Applied Physics, MS
Extend your knowledge in basic physics and pursue expertise in applied fields including plasma, laser, and solid-state physics, and more.
Deepen your understanding of the fundamental principles of physical reality and imagine ways to apply your knowledge to transform our world. At Columbia Engineering, you’ll join a department of leading researchers doing just that in areas like plasma physics, laser technology, and biophysics.
A highly customizable curriculum allows you to draw on the domains of expertise within the department and the School of Engineering to explore applications in diverse areas that are making an impact on human well-being. In the unique context of a leading research university situated within New York City’s innovative startup environment, you’ll find inspiration and unmatched career opportunities.
Why Get your Master's in Applied Physics at Columbia?
Columbia gives you a rigorous Ivy League education in the heart of a vibrant global city for an experience unlike any place else.
As a student here, you’ll find:
- Expansive Opportunities for Research:
Join faculty in advanced research projects at the forefront of applied physics. Departmental strengths include the areas of plasma physics and fusion energy, optical and laser physics, and solid-state physics. Faculty also contribute to 8 cross-disciplinary research groups.
- Unique Multi-Disciplinary Department
Unlike most programs in applied physics, Columbia’s program is housed with applied mathematics, materials science and engineering, and medical physics within a unified department, giving you broad exposure to several domains and experience with collaborative, multi-disciplinary problem-solving.
- World-Class Faculty
Train alongside award-winning researchers and scholars. Faculty of the Department of Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics have won three Sloans, four Guggenheims, two Packards, one Nobel Prize in physics, one Gordon Bell Prize in scientific computing, and two Buckley Prizes in condensed matter physics.
- Top Research Facilities
The Plasma Physics Lab is one of the leading university labs for the study of plasma physics in the world, comprising Columbia’s High-Beta Tokamak and 3 other experimental facilities. Departmental resources also include advanced equipment for laser physics and optics in association with the Nano Initiative. Extensive computing clusters and desktops provide power for advanced modeling and data processing.