Computer Physics Overview

• What is Computer Physics?
• Career Opportunities for Computer Physicists
• The Computer Physics Degree at Illinois State University
• Why Illinois State?
• The Computer Physics Sequence at a Glance
• Our Facilities
• Computer Physics Requirements
• Faculty Profile
• Research Opportunities
• Departmental Student Support
• Related Links
• Opportunities
• For Further Information

What Is Computer Physics?

Computer/computational physicists use high-performance computers to explore physical phenomena, from those involving the most fundamental objects such as quarks and black holes to those important in applications like weather prediction, medical technology, and environmental cleanup. This new approach to physics opens avenues to problems whose solution is otherwise impossible.

Career Opportunities for Computer Physicists

Computer physics is successfully applied across traditional disciplines, allowing experts in this area a more flexible position in today's competitive employment arena. National surveys in recent years consistently show computer professionals in high demand. A computer physicist has the added advantage of being not only a highly trained programmer but also a skilled problem solver with the ability to tackle complex systems.

The Computer Physics Degree at ISU

While this new approach to science and engineering is widespread in research and development, it is all but ignored at the undergraduate level at most universities and colleges. The Computer Physics degree at Illinois State University, unique in the Midwest and among only a handful in the world, remedies this deficiency.

This program is designed for students seeking either industrial employment or graduate study in computer-oriented science, engineering, and related fields. Majors complete a well-balanced curriculum in theoretical, experimental, and computational physics paralleling the regular physics major through the intermediate level courses and then specializing in computer physics.

Why Illinois State?

The Physics Department at Illinois State University has a history of innovation in computational science education. We were among the first departments in the nation to offer a course in computational physics in the early 1970's. In the 1980's, we embarked on an effort to systematically incorporate computer methods into all intermediate and advanced courses. In the 1990's, we have led interdisciplinary projects to develop specialized computational science courses. One of these courses, "Methods of Computer Science", received the 1995 Undergraduate Computer Science Education Award by the U. S. Department of Energy. Today, we are at the frontier of computer science education.

Our past experience combines with a nearly unsurpassed faculty expertise for an undergraduate department. The majority of our faculty members are active in computational physics. The department supports a network of state-of-the-art workstation computers and well-equipped laboratories.   To download an updated Computer Physics Major brochure, please click here.

The Computer Physics Sequence at a Glance

The program provides a firm foundation in physics and a well-structured sequence of computational courses, including a project-oriented, team-taught course, "Advanced Computational Physics", and a research experience course, "Computational Research in Physics".

Our classes are small, allowing ample opportunity for individualized attention. All courses are taught by professors, who are committed to undergraduate education.

Courses taken by Computer Physics majors are listed below. A brief description of each course is provided in the Illinois State University catalog.

(1) Basic Physics Courses

PHY 107 Frontiers of Physics
PHY 110 Physics for Science and Engineering I
PHY 111 Physics for Science and Engineering II
PHY 112 Physics for Science and Engineering III

(2) Intermediate and Advanced Physics Courses

PHY 217 Methods of Theoretical Physics
PHY 220 Mechanics I
PHY 240 Electricity and Magnetism I
PHY 270 Experimental Physics
PHY 284 Quantum Mechanics I
PHY 325 Thermal Physics

(3) Computational Courses

ACS 165 Computer Programming for Scientists
ACS 254 Hardware and Software Concepts
PHY 318 Methods of Computational Science
PHY 388 Advanced Computational Physics
PHY 390 Computational Research in Physics

(4) Advanced Physics Electives

We offer a variety of electives including two computationally oriented courses: Molecular Dynamics and Nonlinear Science, as well as traditional advanced courses in mechanics, electricity and magnetism, quantum mechanics, atomic physics, electronics, mathematical physics, optical physics, and solid state physics.

Our Facilities

Students in the Physics Department have an enormous amount of computing power at their disposal. The department supports a bank of high-speed scientific workstations including Silicon Graphics parallel processors, IBM RS/6000, Hewlett-Packard 9000 series, and DEC Alpha models. Students can access them directly or via network from three computer labs containing personal computers for the exclusive use of our majors. Also accessible is the College of Arts and Science's multi-media lab. For those who get involved in computational research with a faculty member, access to supercomputers at several national centers is also available. Our workstations offer programming in the Fortran and C languages as well as powerful mathematical and scientific visualization software, while the personal computers provide web and internet access and a wide variety of software.

Faculty Profile

Members of the faculty hold doctorates from many of the nation's leading universities. Each is a dedicated teacher and many publish their research in the world's major physics journals. Present faculty members and their specialties are listed below.

Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics

• Brian K. Clark (Ph.D., University of Missouri-Rolla, 1986) "We observe how gases and light affect each other."
  
  
• Rainer Grobe (Ph.D., University of Essen, Germany, 1989) "It is fascinating to explore laser pulses which can penetrate any material without destroying it."
  
  
• Khondkar R. Karim (Ph.D., University of Oregon, 1983) "I explore lives of exotic atomic species like 'hollow' and 'planetary' atoms."
  
  
• George H. Rutherford (Ph.D., Rice University, 1991) "My students and I study the role of electron spin in collisions involving excited atoms."
  
  
• Qichang Su (Ph.D., University of Rochester, 1991) "The unusual response of atomic electrons to intense light is interesting fundamentally as well as practically as it may lead to new X-ray lasers."

Condensed Matter Physics

• Ross Bogue (Ph.D., Purdue University, 1989) "I enjoy teaching students how to simulate physical systems."
  
  
• Hiroshi Matsuoka (Ph.D., University of Illinois, 1985) "By simulating the motion of atoms with a computer, I study how melting in a small cluster of atoms changes with the cluster size."
  
  
• Shang-Fen Ren (Ph.D., Texas A&M University, 1986) "Macroscopic properties of matter are governed by conservation laws and broken symmetries."

Mathematical Physics

• Sadri D. Hassani (Ph.D., Princeton University, 1980) "Mathematics is the language of Nature, Physics its poetry."

Physics Education

• Carl J. Wenning (MAT, Michigan State University, 1978) "I enjoy showing future physics teachers the utility of computers in the lab setting."

Space Plasma Physics

• Daniel L. Holland (Ph.D., University of California at Los Angeles, 1990) "It never ceases to amaze me that you can obtain so much information about the global structure of the magnetotail from a few little wiggles in the ion distribution function."
  
  
• Richard F. Martin, Jr. (Ph.D., University of Illinois, 1983) "My work on the Earth's space environment is motivated by a long-term fascination with the question of how complicated, but ordered systems form spontaneously and evolve in time."
  

Many of our students make valuable contributions to faculty research programs. These collaborations often lead to presentations at professional conferences and, in some cases, to publications. In addition to the excitement of doing research, the department offers many paid Research Assistantships both during the academic year and in the summer.

Departmental Student Support

In addition to University-wide scholarships and financial aid, the Physics Department offers several scholarships and awards to qualified students. We also offer employment opportunities such as teaching assistants, lab proctors, and computer programmers.

Related Links

A full list of degree requirements follows: