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	Physics Graduate Program • Admission & Financial Aid • General Requirements • Photonics Option • Computational /     Condensed Matter Option • Physics and Astronomy     Education Research Option • Physics Course Descriptions SIUE Graduate Catalog • Catalog Program Description • Catalog Course Descriptions

Physics Graduate Program
General Requirements

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Advisement

Each Physics graduate student is initially supervised by the Physics Graduate Advisory Committee, composed of Physics graduate gaculty members.  Before the end of the first year, the student should consult with various Physics faculty members about projects for consideration as a thesis or project topic.  When the student and a faculty member have agreed on a project, the faculty member will choose for the student a thesis or project advisory committee consisting of three to five graduate faculty members, with that faculty member serving as chair of the committee and adviser to the student.  These actions will then be reviewed for approval by the Physics Graduate Studies Committee.  The advisor and advisory committee thus selected is thereafter responsible for advisement of the candidate until the completion of the degree requirements.

Foundation Courses

Students entering the Physics graduate program with baccalaureate degrees in engineering, mathematics, or computer sciences may be required to take one or more foundation courses.  These courses provide students with the minimal necessary background for the graduate program.  The need to take foundation courses is determined by a placement exam given before the beginning of the fall semester.  Hours completed in the foundation courses cannot be applied toward the M.S. degree.  The foundation courses are:

• PHYS 308 (4) - Introduction to Classical Mechanics
• PHYS 405a (3) - Introduction to Electromagnetic Field Theory
• PHYS 410 (3) - Optics (Photonics Option only)
• PHYS 416 (4) - Principles of Quantum Mechanics

Graduate Course Requirements

Each student must satisfy the Requirements for Degree Completion set by the Graduate School, and must satisfy the course requirements for the Physics graduate program option which the student has chosen.  These courses are listed on the page for each option, and total 34 to 36 semester hours depending on the option:

• Photonics Option
• Computational / Condensed Matter Option
• Physics and Astronomy Education Research Option

The student must maintain a grade point average of 3.0 (on an A = 4.0 scale) for all graduate work in physics as well as for all work to be applied toward the degree.

M.S. Qualifying Examination

In order to qualify for the degree and to begin research work, the candidate must pass the M.S. Qualifying Examination, which is a written examination on undergraduate physics given under the supervision of the Physics Graduate Studies Committee.  The exam is given during the Fall Semester, usually in November, and students will normally take it in their first fall semester as a Physics graduate student.  Students should consult the department for format and scheduling information.  Part-time students may apply to the Physics Graduate Studies Committee requesting a delay in taking this examination.

Thesis or Project

Each candidate for the M.S. degree must either submit to Graduate Records a thesis based on work in an approved physics research program or submit to the Physics Department a detailed report on an approved advanced project.  The thesis or project topic is to be approved by the Graduate Studies Committee and pursued under the supervision of the student’s advisory committee.  The thesis or project report is to be prepared in conformity with a style manual officially adopted by the Graduate Studies Committee.

• Thesis:  A thesis is based on work in an approved program of physics research, and is submitted to the Graduate School in addition to the Physics Department.  See the Graduate School's Forms for Graduate Students and Thesis Guidelines.
  
  
• Advanced Project:  As an alternative to submitting a thesis based on a research program, a Physics M.S. student may submit to the Physics Department a detailed report on an approved advanced project.  Examples of appropriate types of projects are: laboratory equipment design and construction, computational physics, library research on an advanced topic in physics, practical experimental project, work in physics undertaken in cooperative programs with other departments or institutions, and an objective evaluation of methodologies of physics instruction.

After a thesis or project report acceptable to the thesis advisory committee is submitted, the candidate must pass an oral examination in seminar format, covering the thesis or project work, in order to be certified for the degree.