on materials physics and utilizes a wide range of experimental, analytical, and computational techniques. Experimentalists conduct research on surface physics and thin films, diffusion measurements and NMR in polymers and solid-state physics. Theoretical projects include critical phenomena and phase transitions, renormalization group theory, supersymmetry, fluid dynamics, polymer, semiconductor and solid-state physics.

There is a large array of experimental equipment and instrumentation available in the department. Some of this is commercial equipment including facilities for FTIR spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, low energy electron diffraction spectroscopy, high- and ultra-high vacuum equipment for thin-film deposition, characterization, and analysis. We also have precision instrumentation designed and built in-house to perform electron tunneling spectroscopy, reflection-absorption infrared spectroscopy, and pulsed and continuous-wave NMR. Our department houses a class-100 clean room for polymer photonics and nanolithography research which is conducted using state-of-the-art atomic force microscopy. We also have facilities to fabricate and characterize ferroelectric and high temperature superconductor materials.

Several faculty members have clusters of computer workstations to perform computational research. This includes Monte Carlo simulations, nanotechnology, atomic scale modeling, phase transitions and critical phenomena in polymers. Theoretical research includes frictional drag in coupled electronic bilayers, and transport in mesoscopic and nanoscopic systems.