Graduates

Illinois Physics—ranked among the top ten physics departments in the U.S. by the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences—is world renowned for its traditional “Urbana style” of research. Defined by its collegial spirit and open collaboration across areas of expertise—where theorists and experimentalists work together to drive discovery—the “Urbana style” continues to foster innovation in an atmosphere of intellectual freedom.

It's in this unique academic environment that we train future generations of scientists and leaders. Our graduate students work with pre-eminent faculty in traditional physics disciplines, including condensed matter physics, nuclear physics, high-energy physics, and astrophysics, and in younger fields of study, such as biological physics, atomic, molecular, & optical physics, computational physics, the physics of quantum information, cosmology, and physics education research. Additionally, some of our graduate students complete their thesis research in interdisciplinary collaborations with other Illinois science and engineering departments—many also ranked within the top ten U.S. programs.

Of course our greatest strength as a department is our faculty. Finding a doctoral adviser who is a good match for your research interests and style will be essential to your ultimate success. To make sure all of our incoming students find the right match, we offer support in the form of a first-year orientation course and through regular one-one-one counseling.

We also provide professional development and networking opportunities that ultimately promote our graduates' successes in advanced technical careers in academia, business and industry, or national laboratories. We invite you to explore our program more deeply, to find out if Illinois Physics is the right fit for your graduate studies.