Department of Physics, Erciyes University

History

The Physics Department, one of the four departments of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, was established in 1982. The department accepted its first undergrads in the 1984-85 Academic Year and the first graduates were in 1988. The department initially had one Professor, three Assistant Professors, one Lecturer and three Res. Assistants, but today it has a large number of qualified academic staff. Thousands of graduates trained by the academic staff of the Department work at different universities as faculty members, at public/private schools as teachers, and some graduates have started their own business.

The department admitted students for both daytime and evening education as from 1990 and had more than a thousand students in some terms, but for a while it didn't get any admissions. However, the quotas determined in recent years have been completely filled. Besides Turkish students who prefer our department, our department has also started to gain an international qualification with the participation of international students from various countries of the world.

In the past, some of our faculty members taught physics courses at the Physics Department at Bozok University and helped for the development of the department there. In addition, faculty members of our department played an active role in the establishment of the Department of Astronomy and Space Sciences.

The Graduate Program in Turkish, which was initiated within the Graduate School of Natural and Applied Sciences with the establishment of our Department, still continues in both Turkish and English since 2014 when the program in English was initiated.

Our Vision

The Physics Department aims to train its students as well-equipped individuals who are willing to do researches with a comprehensive perspective, are eager for new educational opportunities and work for the benefit of the society. In this context, our department's vision is to increase the quality of physics education, increase the number of high-quality publications and improve new international collaborations with research centers around the world. We believe that our efforts in this regard will result in profound impacts and generate great value both for the individuals and the society.

Our Mission
The Physics Department aims:

1. to provide both undergraduate and graduate education at universal standards that can compete with the physics departments around the world,
2. to provide a student-centered educational environment, which is open to innovations and based on mutual respect,
3. to enable our students to gain the critical thinking skills, problem-solving, technical, collaborative and scientific communication abilities,
4. to provide an interactive and exploratory learning environment, which motivate students to try out and explore different skills and strategies,
5. to encourage collaborative work and discussions, which urge students to get knowledge by working through the problems themselves,
6. to conduct scientific research and to produce high-quality scientific publications that can be used to better understand the nature and for the benefit of society,
7. to encourage our students to conduct scientific researches at national and international laboratories and to produce high-quality publications and theses,
8. to contribute to the need of our country for the academicians by training qualified researchers through Master’s Degree and PhD programs.

Undergraduate (B.S.) Education
The Bachelor of Science (B.S.) is the traditional degree for a student interested in pursuing graduate education program in Physics and Astronomy and a wide range of careers as a professional physicist, astronomer, or science educator. The education period of this department is 4 years (8 semesters). For typical schedules and course requirement checklists for the B.S. degree, please check the link below. In this program, the student must complete minimum 240 credits (ECTS) in total with a GPA of at least 2.00 out of 4.00.

https://dbp.erciyes.edu.tr/Default.aspx

Master of Science (M.S.) in Physics

In order to graduate from the program with thesis, it is necessary to take 24-credit courses along with the compulsory and elective courses, and then the thesis must be accepted by the pre-determined jury members. The M.S. program usually takes 4 semesters, 2 years. The thesis is expected to be based on the original research findings of the experimental or theoretical investigation by the student. The final examination is held orally and conducted by a committee of three faculty members. For the required and elective courses list, please check the link below:

The Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Physics
The doctoral degree in physics is usually completed in 4 years (8 semesters). The Ph.D. program requires a minimum of 7+1 main graduate courses (3 semester hours each) and a total of 240 ECTS, corresponding to all graduate-level coursework. All Ph.D. students must also pass the Qualifying Examination, do original research in experimental/theoretical physics and defend a written dissertation based on the research findings of their original work. By clicking the link below, you can reach more detailed information about the program and the course requirements.

Faculty & Administrative Staff

Currently, there are 25 faculty members including 13 professors, 6 associate professors, 4 lecturers and 2 Research Assistants and 1 administrative staff in the department. Six faculty members obtained their Ph.D. degrees abroad in the UK and USA. While some faculty members did some of their doctoral studies abroad, some of them did post-doctoral researches at different universities and international laboratories, such as CERN and Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab).

In our department, there are faculty members who received the following prestigious awards and fellowships: TUBITAK Incentive Award, TMMOB Serhat OZYAR Young Scientist Award, Erciyes University Research Honorary Award, Neutrino Physics Center (NPC) Fellowship at Fermilab and LHC Physics Center (LPC) Fellowship at Fermilab. In addition to national grants from institutions such as TUBITAK and EUBAP, some of our faculty members also took part as researchers or PIs/Co-PIs in international research projects from NATO, DOE (Department of Energy of the US) and National Science Foundation (NSF) carried out in the USA.

Research

In the Physics Department, we have a wide range of research activities in the following sub-fields of physics, conducted by both faculty researchers and students:

• Solid State Physics
• General Physics
• High Energy and Plasma Physics
• Nuclear Physics
• Atomic and Molecular Physics
• Mathematical Physics

For detailed information about the research groups, please check the professors’ websites and their group links.

Physical Resources

The Physics Department is located on the second floor of the Faculty of Sciences Building at Erciyes University. There are 7 classrooms and a seminar room with built-in projection systems and both wired/wireless internet access. The department has 3 training laboratories for mechanics, electricity and magnetism, waves and optics, modern physics and electronics experiments. There is a library in our department, which serves both undergraduate and graduate students. There are also 8 research labs where Solid State Physics researches are carried out.

Student Activities

There is a Physics Student Club established by our students. Our students organize scientific, social and cultural events through this club. They also invite scientists from different universities to give seminars or lectures. Some of our students in the department are supported with scholarships by the Dean’s Office.