Department News

• REU List: The Department of Physics and Astronomy encourages our majors to apply for summer research experiences. Most of these applications require letters of recommendation. See Dr. Lindaas' page on requesting Letters of Recommendation. It is specific to him, but most other faculty in the department take a similar approach.
• Two Physics Students win Awards for Presentations at Sigma Xi and Scholarships from MHTA: Physics major Iwnetim Abate and Chemistry major/Physics minor Loza Tadesse each presented a poster on work research they did over the summer at the annual Sigma Xi International Research Conference. They both received awards for their presentations. Separately, both Mr. Abate and Ms. Tadesse were awarded scholarships from the MHTA Association.
• Asteroid named for MSUM Physics Alumunus Sherry Fieber-Beyer: Dr. Sherry Fieber-Beyer, who graduated from MSUM with a B.A. in Physics with Emphasis in Astronomy, had the distinction of having an asteroid named after by the IAU this summer. She is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the University of North Dakota.

Mission Statement

Our mission is to provide excellent undergraduate instruction in physics and astronomy. In lower division courses, faculty use lecture demonstrations, cooperative learning methods, hands-on activities, and field trips to develop a broad working knowledge of physics. In upper division courses, in addition to the above methods, students learn through cooperative projects, research with faculty, and hands-on instrumentation and computation projects.