The University will be closed December 19, 2024 to January 5, 2025. If you need assistance during that time, please call 1-855-OWU-1842 and leave a detailed voicemail along with your contact information. One of our colleagues will respond to your call as soon as possible.
If you would like to make a 2024 gift, please make your gift before midnight on December 31.
In physics, you explore the universe, from the subatomic particles to massive galaxies. Physicists study the basic laws that govern the universe—and they develop innovations with practical applications, such as technologies in medicine, lasers, and computers.
The physics major provides excellent preparation for students interested in graduate school in physics or physics-related fields. It also provides useful background and skills that are helpful for careers in engineering, computer programming, medicine, law, secondary education, and other related fields. Most students take additional mathematics or computer science courses dealing with topics of their choice, such as advanced calculus, numerical analysis, complex variables, and computer programming languages.
Ohio Wesleyan offers three degree options for physics majors to align with their career goals.
All Physics and Astrophysics majors complete a year-long research project during their senior year. This gives them an opportunity to put what they've learned in their classes into practice and helps to prepare them for jobs or graduate school.
Many Physics majors participate in OWU's Summer Science Research Program, and many present their research at undergraduate research forums on campus and across the country.
The OWU Connection provides a variety of ways for you to expand your learning off campus and overseas.
From your first year on campus, you can take Travel-Learning Courses. You can also pursue OWU Connection Grants to conduct research off campus or spend a semester at another university in the U.S. or abroad.
Build your experience and connections to the professional world with internships and research opportunities at major laboratory facilities.
Colin Hawes '20 (left) and Dexter Allen '21 traveled to Florida State University with professor Robert Haring-Kaye in 2019. They studied and measured radiation emitted during energy release from neutron-rich atomic nuclei with high angular momentum.
Michael Heeschen '20 participated in the Summer Science Research Program, where he studied fundamental properties of heavier nuclei like gallium.
Diego Venegas Vargas '19 spent Summer 2018 studying neutrino physics with Alfredo Galindo-Urribari of the Physics Division of Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee.
OWU faculty are outstanding scholars and researchers — and passionate teachers. They will push you, challenge you, inspire you, and work with you on your own research and creative projects.
They can even pack a 3-minute lecture with ideas, insight, and imagination. Check out our unique I³ lectures.
OWU's 150,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art science center features an array of sophisticated equipment for hands-on use by OWU students.
This 10-week program gives students the opportunity to carry out cutting-edge research side by side with faculty mentors.
A 10-node Beowulf computing cluster and a complete electronics lab are available for student research projects.
The OWU Chapter of this student organization has received the national Blake Lilly Prize for positively influencing the attitudes of school children and the general public about physics.
After graduating, Mustapha is a test engineer at Hypres, Inc. in Elmsford, New York. While at OWU, Mustapha conducted research on the behavior of several superconducting circuit components.
Ohio Wesleyan Students Travel to Japan to Study 'Space Exploration': Past, Present, and Future'
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Ohio Wesleyan Student Completes Research in Physics, Astronomy
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Students in Professor Harmon's Elementary Astronomy Travel-Learning class visited Stonehenge in England.
Physics professor Robert Haring-Kaye (left) catches up with Taimur Islam ’13 during Islam’s visit to campus to deliver a presentation to students on internet safety and data encryption in the era of quantum computing. Islam is currently a postdoctoral researcher at Ohio State University.
Colin Hawes ’20 (left) and Dexter Allen ’21 traveled to Florida State University with professor Robert Haring-Kaye in 2019. They studied and measured radiation emitted during energy release from neutron-rich atomic nuclei with high angular momentum.
In a micro-lecture, Professor Barbara Andereck asks, "What is time? We talk about time all the time, but do we really know what it is?"
Has anyone ever told you that you are star material?
Dexter Allen ’21 and Colin Hawes ’20 joined professor Robert Haring-Kaye at Florida State University in 2019 to study and measure radiation emitted during energy release from neutron-rich atomic nuclei with high angular momentum.
