A Message from the Department Chair
Since the dawn of history, humans has been intrigued by the world around them and sought to understand it. Physics is the scientific discipline devoted to the study of the fundamental laws of nature in observable systems. It enables a deep understanding of the principles and processes that the world revolves on.
Who are we?
The Department of Physics at Bar Ilan was founded in 1955. Its faculty members include researchers in various fields of physics, including two Israel Prize laureates: Prof. Moshe Yamer (one of Albert Einstein's students), who won the Israel Prize for the History of Science in 1984, and Prof. Shlomo Havlin, who won the prize Israel in the field of physics and chemistry research in 2018. The department include ~30 faculty members and over 400 undergraduate, masters, doctoral and post-doctoral students.
Research
The department is home to well-known, leading researchers, whose work resides at the cutting edge of their fields — including condensed matter physics, quantum information, astrophysics, optics, biophysics, and statistical physics. The department specializes in disciplines at the forefront of science, such as: quantum materials, quantum optics, superconductivity, spintronics, biological systems, atomic physics, astrophysics, and molecular systems. Many members of the department are partners in the university's nanotechnology center and use its state-of-the-art equipment for a variety of nanophysics research. Starting this year, two new research centers are under construction which specialize on quantum science and technologies.
Degree Programs in Physics
The department offers undergraduate students a wide variety of tracks, as well as options to combine their physics studies with computer science, mathematics, life sciences, neuroscience, chemistry, and more. For graduate students, the department offers a nanotechnology track that gives students general training in leading subfields, including familiarization with advanced fabrication methods. In addition, several years ago our department launched a new program named "Quantum Computational Physics,” designed to open a window for students into a field at the forefront of contemporary technology.
The range of courses offered in all degrees is intended to prepare students for an academic career, a career in the high-tech industry, or even both. Therefore, alongside advanced theoretical courses, we also offer courses to familiarize students with the most common tools in the field of high-tech research and development.
For graduate students in the thesis track who meet all the criteria, the department grants an exemption from tuition fees as well as an annual scholarship.
The Department and Our Students
The department takes pride in its warm attitude towards students - it advocates a sympathetic and supportive approach, and every student receives individualized attention. The department makes and will continue to make every effort to accommodate students, as long as it does not conflict with our constant pursuit of excellence in research and teaching. Notably, the student community is diverse and welcoming. In particular, in the recent years it includes a constantly increasing number of students and postdocs from a variety of forgeign countries.
You are invited to register today for undergraduate studies, or to join one of our leading research groups as a graduate student. If you too are intrigued and excited by the processes that our world revolves on, from the vastness of the universe to its tiniest building blocks, you belong with us in the physics department at Bar-Ilan University.
Best of luck,
Prof. Efrat Shimshoni
Chairman of the Department of Physics
