Welcome to the Department of Physics
As a department, we are a community of more than 150, including faculty, administrative staff, postdocs, visiting scientists, and graduate and undergraduate students. Devoted to our teaching, service, and research missions, all of our 19 faculty teach lecture courses and actively involve students in their research.
Our research program is “decidedly noncomprehensive,” with intentional foci on fundamental and applied condensed matter and nanoscale physics. Our campus home is Higgins Hall, located at the heart of the BC Chestnut Hill campus at the western edge of Boston, and fully renovated in 2002 with state-of-the-art teaching and research laboratories.
News and Notes
Prof. David Awschalom (University of Chicago) to deliver two lectures at BC on the future of quantum technologies.
Professor Awschalom (University of Chicago), a pioneer in the field of solid-state quantum systems, will deliver the 2025 Magde Physics Colloquium on April 30 (4 pm). A second lecture intended for the general public will follow on May 1 (4 pm) in the Murray Room, Yawkey Center. For more information, contact physics@bc.edu.
Professor Awschalom is a recipient of the American Physical Society’s Oliver Buckley Prize, the highest award for condensed matter physics, and the Julius Edgar Lilienfeld Prize for exceptional skills in lecturing to diverse audiences.
Professor of Physics Ilija Zeljkovic wins “Serbian Nobel for Physics" for his research into novel materials
Professor of Physics Ilija Zeljkovic has been honored in his native Serbia with the Marko Jarić Award, sometimes referred to as the “Serbian Nobel for Physics,” for his research into novel materials.
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BC physicist aids NASA research
Associate Professor of Physics Cyril P. Opeil, S.J., is among a select few scientists taking part in an international research effort to shed light on the nature of asteroids, how the planets formed, and how life might have emerged on Earth.
2024 Donald J. White Teaching Award
Congratulations to Alex LaFleur and Thomas Barrett, graduate students in the Department of Physics who were awarded the Donald J. White Teaching Excellence Award. The Donald J. White Teaching Excellence Awards program was established to underscore and reinforce the importance of the pursuit of teaching excellence of graduate Teaching Fellows and Teaching Assistants.
2024 Sophomore Scholars
The Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences selected academically distinguished members of the Sophomore Class, who are ranked in the top three percent of their class, to receive this award. Congratulations to Anna Kaplan and Jeremy Landman on being named 2024 Sophomore Scholars and being honored as the most academically distinguished members of the Sophomore class. This award recognizes their current distinction and their promise for the future.
2024 Dean's Scholar
The Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences selected the brightest scholars from the junior class based on their overall academic performance, recommendations from their departmental faculty, co-curricular initiatives, and their sense of purpose in how they approach their future. Congratulations to Momoka Iwase and Alan Chang on being named Dean’s Scholars.
Featured Recent Publications
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Electronic nematicity without charge density waves in titanium-based kagome metal
We use spectroscopic-imaging scanning tunneling microscopy to discover spontaneous rotation symmetry breaking of the electronic structure, or electronic nematicity, in a new kagome metal.
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Visualization of bulk and edge photocurrent flow in anisotropic Weyl semimetals
Quantum sensors reveal that the anisotropy in the thermoelectric properties of Weyl semimetals generates spontaneous, circulating photocurrents.
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Dual quantum spin Hall insulator by density-tuned correlations in TaIrTe4
A study reports a dual quantum spin Hall insulator in monolayer TaIrTe4, arising from the interplay of its single-particle topology and density-tuned electron correlations.
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Engineering Anomalously Large Electron Transport in Topological Semimetals
This work demonstrates the dramatic mobility enhancements result from phonons primarily returning momentum to electrons due to phonon-electron dominating over phonon–phonon scattering.
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Low-temperature thermal and physical properties of lunar meteorites
We have made the first low-temperature (5–300 K) measurements of thermal conductivity, specific heat capacity, and the coefficient of thermal expansion for six lunar meteorites, materials derived from the surface of the Moon.
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Radio-frequency manipulation of state populations in an entangled fluorine-muon-fluorine system
Entangled spin states are created by implanting muons into single-crystal LiY0.95Ho0.05F4 to form a cluster of dipole-coupled magnetic moments. The time evolution of the muon spin polarization can be manipulated by a radiofrequency field, and calculated via a model of a quantum cluster interacting with a classical, oscillating magnetic field.
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Chern Fermi pocket, topological pair density wave, and charge-4e and charge-6e superconductivity in kagome superconductors
We find that the pairing of electrons on the Chern Fermi pockets leads to a superconducting state with an emergent vortex-antivortex lattice and the formation of a complex triple-Q pair density wave.
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High-frequency phonons drive large phonon-drag thermopower in semiconductors at high carrier density
Unexpectedly large electron-phonon drag enhancements of the thermopowers are found in certain heavily-doped semiconductors, even at room temperature from first principles calculations.
Undergraduate Research Opportunities
The Department of Physics at Boston College offers a 100% guarantee that a research opportunity will be made available to all physics majors that seek one, providing they meet the required criteria.
We go to great lengths to honor this commitment.
Spotlight Resources
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Teaching Laboratories
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Integrated Sciences Cleanroom and
Nanofabrication FacilityOpen to both Boston College and external users, this laboratory is home to more than 30 high-end micro and nanoscale instrumentation systems worth several million dollars.
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REU: Integrated Science For Society
The Boston College Research Experience for Undergraduates (BC-REU) provided a unique opportunity for 10 undergraduates in 2017, 2018, and 2019 to work in teams across disciplines, focusing on scientific solutions to energy and biological problems.