Welcome to the Department of Physics website! Our department is committed to education and research in physics, the study of the fundamental universal laws that govern the behavior of matter and energy, and the exploration of the consequences and applications of those laws.

Our department is widely known for its excellent teaching and student mentoring. Our department plays an important role in the university’s Core Curriculum. We have strong academic programs with several options for undergraduate physics majors, leading to the B.S. degree, as well as graduate curricula leading to the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees.

Our research groups span a variety of fields within physics. Our principal concentrations are in Astrophysics, Relativity, Gravitation and Cosmology, Condensed Matter Physics, Lasers and Optics, Physics Education, Solar Physics, and the Space Science and Engineering Lab.

NASA’s Montana Space Grant Consortium, hosted by the Physics Department, provides college students unique hands-on workforce development opportunities as well as faculty research and education grants

Student involvement is central to all of our education, research, and outreach activities in Physics at MSU.

The accomplishments of our teaching, research, and outreach programs are a tribute to the extraordinary efforts of the faculty, research staff, graduate and undergraduate students, backed up by an outstanding and highly motivated support staff.

We offer an invigorating intellectual environment in a geographic area of unsurpassed physical beauty. Consider joining us for a visit, for a summer, a degree program, or a career!