Physics and Astronomy | The University of New Mexico

Chair: Richard Rand

An undergraduate education in physics provides a solid foundation for a lifetime of learning in a variety of disciplines, including science, engineering, math, finance, education, law, and medicine. Find out more.

Alumni testimonials: Read success stories from alumni of our department and their reflections on the quality of our programs.

Degree Programs

Undergraduate

Graduate - Physics

Graduate - Optical Science and Engineering

Limited Operations This Summer

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, UNM has reduced services. Most employees are still working remotely. See President Stokes's statement on our phased return.

The Physics and Astronomy office and building are closed. If you need to speak to anyone, leave a message at 505 277-2616. We will respond as soon as possible.

News from the Chair

Please welcome our new faculty and staff for Fall 2020

Tonmoy Chakraborty (tchakraborty@unm.edu) is our new faculty member in biophotonics. His family arrived in Albuquerque from Dallas but are quarantining until Aug 13. After that he will be at PAÍS getting his lab (2413) set up. He will be teaching PHYS 1310 remotely this upcoming semester. His office is 2244.

Diana Dragomir joined the Department of Physics and Astronomy as a Research Assistant Professor in August, 2019, and will start as an Assistant Professor this fall. See her website.

Jessica Dowell starts as a Lecturer (Mickey Odom's old position) this fall. She has already been working very hard this spring and summer to create online versions of most of our intro labs.

Youngwoo Yi (yyi@unm.edu) is our new Advanced Lab Coordinator (Mike Hasselbeck's old position). He has been performing similar duties at CU Boulder and brings with him a wealth of experience. Youngwoo got his PhD at the Colorado School of Mines and has carried out research on the optical properties of surfaces. He will be in PAÍS 1406.

News from the Chair

CQuIC receives award in new NSF Quantum Leaps Challenge Institute

CQuIC is excited to be part of the newly created center entitled Quantum Systems through Entangled Science and Engineering (Q-SEnSE), one of three Quantum Leap Challenge Institutes inaugurated by the National Science Foundation.

Q-SEnSE will focus on the development of next generations quantum sensors and metrology. The Q-SEnSE team includes researchers from seven Universities: CU Boulder, Delaware, Harvard, MIT, Oregon, Stanford, and UNM as well as four National Laboratories: Los Alamos, MIT-Lincoln Labs, NIST, & Sandia.

CQuIC researchers will pursue fundamental research to understand how one can harness quantum complexity for metrological advantage and apply this in next-generation experimental platforms. CQuIC will also play a central role in Quantum Information Science (QIS) education and workforce development.

Read more details in the CQuIC website article.

News from the Chair

Prof Gruzdev Wins Competitive Newton Award

Vitaly Gruzdev

Research Associate Professor Vitaly Gruzdev was awarded a prestigious Newton Award from the Department of Defense. These awards were given out for transformative ideas during the Covid-19 pandemic. Only 13 awards were given from 548 applications, so congratulations to Vitaly!