Applied Physics Ph.D. Program

The two general research areas have sufficient overlap that students in either one can benefit from courses offered in the other. Both areas have relevance to research programs in other departments including physical chemistry, electrical engineering, and mechanical engineering. Applied Physics students have the opportunity to interact with graduate students and faculty in several other departments at UMBC.

The minimum requirement for the Ph.D. degree is a total of 46 credit-hours, with 28 credit-hours of lecture courses at the 600 level or higher and 12 credit-hours of doctoral research (PHYS 899). All prospective Ph.D. students will be required to complete the Ph.D. core curriculum consisting of PHYS 601 (Quantum Mechanics I), PHYS 602 (Statistical Mechanics), PHYS 605 (Mathematical Physics), PHYS 606 (Classical Mechanics), and PHYS 607 (Electromagnetic Theory). In addition, Ph.D. students will be required to pass PHYS 640 (Computational Physics), PHYS 698 (Physics Seminar), PHYS 701 (Quantum Mechanics II), PHYS 707 (Advanced Electromagnetic Theory) and a minimum of 12 credit-hours of PHYS 899 (Doctoral Thesis Research).

In order to be admitted to candidacy for the Ph.D. degree, students must first complete the Ph.D. core curriculum, then pass a written qualifying examination. The written qualifying examination covers all of undergraduate physics and the graduate-level material presented in the courses in the Ph.D. core curriculum. The examination should be taken in the summer following the end of the student's first academic year in the program. Students in possession of a M.S. from another institution must take the examination in their first year. Students failing the exam must retake it at the next opportunity. Failure to pass the qualifying examination at the second attempt will result in the student's dismissal from the program.

After passing the qualifying examination, a prospective Ph.D. student should choose a faculty advisor to supervise the dissertation research. Usually dissertation research is performed under the direction of a tenure-track faculty member of the UMBC physics department. After selecting an advisor, the student should begin acquiring the necessary background knowledge to conduct research and develop a research plan. As soon as possible, but no later than twelve months after passing the qualifying examination, the student must deliver an oral presentation of the proposed research project to a preliminary committee consisting of at least three members of the physics department faculty. Based upon this presentation, and the overall graduate record of the student, the full faculty will vote whether or not to recommend to the Graduate School that the student be admitted to candidacy for the Ph.D. degree.

After admission to candidacy and completion of the research, the student will be required to write and defend a dissertation before a committee constituted in accordance with the Graduate School regulations. The chair of this committee must be a regular member of the graduate faculty and will usually be a tenure-track faculty member in the physics department. This research should be of a quality suitable for publication in a refereed physics journal.