Finally, an approved teacher preparation program in physics at the University of Richmond prepares students for careers in pre-college teaching and meets the requirements for the bachelor of arts degree in physics and teacher certification. In the Department of Physics there is a powerful computer system consisting of a supercomputer and an array of scientific workstations for exclusive use by physics faculty and students involved in research. All of the research computing facilities are on the Internet. In introductory and upper-level laboratories, physics majors use Macintosh microcomputers for data collection, analysis and presentation. Physics majors are strongly encouraged to participate with physics faculty members in their research during the academic year.
Financial support is available for students who wish to work with faculty on research in the summer.
Current areas of research include experimental nuclear and particle physics and condensed matter physics. This facility, which is being used to study sub-nuclear structure of matter, is located in nearby Newport News, Virginia. Many of our faculty and students, supported by grants from the DOE and NSF, are participants in a collaboration using a large acceptance spectrometer to detect and analyze reaction products from interactions of the electron beam with matter. Students have also worked recently with faculty on campus in condensed matter studies.