Departmental Honors Program in Physics
The Honors Program in Physics has been established to recognize and encourage independent and creative scholarship in physics by providing superior undergraduate physics majors the opportunity for advanced and intensive study. Each year, the Honors Program Committee will review the academic records of physics majors. Students with a minimum 3.00 overall GPA and a minimum 3.30 major GPA[1] will be added to the Physics Honors List. Students who achieve these GPAs at graduation time, and who meet other requirements specified below, will receive a B.S. degree in Physics with Honors or with High Honors. This citation will appear on your diploma.
If you are interested in departmental honors, you should begin early by taking Honors versions of our required freshman and sophomore courses (i.e. PHYS 171H, 272H, 273H), which involve more advanced and intensive study than the regular versions. All physics majors, particularly Honors students, are encouraged to engage in undergraduate research; often this is done as part of the University's Undergraduate Research Assistant Program (URAP). Students are also encouraged to contact professors directly to discuss their areas of research and possible undergraduate research opportunities.
If you wish to obtain an Honors citation on your diploma, you must fulfill the following requirements:
1. Complete at least three credit hours of a Physics Honors version course.
2. Have earned a 3.00 or higher overall GPA and a 3.30 or higher GPA for all physics major required courses at graduation time.1
3. Complete one of the following research courses PHYS 386 (Physics experimental Learning), PHYS 389 (Undergraduate Thesis Research), PHYS 399 or PHYS 499 (Independent Study).[2]
4. Take the Honors Oral Exam, which is an oral examination given by a committee of two or more physics faculty members. For regular Honors, this oral may cover undergraduate course work and explore areas covered in independent study or research. For High Honors, the oral must include a defense of a senior thesis or paper based on your original research. Contact Tom Gleason to set up the Honors Oral committee.
Students who do not meet any of these criteria may submit an appeal to the Physics Honors Committee. The Physics Honors Committee may use other considerations (instructor evaluations, research activity, etc.) to award the Honors citation. Students who do not meet the criteria and are not awarded a departmental honors citation will not receive any negative record regarding the Physics Honors Program on any official document.
1) After-hours access to the OWL Lab
2) Recognition at the Physics Honors Event
3) Promotional listing to the Physics faculty
4) Monetary prizes for honors and high honors recipients, and an opportunity to compete for a lap-top computer given to the graduating student successfully defending the best senior physics thesis/paper of the year.
1) Talk to Tom Gleason. He is often aware of undergraduate research opportunities and can give you advice about who to contact based on your interests.
2) Check out the Physics Department web page for undergraduate research opportunities (http://www.physics.umd.edu/academics/ugrad/UGR).
3) Talk to physics professors, and ask them about job opportunities in their labs, or those of their colleagues. You should feel free to talk to any physics professor, but you may feel more comfortable initially talking with professors who have taught your classes.
4) Take PHYS 170, a 1 credit Professional Physics Seminar (given in the Fall) to learn more about how the physics degree is used in the “real world.” This will give you contact with faculty who support undergraduate research.
5) For more advanced students, sit in on the zero credit course “Foundations and Frontiers of Physics,” taught every Spring semester. Here, the faculty give broad talks about current research topics aimed at first year graduate students. It is an excellent way to learn about what the research groups are doing, and to see if their research interests you.
Tom Gleason, Undergraduate Advisor. tgleason@physics.umd.edu, x5-5979
Prof. Stephen Anlage , Chair of the Honors Program, anlage@squid.umd.edu, x5-7321.
Bernie Kozlowski, Academic
Program Specialist, Physics, Bernie@physics.umd.edu, x5-5949.
[1] For the purposes of the Honors List, all attempts at major courses are used. When the major GPA is calculated for the distinction of Departmental Honors, the University’s repeat policy will be taken into account.
[2] If you do a Research
Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program here, or at another university, or
if you do an independent research project off campus, you can complete this
requirement by signing up for PHYS 499 for 1 credit.