Studying and doing research in the Department of Physics and Astronomy
We are delighted to introduce ourselves over the next few pages. Find out more about our institutes, our facilities and units, our degree programs, what our research focuses on and who our partners are as well as the wide range of topics that we present to the general public.
The Belle II cooperation project at the Japanese research center KEK is helping researchers from all over the world to hunt for new phenomena in particle physics. The international experiment has now reached a major milestone after a team successfully installed a new pixel detector in its final location in Japan. The size of a soda can, the detector was developed in order to make out the signals coming from certain types of particle decays, that can shed light on the origin of the matter-antimatter asymmetry that has been observed in the universe. The installation ran without a hitch and is a key milestone in the evolution of the experiment and German-Japanese research collaboration.
Many substances change their properties when they are cooled below a certain critical temperature. Such a phase transition occurs, for example, when water freezes. However, in certain metals there are phase transitions that do not exist in the macrocosm. They arise because of the special laws of quantum mechanics that apply in the realm of nature’s smallest building blocks. It is thought that the concept of electrons as carriers of quantized electric charge no longer applies near these exotic phase transitions. Researchers at the University of Bonn and ETH Zurich have now found a way to prove this directly. Their findings allow new insights into the exotic world of quantum physics. The publication has now been released in the journal Nature Physics.
The North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences, Humanities and the Arts welcomed 14 new members at its annual ceremony, including mathematician Prof. Dr. Catharina Stroppel and physicist Prof. Dr. Dieter Meschede from the University of Bonn. The nine men and five women are united by exceptional research work and creative excellence in their area of expertise.
The “MS Wissenschaft” is setting sail from Berlin, and the University of Bonn is among those on board. A team from the University has designed and built an exhibit for this exhibition ship that dovetails perfectly with the topic chosen for Science Year 2023 - “Our Universe.” Entitled “Dem Universum auf der Spur” (“Tracking Down the Universe”), the exhibition gives visitors, especially schoolchildren, the opportunity to discover various research areas and methods associated with the universe in an interactive way.
The Department of Physics and Astronomy
Below you can find out about our organizational structure and the facilities and units that form part of our department
What’s our setup?
The Department of Physics and Astronomy is made up of four institutes, professors, academic and non-academic staff, and various facilities and units together with their service teams.
Academic affairs
Here you can find details of the teaching and degree programs that we offer.
Degree programs
We run a Bachelor’s degree program in physics, two Master’s degree programs (Physics and Astrophysics) and a teaching degree program (Bsc. and M.ed.) in physics.
Courses
Follow the “Courses” link to find dates for lectures, practical projects/lab courses and preliminary courses.
People
Looking for a particular university professor or member of staff? The links below are bound to help you.
University professors and lecturers
University professors and lecturers guide students through their research and learning.
Staff
You can find our administrative, technical and academic staff at our institutes by following the links below:
at the Argelander Institute for Astronomy, the Institute for Applied Physics, the Institute of Physics and the Helmholtz Institute for Radiation and Nuclear Physics.