About Physics@Sydney

The Study of Physics began at Sydney University in 1852. A detailed history can be found here.

The School is currently made up of about 20 staff on 'continuing' appointments involved in teaching and research, 100 fixed-term research-only staff, 100 postgraduate research students, and some 30 administrative and technical staff.

Physics is taught by the School to around 1600 students at all levels. Almost 1000 of these take Junior (1st) year Physics courses of various types each semester. About 140 of these students progress to Intermediate (2nd) year, and a further 60 take Physics as a "major" in their Senior (3rd) year. The number of students in the Honours (4th) year has increased to more than 20 in recent years. The School is also home to a small but increasing increasing number of postgraduate coursework students, complementing the traditional strength in postgraduate research students, who now number around 100.

Full details of Undergraduate courses and Postgraduate studies are available elsewhere on this site.

Most of the staff within the School are members of one (or more) of the research groups:

• Applied and Plasma Physics
• Astronomy & Astrophysics — Institute of Astronomy (IoA)
• Biophysics
• Brain Dynamics
• Complex Systems
• Condensed Matter Theory
• CUDOS - Centre for Ultrahigh bandwidth Devices for Optical Systems
• High Energy Physics
• Institute of Medical Physics
• ISA - Integrated Sustainability Analysis
• Plasma Theory
• Quantum Information Theory
• Space and Solar Physics
• Sydney University Physics Education Research (SUPER)
• Theoretical Physics

Physics Library - now located in the Madsen Library [ Where is that? ]

The Mechanical Workshop in the Physics building is part of Science & Technology Workshop Services. For further information see the Science & Technology Workshop Services web page.

News about recent events in the School of Physics, current research, people and more can be found in the Physics Alumni News published twice a year, in the School of Physics Annual Report, or the Science Foundation for Physics Annual Report published annually. Also look at Latest News & Events where more frequent updates about developments in Physics, especially research, are highlighted.

Want more information?

Look in the menus at the top and on the side of this page for more information on the wide range of activities in the School of Physics. If you can't find what you want, try the Search box at the top of this page or contact us using information under 'Contact us'.