Electrons stay put in layers of mismatched ‘quantum Legos’
Electrons can be elusive, but Cornell researchers using a new computational method can now account for where they go – or don’t go – in certain layered materials.
Read more
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.
Explore the Department
The Bethe Way: Department of Physics Magazine
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.
Physics News
CTI grants enable faculty to research how students think and learn 
With a 2024-2025 Innovative Teaching & Learning Grant, A&S professors collaborated with others to develope an AI tool to foster student metacognitive skills around teamwork in STEM classes.
Read more
Cornell Navy ROTC midshipman earns top honor
Kylie Williamson ’26 has been named Navy/Marines Student of the Year by Navy Federal Credit Union, a top honor in the Reserve Officers Training Corps system. Williamson is the first Cornell student to win the award.
Read more
Grants to support research at nexus of AI, climate science
New grant funding will support eight research projects seeking to reduce AI’s energy use and integrate AI in environmental research.
Read more
Nexus Scholar alumni profile: Ricco Venterea ’24
"Nexus Scholars was the first time where the only thing I had to worry about was research."
Read more
Portraits honor 8 Cornell faculty as ‘new heroes’
The portraits are part of a series by Christopher Michel, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine’s inaugural artist-in-residence.
Read more
Light causes atomic layers to do the twist
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.
Read more
Physicist John Reppy wins Buckley Prize
Reppy was recognized along with David Bishop, Ph.D. ’78, for "groundbreaking experiments" they did on helium 50 years ago.
Read more
"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