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The Cornell University Department of Physics, known for the versatility of its program, the breadth of its training, and Nobel Prize-winning work, is unsurpassed in many areas. The presence on campus of a particle accelerator, one of just a few of its magnitude anywhere in the world, contributes to Cornell’s reputation in particle and accelerator physics. The department has more than 40 active professors, approximately 180 graduate students and 65 undergraduate majors, and offers a full range of university-level work in physics, from general education courses for nonscientists to doctoral-level independent research.
The Bethe Way is the department's yearly magazine. In it, we share exciting highlights of faculty hires, research breakthroughs, staff changes, teaching reform, faculty awards, and alumni connections.
Using a Cornell-built instrument and Cornell-built high-speed detector, a team of researchers captured atomically thin materials responding to light with a dynamic twisting motion.
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Reppy was recognized along with David Bishop, Ph.D. ’78, for "groundbreaking experiments" they did on helium 50 years ago.
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Seiberg, professor in the School of Natural Sciences at the Institute for Advanced Study, will explore string theory and other aspects of scientific progress.
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Researchers develop a new bacterium that can absorb DNA directly from its surroundings and incorporate it into its own genetic code.
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Cornell researchers and collaborators have developed a neural implant so small that it can rest on a grain of salt, yet it can wirelessly transmit brain activity data in a living animal for more than a year.
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Cornell physicists and computer scientists have developed a machine learning architecture inspired by the large language models (LLMs) behind ChatGPT to help them study the vastly complicated interactions that happen when nature's smallest particles interact.
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Thomas Hartman is a professor in the Department of Physics in the College of Arts & Sciences.
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The recognition goes to researchers pushing the boundaries of experimental physics.
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"On my first day after joining a research group in graduate school a professor said, I hear you’re interested in instrumentation.’ I didn’t know what that was, but I thought I’d better say yes. When people think about physics, they think about a guy with a pencil and paper, but physics is an experimental science.”
- Peter Wittich, Professor and Director, Laboratory of Elementary Particle Physics