Announcement
17 March 2021 Physics 51 Now Optional Physics 51 in the Fall of 2021 In the middle of the 19th century, James Clerk Maxwell fused electricity and magnetism in a logical structure that explained everything from electric motors to light, … |
News
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23 January 2021 Helliwell and Sahakian Release a Modern Classic Vatche V. Sahakian and Thomas M. Helliwell have just published Modern Classical Mechanics, a forward-looking text published by Cambridge University Press that shows the deep connections between classical … |
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20 January 2021 Vedika Khemani (’10) Wins APS Prize Vedika Khemani (’10) has won the 2021 George E. Valley Jr. Prize from the American Physical Society. The citation on the APS site reads “For seminal theoretical work on novel phases of many-body localized … …more news |
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Why study physics at HMC? Critical mass, for one thing. We have a large enough department to support a variety of research projects and enough majors to give you great odds of connecting with an excellent group of study buddies. |
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Can I participate in research? Definitely! With 13 full-time faculty members, research activities in the department investigate quantum information, defects in colloids, thin-film magnetic systems, plant and animal biomechanics, cosmic … |
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Where do our students go? Somewhat more than half of physics majors head immediately to graduate school for PhDs in physics or related disciplines. The others find jobs as engineers, software developers, research assistants, data … |
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What can you do with a physics degree? What’s a physics degree from HMC good for? Plenty. But don’t just take our word for it. Listen to what our alumni say. |
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What about the physics curriculum? By design, the physics curriculum is lean enough to give physics majors an unconstrained elective each semester. With nine options, including astrophysics, biophysics, chemical physics, education, geophysics, … |
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What physics is in the HMC Core? Core physics begins with Special Relativity, which beautifully illustrates how careful reasoning from simple premises can teach you an incredible amount about how the world actually works—even if it isn’t … |
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9 May 2019 | After 44 years at Harvey Mudd College, John S. “Coherent-State” Townsend is retiring. Some of his students prepared this quantum mechanical send-off depicting a coherent state. What will we do without you, John? |