Courses

The listing of a course description here does not guarantee a course’s being offered in a particular term. Please refer to the published schedule of classes on the MyBU Student Portal for confirmation a class is actually being taught and for specific course meeting dates and times.

• CAS AR 595: Professional Futures in Archaeology
  A degree in archaeology can get you in the door at museums, the National Park Service, US Customs and other federal agencies, research laboratories, international NGO's, organizations focused on international art law, historical site management, heritage tourism -- and more. For such careers, you need skills that allow you to build on your understanding of archaeological remains and techniques, communicate to a wider public, and create pathways that link subjects and remains of the past to interests and needs in the present. Effective Spring 2024, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas Oral and/or Signed Communication, Ethical Reasoning, Teamwork/Collaboration.
  BU Hub Learn More

  • Ethical Reasoning
  • Oral and/or Signed Communication
  • Teamwork/Collaboration
• CAS AR 703: Seminar: Materials in Ancient Society
  Topic to be announced. Offered through the Center for Materials Research in Archaeology and Ethnology. (MIT Materials in Ancient Societies: course #3.984)
• CAS AR 704: Seminar: Materials in Ancient Society
  Topic to be announced. Offered through the Center for Materials Research in Archaeology and Ethnology. (MIT Materials in Ancient Societies: course #3.989)
• CAS AS 701: Introduction to Astrophysics
  Introduction to astronomical and astrophysical nomenclature and concepts. Coordinate systems, celestial orbits, radiation, stars, stellar structure, stellar evolution, clusters of stars, galactic components, galactic structure, galaxy types, active galaxies, cosmology.
• CAS AS 703: Introduction to Space Physics
  Survey of physical phenomena in the sun, solar wind, magnetospheres, ionospheres, and upper atmospheres of objects in the solar system. Introduction to the physical processes governing space plasmas, solar-terrestrial interactions, and ionized and neutral media surrounding the Earth and other solar system bodies.
• CAS AS 704: Cosmic Gas Dynamics
  Gas dynamics as applied to astrophysical settings. Basic fluid mechanics. Ideal gases. One-dimensional gas flow. Supersonic flows and shock waves. Quasar jets and stellar winds. Fluid instabilities, turbulence, and convection.
• CAS AS 706: Radiative Processes and Spectroscopy
  Generation, propagation, and transfer of electromagnetic radiation. Spectral energy distributions, continuum radiation, atomic and molecular spectral lines. Energy levels in atoms and molecules. Interaction of radiation with matter, transfer of radiation through astrophysical media. Thermal and nonthermal radiative processes.
• CAS AS 708: Cosmic Plasma Physics
  Physics of space and astrophysical plasmas. Individual particle drifts in fields, electrostatic and electromagnetic waves and instabilities, magnetohydrodynamics, kinetic theory of waves, instabilities, and Landau damping.
• CAS AS 709: Observational Techniques
  Telescopes, light detection, and analysis tools and techniques of experimental astronomy. Signal-to-noise calculations. Photometric and spectroscopic instrumentation and applications. Use of the observatory, CCD light detectors, modern software analysis tools, image processing. Proposal writing and science writing.
• CAS AS 720: Graduate Research and Scholarship
  An introduction to the methods of research and scholarship required for successful graduate study and the associated ethical issues. Topics include choosing a research advisor, the research topic, the research record, scholarly writing and publishing, intellectual property, and research funding.
• CAS AS 753: Normal Galaxies and the Milky Way
  Graduate Prerequisites: CAS AS 701, CAS AS 704, CAS AS 706, and CAS AS 708, or consent of instructor. - Normal galaxies and the Milky Way as systems. Stellar components and clusters, elliptical and disk galaxies. Luminosity functions, radial distributions, distance indicators, triaxial spheroids, and central bars. Motions near the sun, asymmetric drift, velocity ellipsoid, galactic rotation, Oort formulae, gas distributions, galactic center.
• CAS AS 759: Cosmology
  Graduate Prerequisites: CAS AS 701, CAS AS 704, and CAS AS 706, or consent of instructor. - Modern physical cosmology. The Friedmann equation, expansion of the universe and the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation. Determination of fundamental cosmological parameters. Large-scale structure, galaxy formation, active galaxies, and quasars. Dark matter and dark energy in the universe. The inflation era.
• CAS AS 786: The Sun and Heliosphere
  Graduate Prerequisites: CAS AS 701, CAS AS 703, CAS AS 704, CAS AS 706, and CAS AS 708, or consent of instructor. - Fundamentals of solar and heliospheric physics, including observational methods and theory from the sun's interior through interplanetary space and into the local interstellar medium. The sun as a star. Relation of our heliosphere to astrospheres surrounding other stars.
• CAS AS 791: Special Topics in Astrophysics
  Lecture course examining special topics of current interest in astrophysics. Offered as a 2- or 4-credit course, depending on the topic.
• CAS AS 850: Graduate Literature Seminar 1
  Weekly seminar offering graduate students the skills and practice needed for reading, evaluating, and discussing scientific peer-reviewed literature on current research topics.
• CAS AS 851: Graduate Literature Seminar 2
  Weekly seminar offering graduate students the skills and practice needed for reading, evaluating, and discussing scientific peer-reviewed literature on current research topics.
• CAS AS 865: Graduate Research Seminar 1
  Weekly seminar offering graduate students the skills and practice needed for oral presentations on current research topics and to receive peer and expert feedback.
• CAS AS 866: Graduate Research Seminar 2
  Weekly seminar offering graduate students the skills and practice needed for oral presentations on current research topics and to receive peer and expert feedback.
• CAS AS 901: Research in Astronomy
  RES IN ASTRONMY
• CAS AS 902: Research in Astronomy
  RES IN ASTRONMY