(This page was last updated on January 24, 2024.)
There are a variety of mechanisms for CWRU physics majors to get involved in research.
1. Students may work in a research lab or with a theorist, possibly as a paid assistant. There is no organized system for pairing students with positions; you need to contact each faculty member individually to inquire about opportunities. Before initiating these contacts, do some homework to see what the faculty member is doing and make sure it interests you. You can peruse faculty research interests using the links at https://physics.case.edu/directory/faculty/ and https://physics.case.edu/research/physics-research-groups/.
You can, if you wish, send a message to the Director of Undergraduate Studies (H. Mathur, hxm7@cwru.edu) indicating your interest in a position; this message will be forwarded to anyone who asks Prof. Mathur if there are any physics majors looking for jobs. However, most member of the faculty don’t contact Prof. Mathur about filling openings in their research group. If do send a message, include a short paragraph describing your background and interests, and whether you have Work-Study support.
2. PHYS 390, Undergraduate Research in Physics, provides a mechanism for students to obtain course credit for participating in physics research. This credit can be useful in its own right or substitute for a paid position if the research project that interests you is unfunded. PHYS 390 is described in more detail on its dedicated web page.
3. You can volunteer to work in a research lab or with a theorist if you don’t want the commitment of a job or course. Volunteer positions usually won’t entail work that is critical to a research project but it can give you the flavor of working in a research environment.
4. Check SOURCE (Support of Undergraduate Research and Creative Endeavors) https://case.edu/source/ and their posting of research opportunities at https://case.edu/source/start-your-research/opportunities . Some, but not all, physics faculty members post to this list but there might be opportunities for physics majors posted by faculty members from other departments. Physics majors in general are welcome in many other disciplines.
In October of 2020, Dept. of Physics Prof. Emeritus Gary Chottiner prepared a talk for SOURCE about finding research positions in physics. You can review a pdf version of the PowerPoint file created for that talk here.
5. Senior Projects in Physics
The Physics department offers two capstone courses (PHYS 351 and 353) and an associated seminar course (PHYS 352), PHYS 351 and PHYS 352 are year-long courses that are taken by most physics BS and BA majors and many BS in Mathematics and Physics majors. Students choose an individual research mentor and work closely with that person over the course of two semesters. The mentor is usually, but not necessarily, a member of the physics department; students may work under the tutelage of a mentor from another department or an institution other than CWRU.
PHYS 353 is a research capstone similar to PHYS 351 intended for BS in Engineering Physics majors. In the past Engineering Physics majors took a full year of PHYS 353 and PHYS 352 but are now encouraged to instead choose a mentor in their area of Engineering specialization and register for engineering courses that incorporate engineering design principles required by ABET.
While the research mentor has the primary responsibility for guiding the student’s research, an official course instructor for PHYS 351 and PHYS 353 and a departmental Senior Project Committee overseas the entire program. At the end of the academic year, students write a formal Senior Thesis and present their work in public in a SOURCE intersections poster session and departmental Senior Project Symposium.
For students who matriculated before Fall 2023, PHYS 351 or PHYS 353 fulfilled the SAGES capstone requirement. Two semesters of PHYS 352 together with one semester of PHYS 303 (all of them one credit courses) fulfilled the SAGES departmental seminar requirement. BS and BA in Physics majors were not required to do their SAGES capstone and SAGES departmental seminar in Physics, although most chose to do so. BS in Mathematics and Physics had the option to do their SAGES departmental seminar and SAGES capstone in either department. For students matriculating in Fall 2023 and later these courses will continue to be offered and will continue to provide an exciting introduction to frontier research in physics and help fulfill new UGER requirements. Details on how the courses fit into the new UGER requirements will be available here in the near future. In the meantime inquiries may be directed to hxm7@case.edu.
Questions?
More detailed instructions concerning the Senior projects are given here. For the 2019 – 2020 academic year, the instructor for PHYS 351, 352 & 353 is Prof. Zehavi; she is also chair of the department’s Senior Project Committee. The other members of this committee, appointed by the department chair, are:
Prof. Gao, Prof. Martens, Prof. Mathur, Prof. Covault, Prof. Kash
Publications with CWRU Undergraduate Physics Major Authors
Current and Previous Senior Projects
Previous Senior Projects: Archive of physics senior projects between 2000 – 2020, with abstracts plus select posters and papers. Viewing this material might require login via CWRUnet or VPN.