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Why Study Physics at UNL?
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One example of the cutting-edge research facilities available for graduate student research is the Extreme Light Laboratory, which houses a new multi-million-dollar laser system capable of focusing light to the highest level of intensity ever achieved. Not only is this capability expected to lead to new discoveries in fundamental physics, but it has important applications in materials science, chemistry, biology, as well as medicine, security and defense. A UNL physics graduate student is currently conducting his dissertation research with this unique laser system. Our faculty brings in well over $10 million per year in scientific research grants, which provides students with research assistantships, support for travel to national and international meetings, and access to state-of-the-art research equipment, including computational facilities and fully staffed electronic and instrument shops. Our program prepares students for employment in all sectors. Student interested in academic or government employment have been hired as postdoctoral research associates at Princeton, Caltech, Berkeley and the Office of Naval Research. Our graduates also work in industry at places like Seagate, Applied Magnetics, Micron and Eaton SEO and in academia, including McMurry University, Loras College, Fort Hayes State University and St. Thomas College.
The Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Nebraska offers graduate students the opportunity to work with nationally recognized leaders in three subdisciplines of physics. Atomic, Optical, Molecular and Plasma Physics is the primary testing ground for quantum mechanics, our basic theory of the physical universe at this time. Theorists and experimentalists study things like ultrafast laser physics and matter optics. Our 100 terawatt laser offers the highest combination of peak and average power of any laser facility in the U.S. and permits unique studies of ulta-high intensity laser-plasma interactions that cannot be performed anywhere else in the world. Click HERE for more information. Our Condensed Matter & Material Physics group creates and studies novel nanomaterials with the goal of understanding why materials behave profoundly different when they become small. Close collaboration between theorists and experimentalists offers students the opportunity study fundamental phenomena, as well as potential applications in fields such as magnetic recording, quantum computing and medicine. CMMP faculty are core members of a National Science Foundation-funded Materials Research Science and Engineering Center on nanomagnetism. Click HERE for more information. Our Experimental High Energy Physics group studies the most fundamental constituents of matter. The UNL HEP group plays leading roles in experiments at the world’s present highest energy accelerator, the Tevatron proton-antiproton collider at Fermilab in Batavia, Illinois, and the next-generation highest energy accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland. UNL faculty also participate in the DZERO experiment at Fermilab, which discovered the top quark in 1995. Click HERE for more information.
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