Excellence in Master’s and PhD Education
The physics department offers several graduate degrees, some in conjunction with other colleges at Boston University:
Our research specialities include experimental particle physics, particle astrophysics, theoretical particle physics and cosmology, molecular biophysics, experimental biophysics, experimental condensed matter physics, theoretical quantum condensed matter physics, statistical physics, polymer physics and computational physics. Our department’s faculty and students are published and featured in high-impact journals, hold high-level positions at major experiments around the world, and over half are Fellows of the American Physical Society. We are ranked highly among physics graduate programs and are in top teens of quantum departments across the country.
The master’s program follows an integrated interdisciplinary curriculum, while the PhD program offers numerous opportunities to collaborate across disciplines in the College of Arts and Sciences, with the School of Engineering, and with the Center for Photonics Research. Major resources include the Scientific Instrument Facility, the Electronics Design Facility, and the supercomputer clusters in the Center for Computational Science.
We expect our first master’s cohort in the Fall of 2026. Our PhD program is well-known and well-respected; we have over 70 graduate students, with a typical incoming class of 10 to 20 students. The department provides full tuition scholarships, stipends, and student medical insurance for essentially all graduate students through a combination of teaching fellowships, research assistantships, and university fellowships.
The Physics Department is centrally located on Boston University’s main Charles River Campus. Boston is a major metropolitan center of cultural, scholarly, scientific and technological activity. There are many major academic institutions in the area, providing students an array of opportunities with which to supplement their education at BU.