Ph.D. in Physics

APPLICATION DEADLINE: January 15 (for fall entry) or September 15 (for spring entry)  

The Department of Physics and Astronomy welcomes student applications with the following materials. Additional details are found on the department website.

1. Complete the Graduate School’s Online Application.
2. Pay the application fee ($50).
3. Submit official transcripts.
4. International applicants whose first language is not English may be required to submit scores from an acceptable English language proficiency test.
5. Upload Supplemental Application materials for the department on the online application.

• Statement of purpose
• GRE scores
• Resume
• Two letters of recommendation: provide contact information for two recommenders  

Applicants for graduate admission should have at least a GPA equivalent to a B (3.0 on the US university GPA 4-point scale) in previous university/college studies.   

Students in the Ph.D. in Physics complete 54 credit hours, including 36 hours of graduate courses.

• 12 credit hours in 700-level physics courses
• 18 credit hours in 600-level or higher physics courses
• five core courses
  • Phys 709: Advanced Mechanics I 
  • Phys 711: Quantum Mechanics I 
  • Phys 727: Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics
  • Phys 721 and 722: Advanced Electromagnetic Theory I, II
• three breadth courses
  • Phys 605: Advanced Acoustics 
  • Phys 607: Atomic and Nuclear Physics 
  • Phys 712: Quantum Mechanics II 
  • Phys 725: Solid State Physics I 
  • Phys 731: Quantum Field Theory I 
  • Phys 733: Elementary Particle Physics 
  • Phys 735: Gravitational Physics 
• 18 hours of dissertation research (Phys 797)

Up to 6 credit hours in a related field, such as mathematics, chemistry, or engineering, are accepted.

Students must pass a comprehensive examination as well as submit and defend a dissertation prospectus and dissertation.  

All students teach laboratory or lecture sections for at least two semesters as part of their graduate training. They can obtain a Master of Education degree (M.Ed.) by taking a few more courses and  field work.   

Support for PhD students is available during degree studies through a combination of the following programs:

• Teaching Assistantships (offered by the department),
• Research Assistantships (offered by individual professors with research grants), and
• Non-service fellowships (offered by the Graduate School).

Virtually all incoming students are offered a teaching assistantship for the first year or two, as a full year of teaching is one of the degree requirements. Some may switch to a research assistantship afterwards if research advisor funds are available.

Current stipends for teaching assistants for the nine months of Fall and Spring semesters are $18,000 for Ph.D. students. Students who perform satisfactorily as TAs and are making reasonable progress toward the degree will also be paid a minimum of $2,000 in the summer if they remain on campus to work.

Students with a graduate assistantship funded in the department receive a scholarship that covers some or all of the tuition and non-residency fee, if applicable, for regular semesters and subsidized health insurance.

The Graduate School’s financial aid webpage lists a variety of funding possibilities, including summer support and a recruiting fellowship program that promotes academic excellence and access to graduate education to groups who are historically underrepresented.  

LEWIS HALL
The Department of Physics and Astronomy is housed primarily in Lewis Hall. Several faculty and graduate students have offices and research space in the Jamie Whitten National Center for Physical Acoustics nearby on campus. The Kennon Observatory, adjacent to Lewis Hall, houses astronomy labs.

Lewis Hall houses teaching laboratories in undergraduate physics and astronomy courses. These include upper-division labs for electronics, optics, and modern physics. The department also staffs a tutoring center for undergraduates in physics and astronomy courses. The research wing of Lewis Hall houses research labs and a LINUX parallel-computing farm used by the high energy physics group. The department’s machine shop is equipped with a large computer-controlled lathe, three computer-controlled mills, and a computer-controlled measuring machine. The shop employs a full-time machinist.

DUFF CENTER FOR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY INNOVATION
The University of Mississippi’s ambitious initiative to construct one of the nation’s leading student-centered learning environments for STEM education is set to open Fall 2024. The 202,000-square-foot building has extensive dedicated space for basic undergraduate teaching labs for the Department of Physics and Astronomy.

KENNON OBSERVATORY
The department has a variety of telescopes used in astronomy laboratories. These include a portable 25-inch Dobsonian telescope, a 15-inch refracting telescope (the Grubb Twin Equatorial Telescope, purchased in 1892) mounted in the large dome of Kennon Observatory, and a 17-inch Plane Wave Corrected Dall Kirkham (CDK) telescope on a Paramount ME mount and outfitted with a CCD camera is mounted in the small dome. Additional 8-inch and 12-inch portable telescopes are also used for astronomy lab courses.

JAMIE WHITTEN NATIONAL CENTER for PHYSICAL ACOUSTICS (NCPA)
NCPA contains the technical and support facilities of a world-class research program. This facility includes a high-bay laboratory, an anechoic chamber, and a large open bay with subsonic and supersonic wind tunnels. Smaller laboratory rooms are electromagnetically and mechanically isolated, and the 80-seat auditorium is acoustically isolated. Supporting the acoustics research effort are an electronics shop, a carpentry shop, and a fully-equipped machine shop.

The Department of Physics and Astronomy has access to the extensive research and computing facilities of The University of Mississippi. Researchers on campus have easy access to facilities of the Mississippi Center for Supercomputing Research.