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Physics is an exciting, living, discipline that continually moves in new directions: biophysics, nanophysics, and experimental cosmology are all areas which did not exist until relatively recently. Some of the greatest challenges we now face, such as how to manage our dwindling resources of fossil fuels and how to control/mitigate global warming, require a deep understanding of physics. Additionally, with the recent turn-on of the Large Hadron Collider, we are on the threshold of a new era of particle physics.
The graduate physics program at Cornell is multidisciplinary, broad and congenial, and has access to superb facilities. Explore the links below to learn more.
Studying physics at Cornell is a gateway to your future. For our alumni, a degree from Cornell has opened doors to employment with companies like Apple, careers in law, and research and faculty positions across the globe. Our combination of first-class research facilities and congenial atmosphere provide our students with the best environment to learn theoretical and experimental physics. At Cornell there is no need to limit yourself to coursework within our department. Many of our students choose to expand their education with coursework and research in complementary fields like Astronomy, Engineering, Biology and Computer Science.
"Students across the country are going to miss out on innovative improvements to their science education – innovations that would have critically prepared them for the competitive 21st century technological workforce."
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Owen Wetherbee is a physics, mathematics & computer science major.
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Paul Malinowski received the 2025 Martin and Beate Block Winter Award from the Aspen Center for Physics.
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Donald Hartill, a professor of physics emeritus in the College of Arts and Sciences and a driving force behind decades of experimental research in particle physics, died on April 16. He was 86.
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Centenarian Roland Reisley ’46, BA ’45, an A&S physics alum, has resided in the Hudson Valley home for more than seven decades.
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Cornell researchers are helping upgrade the CMS detector at CERN, as LHC collaborations win the 2024 Breakthrough Prize for fundamental physics discoveries.
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Modern science wouldn’t exist without the online research repository known as arXiv, Sheon Han writes in a Wired feature about arXiv's creator Paul Ginsparg, professor of physics.
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