Department of Physics
Upcoming Event: Spring 2022 Applied Physics Experience for High School Students, Saturday, April 9
Visit our Instagram @CitadelPhysics
Friends and Alums of the Department- Consider giving for the newly created Dr. Joel C. Berlinghieri Scholarship for Physics
LinkedIn Physics at The Citadel group
Get one of our Applied Physics and Innovation Boxes? This video talks through that mini-project
We are excited that you are here to learn more about our department. We are a small and close-knit physics community focused on working with undergraduate students. We offer our students support to grow as scientists and leaders. Please reach out to Dr. Hank Yochum (hyochum@citadel.edu, 843-953-6953) if you have any questions about our department or would like to meet to get a tour of our labs.
Physicists solve practical problems that can improve the lives of people. We play a key role as innovators and developers of technology. We discover and explore the fundamental laws that describe our universe.
We offer a BS in Physics as well as minors in Aerospace Science and Applied Physics. We offer courses in quantum mechanics, classical mechanics, electrodynamics, optics, electronics, sensors/microcontrollers, astrophysics, meteorology and aerodynamics. All of our students complete a year long research project.
Physics is a great degree that can take you in many career directions. For example, graduates from 2021 are a ballistics engineer, graduate student in medical physics, and commissioned officer in the Marines planning to attend pilot training. Our majors become physicists in industry, research, engineering or education. Cadets who intend to become submarine officers, Air Force pilots, etc., are often advised to major in physics in order to prepare themselves for such military careers.
We sponsor a chapter of the national Society of Physics Students (SPS). We have a physics work space for majors and a a quiet room for reading (Physics Library). Club members have been involved in high altitude balloon atmospheric and cosmic ray research, and building robots. Physics students who excel at The Citadel are inducted into our chapter of the physics honorary society, Sigma Pi Sigma.
Our faculty is particularly strong in the areas of aerodynamics, photonics, nanoscience, space physics, particle physics, and meteorology. The department has a wind tunnel that has been used to study the lift and drag in airfoils and sports balls, and has also constructed a supersonic wind tunnel.
