Department of Physics - UC Santa Barbara

A graduate student in Professor Bouwmeester’s lab measures optical properties of photonic crystal microcavities.

Professor Harry Nelson, right, a mile underground at the Homestake Mine near Lead, SD, readying the LUX experiment

Professor Elisabeth Gwinn working with graduate students.

Professor Joe Incandela, spokesperson for the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) collaboration at LHC, in front of the CMS detector during construction.

A prototype Reference Point Indentation instrument developed in the Hansma lab measures bone fracture resistance.

Assistant Professor Ben Mazin wins Presidential Early Career Award

Superconducting qubits (Martinis lab) may revolutionize quantum computing.

Atomic Force Microscope image of bone revealing collagen fibrils with and without mineral plates.

Photons exchanging information between optical microcavities containing individual electron spins.

Optical network of core-shell quantum dots communicating quantum spin information between nodes.

Grad student Kurt Soto reflected in the 10 meter mirror of the Keck telescope, used to gather data for his PhD thesis.

Imaging and manipulating arrays of single spins in semiconductors.

Professor Ben Mazin's lab specializes in the development of superconducting detector and instruments for Astrophysics.

Scanning Electron Microscope (Hansma lab) measuring bone strength.

WELCOME to the Department of Physics at UC Santa Barbara!

Whether you're a current or prospective student, an alum, a parent, a researcher, a job-seeker, or just someone who is interested in physics, we hope you find what you are looking for here. If not, feel free to contact us! Our department has outstanding students, postdocs, researchers, staff, and faculty, many of whom have garnered prestigious awards. We are now ranked among the top five graduate research physics programs according to the 2010 National Research Council rankings.