From quarks to the cosmos —
US News and World Reports ranks our graduate program:
#28 Physics Department
#17 Condensed Matter
We are a leading institution in granting PhD Physics degrees.
The Department of Physics offers Ph.D. degrees through an increasingly strong, broad, and diverse, graduate program that successfully prepares our students for careers in academia, industry, and teaching. The size and breadth of our faculty enables us to be in the top 10–20 nationally in the number of Ph.D. degrees awarded annually, offering world-class training in a wide variety of research areas, including a Physics Education Research group that is a leader in developing innovative graduate education. Since the last external re- view, the academic credentials of the students that have enrolled in the graduate program have steadily increased (Figure 3). This has been accomplished while simultaneously improving the racial and ethnic diversity of the program so that, by autumn semester 2018, about 25% of domestic graduate students were underrepresented minorities. These achievements are, in part, attributable to the Department’s establishment of an MS-to-PhD Bridge Program that started in 2013, and by its increasing use of holistic admission practices. While by these metrics, the graduate program has been on a positive trajectory, challenges have emerged since the last review that must be met to maintain the growth of our graduate program. Chief among these is the significant decrease in departmental support for 1st- and 2nd-year graduate students as GTAs or department-supported GRAs, which for reasons discussed in Section 4.3 presents an existential threat to the long-term health of the graduate program and consequently the Department. Our goal is to address these concerns such that we can consolidate our position as one of the strongest, largest, and most diverse graduate programs in the country.
The most recent ranking of physics departments by the National Research Council places Ohio State (approximately) 24th nationally and 13th among public universities.
Contact Us
General program inquiries including application questions should be emailed to gradstudies@physics.osu.edu
Prospective Students please visit our Prospective Student page. Do you have questions about the program? We'd love to get in touch with you! Inquiry Form
Contact Information (NOT for use for program application queries)
Jay Gupta
Vice Chair for Graduate Studies and Postdoctoral Affairs
Office: 1040F Physics Research Building
Email: gupta.208@osu.edu Phone: (614) 247-8457
Contact by email for appointment for any issues or questions requiring more than 5 minutes.
Kris Dunlap
Graduate Studies Program Coordinator
Office: 1040E Physics Research Building
Email: dunlap.151@osu.edu Phone: (614) 292-7675
Application or admissions questions should be sent to: gradstudies@physics.osu.edu
Work Schedule: Monday, Wednesday afternoon, Thursday on campus. Tuesday, Wednesday morning, Friday remote- work from home.
Please Contact by email for appointment for any issues or questions requiring more than 5 minutes.
More Information
Our department boats a wide variety of research areas and is internationally recognized.
We encourage you to visit our research landing page, and check out each of our research areas:
Visit the websites of our various student organizations and groups to learn more about each!