IV. Rationale for the Program

The formal mission of the Physics Department of North Carolina State University is to serve the people of the State of North Carolina by: (1) providing educational opportunities to undergraduate and graduate students in physics through high-quality curricula and research opportunities, (2) developing research programs which advance scientific knowledge and contribute to the needs of the Nation and State and which merit national and international recognition for their high quality; (3) providing high-quality physics instruction to the University community, and (4) supporting outreach activity which fosters public awareness of science. Central to this mission is the provision of a strong undergraduate physics majors program, to educate students for a range of professional opportunities including the next generation of university faculty.

Physics deals with the most fundamental nature of matter and energy. Its study has been associated with some of the great intellects of Western civilization. It brings together disciplined observation and experimentation in the natural world and rigorous mathematical inference to produce an interlocked set of broadly general principles, analytical techniques, and problem-solving strategies whose success in describing the world around us has remade that world. Physics contributions to society and to other disciplines are so fundamental and ubiquitous that a very brief list can be representative: all of electricity; radio; lasers; nuclear energy; nuclear magnetic resonance and its medical application, MRI; space exploration, the Hubble Space Telescope, weather satellites; the transistor, computers, nanotechnology. All these areas were initially developed by physicists.

Current research in physics represents some of the most exciting and challenging frontiers of human thought, and provides a powerful attraction for the best students. In today’s society, the intellectual rigor of physics has proved to be an outstanding education not only for future physicists but for individuals in all fields; the concentration on careful thinking, logical analysis, and search for fundamental principles is as useful in a court of law as in a laboratory. At NC State, individuals with physics degrees can be found in almost every College, including Humanities and Social Sciences and Design. Graduates of our department have become successful lawyers and businessmen as well as outstanding scientists. The attributes required for success in physics are common to almost all fields, and their development is one of the chief tasks our Department has undertaken.

All other major US research universities share NC State's commitment to providing a strong undergraduate physics majors’ program. Numbers of graduates are small compared to some professional fields; NC State's 5-year average of about 20 baccalaureate degrees/year places us in the top 25 nationally. However, here and elsewhere, physics majors tend to be among the strongest students academically; the median entering SAT score over the last 5 years is about 1330, almost 150 points higher than the University’s median, while the median high-school GPA is over 4.0. About 4% of the University’s Park Scholars are physics majors, even though majors make up only about 0.5% of the total undergraduate enrollment. NC State’s Physics Department believes that offering a nationally competitive physics program to meet the demand of these very strong students is an essential part of the Department’s, and the University’s, mission, and is an important service to the state of North Carolina.

The goal of the program is to provide a strong foundation in the basic concepts, procedures, and culture of physics. Students planning on graduate studies in physics or a related scientific or engineering field normally take our BS degree, while students interested in less technical career options, or double majoring, often obtain the BA degree. Part of our mission is to offer physics instruction to a range of students, including to students majoring in a related field who wish the intellectual rigor and prestige of a physics degree in addition to their primary degree.

We regard undergraduate research as an essential part of our physics majors’ educational program. Departmental funds and individual research grants support undergraduates for summer and term-time laboratory work, and in some cases even before students arrive for their first year at the University. We established the Rodney McCormick Award for Undergraduate Research in Physics, awarded annually at an Undergraduate Physics Colloquium given by the winner, followed by a poster session of research by other undergraduates. Many of our majors present their research at the University’s Undergraduate Research Symposium (URS) each April, and a few travel to professional meetings to deliver papers. Our honors program requires that students do research in which they have an intellectual stake, as they are required to write a summary and present at the URS. We operate one of the oldest NSF-funded Research Experiences for Undergraduates summer programs, supporting twelve to fifteen undergraduates each year for work in various Departmental laboratories.