• The physics department at Smith is a small, tight knit community that provides students with a strong preparation that combines a rigorous curriculum with innovative teaching techniques and supportive, personable faculty and staff. Our students often double major with astronomy, computer science, math, engineering, chemistry and even architecture. When you study physics at Smith, you have the opportunity to carry out leading-edge research on your own or in collaboration with Smith faculty starting your first year. Research interests among our faculty include nonlinear optics, condensed matter physics, complex fluids, molecular materials, low-dimensional systems, cold atom physics and cosmology.
    • But you don't have to be a physics major to get in on the fun. In your physics classes at Smith, you'll ride a hovercraft and build a balloon helicopter to experience Newton's laws, imitate ice skaters to understand conservation principles, and build your own electric generator and make your own lightning to explore electricity and magnetism. You'll create rainbows out of light waves, build your own laser and send a single photon simultaneously through two different doors to uncover the quantum world. You'll put physics into practice by capturing solar energy and using an infrared camera to visualize heat flow and improve energy efficiency. Be a part of the world around you: study physics at Smith!