Student Advising Page

Why study Physics or Engineering Physics? Because you can learn

why there are black holes,
how electronic circuits work,
how a fusion reactor could work,
how the northern lights are generated,
how the Candian Light Source synchrotron works,
why the stars shine,
why quantum mechanics makes transistors work,
how radiation is generated and used in medical and technical applications,
why the universe expands,

and many other interesting things. For those of you who always wanted to understand how the universe works on the smallest or largest scales, or who would like to understand the science behind the most advanced current and future technologies, we offer several degree programs:

B.Sc. in Physics (Three-Year, Four-Year and Honours)
B.E. in Engineering Physics
B.Sc. in Mathematical Physics (Honours only. This program is offered as an interdisciplinary program together with the Department of Mathematics & Statistics.)
Minor in Astronomy: Students with an interest in Astronomy may take courses leading to a Minor in Astronomy in conjunction with a Bachelors degree. Students are required to complete 18 credit units of Astronomy.

New Courses

We offer a new course PHYS 497.15 Research Term in Physics. This course will allow students to go abroad (e.g. to Osaka University's Frontier Lab, or Umea University (Sweden), or to the University of Technology in Darmstadt (Germany)) for extended research for about three months and receive University credit for this activity. Another possibility is to join one of the major national Physics laboratories (e.g. the Canadian Light Source or TRIUMF in Vancouver) for a 3-month research term. Please contact Rainer Dick for details. As of 2009, we can also propose sudents for summer research at CERN's Large Hadron Collider.

We offered the new course PHYS 352.3 on Concepts of Radiation Physics for the first time in the academic year 2008-2009.
This course is targeted at students with interests in medical and technological applications of radiation, and in radiation safety.

Students are encouraged to see an advisor if they have questions concerning our programs or the selection of courses. All members of the Undergraduate Affairs Committee are advisors:

New BSc Programs: You can find descriptions and tabular overviews of our new BSc programs in Physics under the following links:

Links to the program descriptions provided by the College of Arts & Science can be found here.

Links to the program descriptions provided by the College of Engineering can be found here.

The B.Sc. 4-Years or Honours in Physics can be combined with a Minor in Computer Science. The B.E. degree in Engineering Physics can be combined with a B.Sc. (3-Years) degree in Computer Science. Here is a template schedule of courses for the EP/CMPT combination. Please note that the Department of Computer Science has authority over the Computer Science degree in this combination of two programs. Therefore please regularly check the program descriptions for Computer Science in the Calendar and consult with advisors in Computer Science, if you would like to opt for this degree combination.

You can take a B.Sc. degree in Physics with a strong Astronomy component. Please consult Rainer Dick or Stan Shadick for advice.

Scholarships and Awards: Our Department annually awards prestigious named awards, bursaries and scholarships (in alphabetical order):

Balfour Currie Memorial Scholarship
C.W. Lake Book Prize in Astronomy
Dr. Raymon Montalbetti Bursary
E.L. Harrington Prize
Gerry 'Git' Rempel Memorial Scholarship in Physics
James F. Mathison Memorial Scholarship
Jennette Gertrude Traynor Awards
Philip William Graham Scholarship
Roger Phillips Scholarship in Physics
Ruth and Eber Pollard Scholarship in Physics (the Ruth and Eber Pollard Scholarship in Engineering Physics is awarded by the College of Engineering)
Sylvia Fedoruk Scholarship
William R. Ducie Scholarships

We gratefully acknowledge the generosity of the donors who made these awards possible. Some of these awards require applications to our departmental office by October 31.
Please note that there are also other scholarships, which are directly awarded by your College or the University. Please consult the Awards Guide of the Registrar's Office for details. Besides Physics & Engineering Physics you should also check your College (Arts & Science or Engineering, respectively).
If you want to become a Physics teacher, also check out the College of Education for Scholarships and Awards.

Students who completed at least one year in our programs: Depending on the agreement of a supervisor in the department, you can apply for an NSERC Undergraduate Summer Research Award to collaborate in a research project during the summer. The departmental deadline for the 2010 competition is Tuesday, January 12, 2010.

What do Physicists do after graduation? Besides careers in their traditional domains of teaching, researching, and applying the fundamental laws of nature in science and technology, Physicists can be found in all kinds of professions where their experimental, analytic and computational skills are useful.
Here are a few popular job sites for Physicists which are maintained by learned societies (and therefore focus on the more traditional domains of physics careers):

Postings on the website of the Canadian Association of Physicists (CAP).
Postings on the website of the American Institute of Physics (AIP).
You can either look at all the job postings or make a specific search.
A useful Physics job site from the British Institute of Physics (IOP).
A Physics job site from The Internet Pilot To Physics.

Last Revision: December 15, 2009 by Rainer Dick.