Colorado School of Mines Quantum Engineering unit identifier

Physics

CoorsTek lab

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 ScienceNuclear Engineering, and Quantum Engineering.

Watch the following video to learn more about the varied and exciting physics research taking place at Mines.

Mines Physics logo

Announcements

Announcements

Kyle Leach

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.

Recent News

subatomic-particle-hideout
Colorado School of Mines is developing a quantum research lab inside a literal mine
CURIE – short for Colorado Underground Research Institute – will allow researchers to test quantum sensors and more in very low background environment
Mines team awarded $2.5M to help build a NASA balloon experiment to investigate high energy cosmic rays, neutrinos
Mines team awarded $2.5M to help build a NASA balloon experiment to investigate high energy cosmic rays, neutrinos
Mines researchers working on equipment design, construction, balloon launch
PhD student Sam Saiter works in the Quantum Clean Room on the Colorado School of Mines campus. Students in the quantum engineering program at Mines get access to advanced equipment, such as a quantum entanglement demonstrator, a 4.2-Kelvin cryostat and a diamond NV microscope.
Building the future of quantum engineering at Colorado School of Mines
One of the nation’s first quantum engineering programs is preparing students for challenges of working in quantum industry
subatomic-particle-hideout
Colorado School of Mines is developing a quantum research lab inside a literal mine
CURIE – short for Colorado Underground Research Institute – will allow researchers to test quantum sensors and more in very low background environment
Mines team awarded $2.5M to help build a NASA balloon experiment to investigate high energy cosmic rays, neutrinos
Mines team awarded $2.5M to help build a NASA balloon experiment to investigate high energy cosmic rays, neutrinos
Mines researchers working on equipment design, construction, balloon launch
PhD student Sam Saiter works in the Quantum Clean Room on the Colorado School of Mines campus. Students in the quantum engineering program at Mines get access to advanced equipment, such as a quantum entanglement demonstrator, a 4.2-Kelvin cryostat and a diamond NV microscope.
Building the future of quantum engineering at Colorado School of Mines
One of the nation’s first quantum engineering programs is preparing students for challenges of working in quantum industry
#1 Best Colleges for Engineering Physics / Applied Physics
Colorado School of Mines, Golden CO
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