Most of our students choose to engage in real-world research during their degree. Research is an essential and rewarding part of their experience. We highly encourage all students to talk to our faculty about getting involved, apply for scholarships, and engage in the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP).
Theoretical High Energy and Cosmology
Quantum gravity
Physical Limnology and Oceanography
Fluid dynamics
Sam Kelly studies fluid dynamics in large water bodies. Much of his work focuses on subsurface waves generated by winds and tides, and the turbulent mixing they produce as they break. He approaches research questions through a combination of fieldwork, remote sensing, theory, and numerical modeling.
Living systems
Diffusion and turbulence transport substances in aquatic environments and control metabolisms of micro-organisms and rates of geochemical reactions. Verifying mathematical modeling with observations from lakes around the world, Sergei Katsev studies physical laws behind the functioning of ecosystems. This interdisciplinary research probes fundamental reasons behind the broad patterns of observations in lakes and oceans, and the development of early life on Earth and possibly on Mars.
UMD Buoy lab
Jay Austin is a lake physicist, specializing in making observations of physical processes in large lakes worldwide, studying topics like thermal structure, the role of ice, convection, climate change, and the impact of physics on ecological processes. He is particularly interested in how information about thermal structure in deep lakes gets passed from one season to the next. He maintains a significant array of subsurface instrumentation in Lake Superior that collects temperature and current data. His lab also operates a fleet of meteorological buoys in western Lake Superior. lab studies phenomena such as the role of ice and the effects of climate change on lake systems. The lab provides students with hands-on experience in oceanographic fieldwork and data analysis.
Astronomy
Transiting Exoplanets & Eclipsing Binary Stars
Our research areas at a glance
- Astronomy - Stevens
- Astrophysics - Habig
- Cosmology - Zukowski
- Experimental Condensed Matter - Adams
- Experimental Soft Matter - Adams
- Hydrodynamics - Austin, Katsev, Kelly
- Materials Science - Adams
- Neutrino Oscillations and Interactions - Gran, Habig
- Nonlinear dynamics in biogeochemistry - Katsev
- Physical Limnology and Oceanography - Austin, Katsev, Kelly
- Thermodynamics in microbial ecology - Katsev
- Quantum Gravity - Zukowski
Cross-disciplinary research
Our students also work with faculty from other departments: Electrical Engineering, Biology, Chemistry, Math, Computer Science, Earth and Environmental Sciences, Civil Engineering, and Mechanical Engineering. These are the current external members of the Physics Graduate Program who can advise graduate students and supervise MS theses. Others can be added as needed.