Digging for Dark Matter
A tiny Australian mining town might hold the key to solving one of the universe's biggest mysteries – and to a local economic boom. What do scientists hope to find in a cave 1km underground? SBS will reveal the answers.
The School of Physics at the University of Melbourne is one of the leading physics departments in Australia, and its members are engaged in research at the forefront of a diverse range of fields.
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Current Students
General information, forms and resources for students currently enrolled at undergraduate and postgraduate levels…
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Our PhD Program
Our PhD students work on cutting-edge research at the frontier of Physics. Discover how to join them!
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Courses
Physics is taught at an undergraduate level through the Bachelor of Science and at a postgraduate level through Masters and PhD programs, plus several graduate certificates and diplomas…
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Awards, Prizes and Scholarships
The University of Melbourne offers a large number of scholarships at undergraduate and postgraduate entry for local…
School of Physics Events
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Physics Outreach
The School of Physics engages in outreach activities directed at secondary schools, the general public, our alumni and friends as well as the wider physics' communities.
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Alumni
University of Melbourne Alumni
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Support Physics
We gratefully acknowledge and thank the benefactors partnering with us to advance research and scholarship of the highest level.
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Ed Muirhead Physics Museum
The collection of the The School of Physics Museum comprises some 350 items. It includes equipment and photographs spanning the history of the School of Physics, which was established as the School of Natural Philosophy in the 1880s.
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Postgraduate Physics Students’ Society
An academic and social group that gives physics research students a representative voice in the decision making processes, and organises social networking events.
The School of Physics at the University of Melbourne, Australia, has a distinguished history: it is well-established and enjoys an internationally respected reputation for its research excellence, broad-based undergraduate courses, and challenging and rewarding postgraduate experience..
It is an exciting time to be studying physics in the 21st century: it is an enabling science that expands our knowledge of the universe and underpins new technologies that benefit our society. The School of Physics is well established and is internationally respected for its research excellence, broad-based undergraduate courses, and a challenging and rewarding postgraduate experience. Our collaborations are aligned with the world's leading research groups and facilities. We address some of the most important and fundamental problems of our age.
Our programs in astrophysics, theoretical particle and experimental particle physics explore questions relating to the origin, evolution and fate of our universe. Aligned with high energy physics programs taking place in Switzerland (CERN) and Japan (KEK), the School has considerable expertise in collider physics, neutrino physics, physics beyond the 'Standard Model', astroparticle physics, and grid computing. Since 2011, it has been the lead node of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Particle Physics at the Terascale (CoEPP) and organised the very exciting ICHEP 2012 conference where the Higgs boson discovery was announced in conjunction with CERN. On the astrophysics side, we are part of CAASTRO, the ARC Centre of Excellence for All-Sky Astrophysics, and actively involved in the enormous Square Kilometre Array facility to be constructed in Western Australia, and its precursors. The group has expertise in computational cosmology, the birth of the first stars, radio astronomy, gravitational lensing, gravitational waves and neutron stars. Some personnel are members of the LIGO collaboration that announced the discovery of gravitational waves in 2016.
The School has strengths in the exploration of matter and light interactions, particularly in advanced materials utilising diamond and silicon, quantum information science, photonics, advanced electron microscopy, nanoscale imaging, nanoelectronics, all the way down to the single atom and photon. Working closely with the Australian Synchrotron, we hosted the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coherent X-Ray Science which employed X-Ray diffraction techniques and an interdisciplinary team of physicists, biologists and chemists to explore the structural determination of single biological molecules. This Centre has been superseded by participation in the new ARC Centre of Excellence for Advanced Molecular Imaging.
With inter-institutional partners, the Centre for Quantum Communication and Computational Technology (CQC2T) is building, at the atomic level, a solid-state quantum computer in silicon which will revolutionise computing industries.
Located in the heart of cosmopolitan Melbourne, the School is part of a vibrant campus environment and is a great place to study, as evidenced by internationally benchmarked ranking indicators. We welcome you to browse our website and annual reports. Please contact us if you are interested in pursuing studies or research at the School.
Professor Stuart Wyithe
Head, School of Physics