APPLIED PHYSICS, M.S. at University of North Carolina at Charlotte

The Applied Physics degree program is excellent preparation for those planning to continue their education through the Ph.D., either in physics or an engineering field, or for a career as an instructor in a two-year college. Students electing the Thesis Option will be well qualified for employment in industry or in a research laboratory.

Students have opportunities for research in Biophysics, Computational Physics, Medical Physics, and Optics. The major research emphasis in the department is in the area of applied optics. The Department of Physics and Optical Science is the administrative coordinator of M.S. and Ph.D. programs in Optical Science and Engineering. These degree programs are interdisciplinary involving five science and engineering departments (Physics & Optical Science, Chemistry, Mathematics & Statistics, Electrical & Computer Engineering, and Mechanical Engineering & Engineering Science), the Center for Optoelectronics & Optical Communications, and the Center for Precision Metrology. A second area of emphasis is in biophysics, where there is a strong interdisciplinary relationship with the Ph.D. programs in Nanoscale Science, Biology, Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, and Applied Mathematics. The M.S. in Applied Physics program emphasizes basic and applied interdisciplinary education and research in many diverse areas that include:

• Statistical and computational physics
• Biological molecular motors
• Protein folding, stability, and dynamics
• Structural-based drug discovery
• Nuclear molecular resonance spectroscopy
• Micro-optics and nanophotonics
• Fiber and integrated optics
• Optoelectronic materials and devices
• Biomedical optics
• Optical interferometry and metrology
• Optical fabrication
• Nanoscale imaging and spectroscopy
• Adaptive optics
• Optical communication
• Novel light-matter interactions
• Quantum optics
• Optical sensors and measurements