Physics professor and students working in a lab.

Research

Students are encouraged to get involved with research early on in their college careers, both at Bryn Mawr during the semester and during the summer, either on campus or through the myriad REU programs.

During the semester, students can participate in supervised research by taking 0.5 credit or 1 credit Phys 403 Supervised Research with physics faculty or volunteer in a research group directed by physics faculty.

Research Opportunities

Xuemei May Cheng

Nanomaterials and Spintronics Laboratory

Led by Dr. Xuemei May Cheng

The Nanomaterials and Spintronics Laboratory is well-resourced with support from the College and multiple grants of over $1.5M from the National Science Foundation (NSF), including an NSF CAREER award and an NSF MRI grant. The facilities enable the fabrication, characterization, and modeling of nanostructured materials...

Physics - Michael Noel

Ultracold Rydberg Atoms

Let by Dr. Michael Noel

Current research focuses on an experimental study of ultracold samples of highly excited atoms. The impact of these experiments is quite broad, with connections to condensed matter physics of spin glasses and crystals; low temperature atomic, molecular, and optical physics involving many body interactions; and low temperature plasma physics...

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Bryn Mawr Plasma Laboratory

Led by Dr. David Schaffner

The Bryn Mawr Plasma Laboratory is an intersection of the study of plasma physics, turbulence, and fusion energy. The  is the flagship experiment of the lab, featuring a plasma-gun generated turbulent plasma launched into a flux-conserving cylindrical chamber. With long current discharge pulses...

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Biophysics and Pattern Formation

Led by Dr. Asja Radja

Asja’s research elucidates the “rules of living patterns” that lead to a variety of shapes and add to our understanding of how life builds itself. Life is organized at many length scales ranging from the molecular to the macro, and there is an incredible amount of complexity in the morphologies at these various levels of organization...

Dr. Michael B. Schulz

Edible String theory

Let by Dr. Michael B. Schulz

Much of my current work seeks to broaden our understanding of string theory compactifications, both to gain deeper insight into the mathematical structure of the theory, as well as a more complete picture of how ten dimensional string theory gives rise to realistic four dimensional quantum field theories that can describe our world...

Research Resources for Students

  • Writing a Cover Letter and
  • for writing a successful application (this one is focused on the National Institute of Health, but is still generally applicable).
  • Search for off-campus REU programs: 
  •  *
  • NSF
  •  (thorough list of NASA related internship opportunities)
  • Fermi National Lab 
  •  
  • Los Alamos National Laboratory 
  • Ames Laboratory 
  •  *
  • Caltech 
  • MIT Lincoln Lab  *
  • STScI 
  • MSU 

*International Students are not eligible for these opportunities.

physics lab

Contact Us

Department of Physics

Park Science Building
Âé¶čAV
101 N. Merion Avenue
Bryn Mawr, PA 19010-2899
Phone: 610-526-5358