63%Physics majors

29%Physics & Astrophysics majors

13%Physical Science majors

Also availablePhysical Science/FSU-Teach major

fourstudents to

every

faculty memberone

5

Homes away from home: Some of the labs where Seminole physicists work

faculty advisors for all majors

offered in the FSU Dept. of Physics

Brookhaven National Lab, New YorkCERN, SwitzerlandElectron Stretcher and Accelerator, GermanyEuropean Southern Observatory, ChileFermi National Accelerator Lab, Illinois

2,000+pages of Honors thesis work have beenpublished since 2002

Gemini Observatory, Hawai‘i and ChileLawrence Berkeley National Lab, CaliforniaLos Alamos National Lab, New MexicoMcDonald Observatory, TexasNational High Magnetic Field Lab, Florida

National Superconducting Cyclotron Lab, Michigan NIST Center for Neutron Research, MarylandOak Ridge National Lab, TennesseeThomas Jefferson National Accelerator, VirginiaTRIUMF, Canada

when students participate in research, they...gain hands-on experience that graduate programs and employers value

work one-on-one with a faculty mentor

are often paid a stipend for their time

may stay at FSU, go to another state, or travel abroad

get to see if they enjoy research before committing to a graduate program

may participate in interdisciplinaryresearch

may beinvited to present theirfindings atnational meetingsor conferences

meet and collaborate with other undergraduates and graduate students

About the FSU Physics DepartmentQuick FactsA small community at a large university.

161undergraduate students

allinterested students find

research positionswith faculty mentors

On average, physics

graduates earn

$40-$65KAnd that’s just

out of the gate.

Why Physics at FSU?A Wide Range of Opportunities:

Where Are FSU Physics Grads Now?Since 2002, over 180 people have graduated from the FSU Physics Department with bachelor’s degrees. We have information about the current employment

status of about half of those students. Graduate study is highly represented here because our graduates under the age of 27 were the most likely to respond.

Physics or Astronomy Graduate Program

28%

Other Science Fields

Graduate Program

14%

Private Sector - Computational

9%

Private Sector - Financial

4%

Private Sector - Engineering

6%

Private Sector - Other

9%

Entrepenuer6%

Active Military4%

Government5%

Colleges & Universities

7%K-128%

Graduate Programs Attended by FSU Physics UndergraduatesBoston UniversityCarnegie Mellon UniversityCase Western UniversityClemson UniversityColumbia UniversityDuke UniversityFlorida Institute of TechnologyFlorida State UniversityFreie Universität BerlinGeorgia TechKansas State UniversityMichigan State UniversityNorth Carolina State University

Ohio State UniversityRutgers University Stanford UniversityTexas A&M UniversityTulane UniversityUniversity of California, BerkeleyUniversity of California, DavisUniversity of California, IrvineUniversity of California, Santa

BarbaraUniversity of Central FloridaUniversity of Colorado University of Florida

University of Illinois, ChicagoUniversity of Illinois, Urbana-

ChampaignUniversity of MichiganUniversity of New MexicoUniversity of PennsylvaniaUniversity of RochesterUniversity of San FranciscoUniversity of TennesseeUniversity of Wisconsin-MadisonVanderbilt UniversityYale University

Besides getting Sheldon Cooper’s jokes on The Big Bang Theory.

$$ $Graduate students in physics receive an ample stipend and

tuition waiver.

Reprinted courtesy of the American Institute of Physics from the Fall 2009 Salary Survey, with permission of the National Association of Colleges and Employers, copyright holder.

Benefits of a Degree in Physics Thoughts from our First YearDiscovering Physics Students

“Faculty are easy to talk to.”

“The Astrophysics program is excellent.”

“There’s a ton of school spirit!”

“Well, it’s close...

but not TOO

close to hom

e.”

“It’s nice and far from home!”

“The

Mag

Lab

and

the

Nuc

lear

Acc

eler

ator

ar

e he

re!”

“There are so many things to get involved with at

FSU, and plenty of non-science options.”

“This is a solid physics program.”

“FSU isn’t pretentious.”

“I visited other universities

and this was the best.”

“Everyone here is so friendly!”

Current and Former StudentsResearcher Profiles

Balancing class and lab work to produce new knowledge.

Jorge

Gonzalez

b e g a n h i s

research at

FSU’s National

High Magnetic

Field Laboratory

less than a

month after his

h igh school

graduation from

Miami Senior

High School. He

is one of FSU’s

new Presidential

Scholars.

Ky le S e r n i a k part icipated in research related to the heat-transfer process in selective microwave heating of heterogenous catalysts. Today, he is a second-year PhD student in the Department of Physics at Yale University.

While working

at FSU’s Fox

Superconducting

Accelerator Lab,

D r e w B l a n k s t e i n improved the

performance of

experiments that

study the nuclear

reactions taking

place in stars.Gregory Seel is a 1st year physics major at FSU and one of the university’s first class of

P r e s i d e n t i a l S c h o l a r s . Gregory is a

graduate of Winter Park

High.

A m e l i a Estry is a graduate of Deltona High School and a current physics major at FSU. Since starting her research at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory during her freshman year, she has

focused on antiferromagnetic materials that exhibit unique superconductive properties.

Her work this summer included a trip to the Los Alamos National

Laboratory in New Mexico.

I took physics in eleventh grade. […] And it shook my understanding of math and science […]. It was exactly what I was looking to do in college and my career, which is why I came to a school with such strong programs in both physics and research!

“

”

ContinuedResearcher Profiles

During

her time at

FSU, Kelly Pawlak

researched condensed

matter, with a focus

on Bose-E ins te in

c o n d e n s a t i o n .

Currently, she is a first

year PhD student

at the University

of California at

Santa Barbara.

D a n i e l S u a r e z g r a d u a t e d

from Christopher Columbus High School and is an undergraduate researcher in the National High

Magnetic Field Laboratory.

Michael W o o d s

i s an FSU u n d e r g r a d u a t e

physics major and a researcher at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory examining how conduction electrons move in metals under extreme conditions.

His ultimate goal is to become a nuclear engineer.

Linsey R o d e n b a c h

began research as

a first year student

and is currently in

her second year

in the physics

program. She works

at FSU’s National

High Magnetic Field

Laboratory, where

she is building a

device to study

magnetic properties

of materials at

high fields and low

temperatures. Aust in Skeeters i s a n F S U

u n d e r g r a d u a t e phys ics major

who is helping to design an upgrade

for a half-billion dollar detector at

CERN’s LHC, where the Higgs Boson was discovered. In addition, Austin was a “learning assistant” for the

d e p a r t m e n t ’ s Studio Physics

class. His ultimate goal is to become

a patent lawyer.

I would like to be a neurosurgeon that also does research, but for the research I really want to combine neuroscience with math and physics. I think it’s really profound that complex impulses can lead to consciousness. I figured that learning about conductivity through condensed matter studies would be a nice place to start.

“

”

Scientists

spend their lives

climbing mountains. We

may never make it to the

top — we may never find

a complete description of

the universe — but the

climb gives us a new

perspective on the

world.

“

”