Facts

Key Allegheny Benefits

• Analytic and reasoning skills developed through practice of scientific methods and an appreciation of the moral, ethical and social dimensions of scientific problems a balanced outlook valued by all employers.
• An equally strong foundation for graduate school or immediate employment.
• Superior oral and written communication skills, developed through small class discussion, research papers, and the Senior Project.

Allegheny Distinctions

• Emphasis on student research, particularly in collaboration with faculty.
• Fully supported Senior Projects that demonstrate to employers and graduate schools the ability to complete a comprehensive original assignment.
• Strong pre-engineering component with cooperative programs at five universities.
• Ready student access to research-grade lab equipment for experimental work.
• Small classes with individualized attention, helping develop close working relationships between students and faculty.

Endorsements

• Since 1920, Allegheny has ranked in the top 7% among private, undergraduate institutions in production of students who eventually receive physics Ph.D.s.
• "Hardly a day goes by that I don't fall back on skills that were sharpened at Allegheny. I'm satisfied that I did the best thing by having a broad background." - Ben Burtt '70, winner of four Academy Awards, two for sound design for Star Wars, and Raiders of the Lost Ark, and two for sound effects editing for ET and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
• "I had a definite advantage when I started graduate school. I had worked with laser optics and quantum mechanics at Allegheny. The faculty there were surprised by what I already knew. " - Tom M. Brown '89
• "Allegheny has a special talent for nurturing the creativity inherent in us all. My Allegheny experience continues to provide a solid basis for the way I go about living, both professionally and personally." - Mary-Blair Matejczyk '71, orthopaedic surgeon
• "Allegheny's Physics department prepared me well for my career at the John Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab. I received extensive theoretical and technical knowledge through hands-on research as well as personal interactions with professors. " - Danielle Wesolek '00
• A recent $300,000 grant from the W.M. Keck Foundation funded modernization of the advanced physics laboratories.

Facilities Strengths

Physics department facilities are housed in Carr Hall. In 1995, a $3.5 million renovation doubled the space available for physics. Renovations included a new laser, spectroscopy, and non-linear optics lab and modern physics laboratories.

Research Laboratories

• Low Temperature Molecular Spectroscopy Laboratory: For the study of gas-phase molecular interactions at very low temperatures.
• Non-linear Optics Laboratory: For the study of non-linear optical phenomena.
• Molecular Biophysics Lab: For the study of the active sites of metalloproteins.
• Simulation Laboratory: Supports teaching and research using computer simulation, including molecular dynamics and Monte Carlo methods.
• Computing Facilities: Network of personal computers and workstations; two dedicated student computer labs - an Introductory Mechanics Lab with 10 iMacs and a departmental computer lab with six Macintosh computers for the exclusive use of Physics majors. A variety of sensors, such as motion detectors, force probes and radiation counters are used with the Mechanics lab machines to permit data collection and analysis.
  Learn more about the physics faculty's research interests at Inside Physics.

Teaching Laboratories

• Two introductory labs; one modern physics lab (intermediate); one optics lab (advanced); one laser and spectroscopy lab
• Office space is available for senior physics majors

Equipment

• Precision electronic measuring devices, lasers, spectrometers and gamma ray detection systems for experiments in mechanics, heat, sound, light, electricity, magnetism, solid state, atomic and nuclear physics
• Research-grade equipment for the study of lasers, optics, and atomic and molecular spectroscopy

Astronomy Facilities

• Wible Planetarium
• Newton Observatory: houses a nine-inch refracting telescope and a computer interfaced 10-inch Meade LX200 telescope with CCD camera.

Student Research and Special Projects

Every Alleghenian completes a Senior Project in his or her major field-a significant piece of original work, designed by each student and a faculty advisor, that demonstrates to employers and graduate schools the ability to complete a major assignment, to work independently, to analyze and synthesize information and to write and speak persuasively.

Because physics students work closely with the faculty, assisting them in their research, Senior Projects in the department are usually related to faculty research interests.

Recent Senior Projects

• "A Study of Secondary Cosmic Rays and the Construction of a Secondary Cosmic Ray Detector"
• "Intensity and Plymer Dependence of Photoinduced Azimuthal Gliding in Dye-Doped Nematic Liquid Crystals"
• "Chaotic Rotations of the Director in Azo Dye-Doped Nematic Liquid Crystals"
• "Radio Waves from the Heavens: The Study of Radio Signals from Space"
• "Synthesis of Rare Earth Crystalline Thermometer for Low Temperature Metalloprotein EPR Measurements"
• "Electron Paramagnetic Resonance of Color Centers in Precious Gems"
• "Investigation of Low Temperature Ammonia-Helium Collisions: State-to-State Cross Sections"
• "Ising Model Simulation of a Two-Dimensional Antiferromagnetic Triangular Lattice"

Selected Student Achievements

• Department of Energy four-year fellowship worth $160,000 for graduate study.
• One of just 15 teams selected to participate in the Cornell University Supercomputing Program for Undergraduate Research (one of only two teams from undergraduate institutions).
• Senior project recognized as the top paper at a student research conference.
• Grant for week-long visit to the Columbia University Radiation Laboratory, where student and professor demonstrated spectroscopic techniques.
• Several papers a year are published by physics faculty with students as co-authors.
• In 1996, three Allegheny graduates were among just 100 selected nationwide to receive fellowships from NASA's Graduate Student Researchers program.