Physics
The Department of Physics at Colorado School of Mines is dedicated to high-quality physics education for undergraduate and graduate students and advancing the world’s knowledge in the areas of condensed matter physics, optical physics, quantum physics, renewable energy physics, and subatomic physics.
Education and Research
Our faculty and students at all levels conduct more than $6 million in externally funded research every year, with many projects associated with Mines’ pioneering research centers.
Research centers with strong connections to Physics include the Mines/NREL Nexus, CyberInfrastructure and Advanced Research Computing (CIARC), the Microintegrated Optics for Advanced Bioimaging and Control Center (MOABC), and the Nuclear Science and Engineering Center (NuSEC).
Our faculty are consistently recognized for both their research and their teaching, while our graduate and undergraduate students are often the recipients of awards and grants.
Physics is also heavily involved with Mines’ interdisciplinary graduate programs in Materials Science, Nuclear Engineering, and Quantum Engineering.
Watch the following video to learn more about the varied and exciting physics research taking place at Mines.
Announcements
Announcements
2025 Faculty Awards recognize excellence in teaching, research and mentorship
The Junior Faculty Excellence in Research Award, for faculty members with less than 10 years of self-directed research, went to Kyle Leach, professor of physics.
A member of the Mines faculty since 2015, Leach has raised over $4.5 million in research funding as a lead principal investigator at Mines, including the U.S. Department of Energy Early Career Award, Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation Experimental Physics Investigator Award, and Francis M. Pipkin Award from the American Physical Society. He is the head of the Electroweak Interactions Group at Mines and spokesperson for the Beryllium Electron capture in Superconducting Tunnel junctions (BeEST) Experiment.
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#1 Best Colleges for Engineering Physics / Applied Physics
Colorado School of Mines
1500 Illinois St., Golden, CO 80401
303-273-3000 / 800-446-9488
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