Applied and Industrial Physics

Summary of the Applied and Industrial Physics Track

The Master's of Applied and Industrial Physics degree offers students a curriculum finely tuned to their professional interests, preparing them to enter industry, government, or national laboratories with the skills required for success in their chosen field.

Guiding Principles

As approved by the Arizona Board of Regents in February, 2000, this Professional Master's Degree includes a number of interrelated elements that are sufficiently configurable to open up the program to students with recent Bachelor's degrees in physics or closely related sciences, and to accommodate both full time and part time students. The principles that guide this track include the following:

• This is a 36 credit hour degree, including six hours of internship in the area of specialty. For most students, the internship will be in industry, but in some cases a university internship is preferable. For full time students, the degree is designed as a two year program, with the internship most often in summer after the first year.

• The student will meet the standards set for Ph.D. students in a substantial fraction of the graduate core coursework. The curriculum is not "watered down" and the physics itself is not compromised for the sake of the rest of the degree program.

• UA Physics Department Research draws on a long and successful history of industrial applications and collaborations. Boasting outstanding programs in applied biophysics, condensed matter physics, experimental elementary particle physics, atomic physics, materials physics, and nuclear physics, the Department engages in industrial-related research with such companies as Procter and Gamble. Advanced laboratories emphasizing interdisciplinary research in physics, biology, and mathematics are also available for use. The Department established its own external advisory board of industry leaders in an effort to provide more networking opportunities for its students and better links to industry to enhance research collaborations and job creation for its graduates.

• The elective courses will be used to focus the degree in the direction of the specialty. The student will work closely with his or her curriculum coordinator (graduate advisor), to select the best possible set of graduate courses from the host department, and from the University at large.

• The internship contact will most often be made through the extensive network established by the College of Science, but may also be initiated directly by the student.

• The program includes an introduction to business basics, to prepare students to apply their specialty in the private sector or government.

• There is a required Industrial Colloquium Series specifically for this program, consisting primarily of visiting industrial speakers with backgrounds in the sciences.

• The student will develop and demonstrate some level of computer competence in the area of specialization.

• The student will have a number of opportunities in the course of the program to develop written and oral communication and presentation skills.

Degree Requirements

This degree required a minimum of 36 units organized and chosen in the following way:

• Disciplinary Courses (Physics Core Courses): A minimum of 12 credit hours will be taken in Physics. This is smaller than the 15 credit hours of the standard Master's degree, to allow more time for the graduate student to develop a solid grounding in the specialty. The student must take Ph.D. track coursework in at least two of the four core areas:

  • Classical Mechanics PHYS 511

  • Electricity and Magnetism PHYS 515A and 515B

  • Quantum Mechanics PHYS 570A and 570B

  • Statistical Mechanics PHYS 528

  Some of these areas are covered in one semester, and some in two, but the asymmetry is unavoidable: the "A" semesters of E&M and Quantum are not good stand-alone courses. The choice of core areas is strongly coupled to the area of degree specialization, and rarely would a student take only 511 and 528 to satisfy the core requirement. Quite often, students will be covering three or more core areas.

• Cross-disciplinary Courses (Electives): Students choose to specialize in any area of the physical sciences and related fields, chosing from coursework in many units across campus, including:
  • College of Engineering & Mines
  • College of Agriculture & Life Sciences
  • Optical Sciences Center
  • Geosciences (including geophysics)
  • Mathematics and the Program in Applied Mathematics
  • Astronomy
  • Planetary Sciences
  • Molecular & Cellular Biology
  • Biochemistry & Molecular Biophysics
  • Neuroscience
  • Computer Science
  • Chemistry (new materials and nanoscience)
  • Materials Science & Engineering (nanotechnology)
  • Radiology
  • Chemical and Environmental Engineering
  • Hydrology and Water Resources

• Business Courses: Students are required to take at least one of the two business courses (B AD 510: Business Fundamentals for Scientists and MIS 578: Project Management) especially designed for the Professional Master's Degrees by the Eller College of Management at the University of Arizona. This may be waived for students returning from industry.

• Computing Component: The curriculum will contain a computing segment related to the specialty. If the internship is computing intensive, this will satisfy the requirement. If not, a computing course--or computing intensive course--will be selected from the graduate coursework available in Physics or in another department, such as Mathematics, Astronomy, Computer Sciences, or one of the Engineering departments.

• Industrial Colloquium Series: The Industrial Colloquium Series, with speakers from industry, is a departmental degree requirement. Students in the Program are expected to attend. The colloquium is vital to gaining knowledge about scientific work in a business environment, and is an opportunity for the student to begin establishing valuable contacts.

• Internship: An internship in industry, a national laboratory, or some other setting outside the University during the first or second summer, is an essential part of the degree. Alternatives to traditional internships will be designed for students who are already employed in industry, or for students who are more interested in scientific research.

• Final Project:There will be some type of culminating written record of the student's internship project or research. It may be in the form of (a) a traditional Master's thesis, or (b) a document typical of those used in the specialty, such as a technical report, users manual, or portfolio. Good organizational and writing skills should be demonstrated in the production of this document.

• Oral Presentation/Defense: The degree will culminate with an oral presentation attended by a committee of at least three faculty of Physics. If there is an internship supervisor from outside Physics or the University, this person will also be invited to be a member of the committee. The presentation will be followed by questions about the project and some of the physical principles or analytical techniques applicable to the specialty. The ideal is to have the presentation, or some portion of it, open to the public (to other graduate students and faculty, in particular). [See below.] This culminating oral is one of the primary opportunities for the student to demonstrate effective presentation and communication skills.

• Graduation requirements: The degree has the attractive feature of not requiring a written qualifying examination at the end of the course work. However, there is an entrance exam which students must pass at the beginning of the Program. Students must fulfill minimum GPA requirements. The Graduate College at the University of Arizona currently only allows the award of A,B,C, D (but not plus/minus) grades to graduate students. Students in the Professional Master's Degree Program in Applied and Industrial Physics must have a GPA of better than 3.0, both cumulatively and for their physics courses. The Graduate College does have a grade replacement option and students may, with instructor and Program director approval, retake a course to improve their grade. If a student's GPA falls below 3.0 they are put on academic probation by the Graduate College. Students with two semesters of academic probation are removed from their degree program.

• Relationship with Advisor/Curriculum Coordinator:The student will set up the degree coursework and internship in close collaboration with his or her curriculum coordinator (graduate advisor). This will begin as soon as the student is accepted to the program. The student will be put in contact with a faculty member familiar with the Applied and Industrial Physics Master's curriculum who will serve as initial curriculum coordinator. Course selection will be an important element in assembling a good four semester program, and the student will need to meet with a curriculum coordinator before each semester to go over the spectrum of choices. In later semesters, most often the student's Master's program advisor will take on the role of curriculum coordinator.

Career Opportunities exist in industries and fields such as aerospace, environment and global warming, opto-electronics, medical imaging, science and technology policy, and data grid applications in high energy physics. But this list is only a sampler of what is available. Graduates are consistently finding jobs in companies of their choosing, with the internship and this professional degree being the keys that have opened the door to challenging employment.