The department of Physics at the University of Colorado Denver enriches understanding of how the world works by incorporating physics in every aspect of life. Good intuition about how things work has been, since the time of Galileo, a hallmark of physicists.

CU Denver’s faculty is committed to providing substantive applied research experiences for our undergraduate students by incorporating aspects of every day life into their classrooms and research. A major in physics is one of the few academic degree programs that prepares its students for an amazing array of careers including computer analyst, engineer, technical writer, industrial marketer, doctor, and lawyer.

Our faculty is committed to provide students with opportunities for laboratory experience in a research environment. Students work elbow-to-elbow with their professor mentors on such projects as:

  • Applying chaos and complex systems theory to problems ranging from the onset of turbulence in fluid flows to the erratic motions of loads hanging from cranes aboard ships at sea
  • Study of quasar jets and other associated dynamical properties, supernovae and nucleosynthesis
  • Superconducting Quantum Interference Devices (SQUIDs) specifically the fabrication of microelectronic SQUIDs
  • Applying non-linear dynamics and stochastic modeling to biological systems to understand how variations in genotype can lead to unique behavior
  • Developing detection techniques in the search for the Dark Matter component of our Universe
  • Applying physics to archaeology and historic preservation
  • Developing ways to help students learn physics better