Physics
As a physics major, you’ll work closely with your professors in the classroom and laboratory, conduct independent study projects, and participate in student-faculty research. Through it all, you’ll gain critical thinking, writing, experimental, computational, and analytical skills while exploring and learning how the universe behaves.
By studying physics at LVC, you’ll explore and learn the fundamental laws of nature: motion, force, energy, heat, light, electricity, magnetism, atomic and nuclear structure, and the properties of matter.
Choose your concentration in Industrial Physics, Computational Physics, a secondary education certificate, or our 3+2 Engineering program. Whatever career path you choose, you’ll benefit from a hands-on curriculum and experienced, mentoring faculty who will support you the whole way. Need-based departmental scholarships are available.
Learn More About the Program
As an LVC physics major, you’ll have the opportunity to participate in paid, high-impact student-faculty research in quantum information, materials science, and nuclear physics. Two of our professors have won National Science Foundation (NSF) grants to support their student-faculty research. Our students consistently exceed the national average of the ETS Major Field Test in Physics, with several scoring above the 80th percentile.
$128,950
Bureau of Labor Statistics median salary for Physicists in 2020
8%
growth in job outlook 2020–30 (Bureau of Labor Statistics)
$1.2M
in external NSF research grants since 2006
A degree in physics opens doors to a variety of career options in many different fields, from research to engineering.
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Engineer
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Medical Physicist
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Industrial Physicist
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Lab Scientist
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Physics Instructor
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Scientific Researcher
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Programmer
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Software Developer
In Their Words
The LVC physics faculty does an outstanding job providing students with opportunities and preparing them for whatever direction they choose. The hands-on experience I gained through conducting student-faculty research prepared me well for my fellowship performing medical physics research at Harvard University in Boston.
Olivia Magneson
’22
My recent National Science Foundation grant highlights the culture of high-impact research experiences we’ve established in the Physics Program. Students receive a great classroom education while pursuing research opportunities that often lead to presentations at distinguished national conferences and peer-reviewed publications in top journals.
Dr. Daniel Pitonyak,
Assistant Professor of Physics
