The Department hosted the 2007 Midwest Relativity Meeting on November 2nd and 3rd. The meeting gathered 45 experts on Einstein's theory of General Relativity, to discuss the latest applications to gravity, cosmology and astrophysics. Click here for information about the program and abstracts.

Interested in physics but thinking about a medical career? The Department is now offering a Pre-Med Option a part of its B.S. and B.A. Degrees in Physics. Recent statistics have shown that physics majors tend to do very well in the MCATS. Click here to find out more about this new option!

September 2007 - The Saint Louis University Board of Trustees has just approved a new B.S. Degree in Engineering Physics. In a partnership with the engineering departments at Parks College the new degree prepares students for careers in technology and R&D that require more physics than found in the traditional engineering programs. Students may select a concentration in aerospace, biomedical, computer, electrical or mechanical engineering, or choose the interdisciplinary option. Students will be able to enroll in this new major in the Fall of 2008. In the meantime, current students who are planning to switch to Engineering Physics can enroll to many of the courses that are already on the books. Copies of the brochure and syllabus can be obtained at the Physics Office, or by clicking here.

Ray optics with a "twist". A 200-year old prediction is finally being demonstrated in the lab! The law of refraction will never be the same - at least for "chiral liquids". Click here for details.

Probing the roots of Quantum Mechanics. For many years Dr. Santhanam has been studying one of the root concepts of Quantum Mechanics - the so-called "communtation rules". These form the basis of the well-known Uncertainty Principle of Quantum Mechanics, which specifies which physical quantities - such as position, momentum, energy, etc. - can be measured simultaneously, and which ones cannot. These commutation rules not only depend on the specific physical quantities, but also on the type of physical system that is being studied, i.e. individual atoms & particles, group of atoms, etc. Most importantly, they also depend on the type of energy spectrum that they have. Dr. Santhanam's interest has been on finding out those commutation rules that apply to systems possessing only a finite number of energy levels (in contrast to those systems that have a infinite number of levels, like ordinary atoms). With collaborators he has come up with the relationships shown below, which have attracted the attention of theoretical physicists from around the World.

Other cool physics research projects by SLU physics faculty can be found here.