Doctor of Philosophy

Degree Requirements

A minimum of seventy-eight hours is required for the Ph.D. in Physics. As part of this requirement, the student must receive course credit for the Physics Ph.D core (PHY 5320, 5330, 5331, 5340, 5360, 5370 and 5371) along with credit for four hours of 5180 (colloquium) which must be completed in residence. The remaining hours will consist of a combination of advanced courses as required by the student's supervisory committee, electives and the dissertation with its associated research. The Physics departent does not have a foreign language requirement for the Ph.D degree.

The research required for the Ph.D. degree will be conducted in one of the active research areas within the department. Currently this includes the fields of theoretical or experimental astrophysics, atomic, molecular, nuclear, optical, solid-state, space, surface physics, elementary particle physics and superstring/M-theory. The department has several well equipped experimental labs built around two two-million volt Van de Graaff accelerators and a XSAM 800 Surface Analysis System.

Recommended Course Plan for First Year

The Physics Ph.D. program at Baylor is based on a general plan of two years of intensive coursework following by research leading to a Ph.D. Dissertation. The following is a brief outline of the program to aid incoming students. In the first year you will begin with the core courses. Since the core courses typically should be completed in the first year, there is little flexibility in the course scheduling.

Fall Term (10 hrs)
5320 Classical Mechanics I (3 hrs)
5360 Mathematical Physics I (3 hrs)
5370 Quantum Mechanics I (3 hrs)
5180 Graduate Physics Colloquium (1 hr)


Spring Term (10 hrs)
5330 Electromagnetic Theory I (3 hrs)
5340 Statistical Mechanics (3 hrs)
5180 Graduate Physics Colloquium (1 hr)