About Us
Nearly a century of physics at UofL – from a single physicist hired in 1928 to a research department with its own observatory, robotic telescopes on two continents and a growing PhD program.
Explore Comprehensive Programs
Physics & Astronomy offers a BA (general or pre-med) and a BS with tracks in applied physics, astronomy and astrophysics, atmospheric physics, and computational physics and data sciences; minors in physics, atmospheric physics, interdisciplinary computational sciences and interdisciplinary data sciences; and an MS, an accelerated BS/MS and a PhD. Every program is built around hands-on, faculty-mentored research.
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History & Mission
Physics in Arts & Sciences began with the hiring of the university’s first physicist in 1928. Originally housed in what is now Oppenheimer Hall, the department moved into the Natural Science Building when it opened in 1954. After the Speed School physics department merged into A&S in 1965, the department grew to include expertise in nuclear, condensed matter and atomic physics and astrophysics by the time the university entered the state system of higher education. Moore Observatory, in the Horner Wildlife Sanctuary outside Louisville, opened in 1978 and added remotely operated telescopes in Arizona and Australia in 2021.
The PhD program, discontinued in the late 1970s, was restored in 2008 and has grown steadily – today the department graduates about five doctoral students a year in fields from observational astronomy and high-energy physics to nanoscale science, photonics and quantum computing. Where the department’s first generation computed with slide rules, today’s students have high-performance computing and artificial intelligence as everyday tools for discovery.
Our Mission
The Department of Physics and Astronomy is committed to excellence and inclusiveness in educating and serving its community. We provide high-quality undergraduate and graduate education and engage students in research to develop the next generation of physicists and astronomers; we conduct frontier research in fundamental and applied physics and astronomy that advances science and technology; and we support our community through scientific outreach and educational partnerships with planetariums, high schools, science museums and public libraries.
Who We Serve
Physics majors pursuing a BS in astronomy and astrophysics, atmospheric physics, applied physics, computational physics and data sciences or professional physics; BA majors on general and pre-med tracks; accelerated BS/MS students; and physics minors – often paired with mathematics, mechanical or electrical engineering, or computer science. We also teach life-science, chemistry and pre-med students, Speed School engineers and College of Education students fulfilling requirements, post-baccalaureate students exploring new careers, and graduate students in our MS and PhD programs.
Facilities & Spaces
- TEAL Classroom (NS 134) – A technology-enabled active learning classroom with 18 Mac minis, two interactive smart boards, lecture capture and PTZ cameras for remote and hybrid instruction – home to our data science and computational physics courses. Established through the generosity of the Sam Lord family.
- PACER Research Computing Cluster – The department’s primary high-performance computing resource: 26 compute nodes (1,232 processors), up to 512 GB of memory and a 200 TB disk array with 98 teraflops of peak performance – also a gift of the Sam Lord family.
- Physics Learning Center (NS 119) – Free one-on-one tutoring from graduate teaching assistants, 9 a.m.–3 p.m. on weekdays. A six-workstation Linux cluster in NS 119 supports graduate computational courses.
- Moore Observatory – In the Horner Wildlife Refuge outside Louisville: 0.5- and 0.6-meter remotely accessible telescopes and a wide-field visual telescope for student research and training in observational astronomy.
- Remote Observatories – Robotic telescopes at Mt. Lemmon, Arizona, and Mt. Kent, Queensland, Australia, operated from Louisville; partner access to Minerva Australis (five 0.7-meter telescopes and a precision radial-velocity spectrograph for exoplanet discovery).
- Rooftop Observatory & SeeStar Telescopes – A 0.36-meter telescope atop the Natural Science Building supports undergraduate astronomy labs, and a fleet of portable robotic SeeStar telescopes lets PHYS 308 students collect digital astronomical data from their own phones.
- Research Laboratories – Applied Optics and Astrophysics (Kielkopf), Quantum Computing (Kyprianidis), Photonics (Mendes), Ultrafast Optics (Smadici), Materials Science (Sumanasekera) and Computational Materials Modeling (Jayanthi, SRB 208/210) – all open to students at every level.
- Machine Shop & Dillon Library – The physics machine shop (NS 002) designs and repairs specialized research apparatus; the Dillon Library (NS 327) holds the department’s physics collection.
Frequently Asked Questions
A BA in Physics (general or pre-med track), a BS in Physics with tracks in applied physics, astronomy and astrophysics, atmospheric physics, and computational physics and data sciences (or a professional physics focus), four minors, and an MS, accelerated BS/MS and PhD. See the Undergraduate and Graduate pages for details.
Yes. Students work alongside faculty from the first year through programs like the Summer Research Opportunity Program (SROP) and Mentored Undergraduate Research and Creativity (MURC), and UofL physics majors are routinely selected for 8–10-week NSF Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) programs.
Our graduates work at NASA and national laboratories, in the semiconductor and automotive industries, in aerospace and optical engineering, data science, software, medical physics and healthcare technology, and in academia. See Career Pathways for more.
Yes. Recent alumni have earned PhDs at Wisconsin, Purdue, UCLA and Columbia and now hold faculty positions at Rutgers, Emory and the University of Kentucky.
The department is small by design – students know their professors and each other – and graduates approximately five doctoral students each year. Contact the Director of Undergraduate Studies for current enrollment.
Astronomy and astrophysics, atmospheric science, theoretical and computational condensed matter physics, experimental condensed matter physics, experimental particle physics (Belle II), experimental quantum science, photonics and ultrafast optics. See the Research page and the Faculty & Staff directory.
From Quantum Particles to Career Success
Ready to turn your passion for problem-solving and analytical thinking into professional impact? Explore Physics and Astronomy at the University of Louisville — where undergraduate research, NASA-funded faculty projects, and rigorous scientific training launch careers in research, engineering, data science, medicine, and beyond.