Vision

In the near term the Physics Department will have 36 tenured or tenure-track faculty who are engaged in research in the core areas of biological physics, condensed matter experiment and theory, and experimental particle physics and particle theory. Several faculty carry out computationally based research contributing to the University’s leadership in advanced scientific computing. All faculty are actively engaged in teaching. As we move forward during the next decade, it is crucial that we (1) maintain strength in our core areas, in which we are internationally competitive at the highest levels, and (2) expand into new research areas. We believe that increased diversity in our research program will lead to an increase in our visibility and ranking, and will impact our teaching mission in a positive way. It will allow us to increase the number of highly qualified graduate students and undergraduate majors, and facilitate the development of courses at the interface between disciplines. In addition, it will provide us greater flexibility in raising the scientific literacy of the general student population. Several areas are being considered. Our department has begun an expansion of our effort into biological physics, which the University has identified as a  primary direction of thrust. The department is also considering other areas including materials physics, another area backed by the University, cosmology and astrophysics, atomic and molecular physics, and quantum information, entanglement and de-coherence.

Our planned expansion into new research areas is under active discussion. In the scenario of a constant number of faculty, constructing new research groups will require some realignment.  In the next five years, we anticipate a small number of retirements (about 5), so our ability to restructure research priorities is limited in the short term. This presents some problems in that our increased effort in biological physics, and possibly materials physics, should be coordinated with the increased efforts in other departments in CAS and Engineering to implement the Universities thrusts in those areas. There are two possible paths to expansion in thrust areas in the next five years: (1) the possibility that the Administration be willing to advance the Department junior faculty lines in expectation of future retirements, and (2) the promotion of joint appointments, possibly at a more senior level. For example, the joint appointment of a condensed matter/materials scientist in Physics and Engineering, or of a biological physicist/systems biologist in Physics and Biology or Biomedical Engineering. Our Department would welcome such joint appointments and we believe that they would serve the overall interests of both CAS and the University.

Over the next ten years, the Physics Department will have a unique opportunity to substantially change its makeup. The form of our reorganization will be guided to some extent by the relative importance of various areas of physics in the overall goals of the University, priorities at the national level, and most importantly the interest and importance of the science itself. As we have indicated, we plan to actively contribute to the University’s efforts in systems biology and are considering other areas as well. In any event, our overriding guiding principle will remain to strive for excellence in research and teaching by hiring the best possible teachers and research scientists.

Of course, even a department with the best possible faculty cannot prosper without adequate facilities, such as offices, teaching and research laboratories, and suitable common spaces. Our most pressing needs in this regard have been detailed in the Facilities section. We remain ready to work with the central administration to find the best and most cost effective ways to fulfill our needs.