Chair’s Letter / Fall 2024
Dear Physics Department Alumni & Friends,
Student interest in physics is booming! Twenty years ago, in the 2003-2004 academic year, our department taught about 4000 students in our four largest introductory lecture courses. A decade later, in 2013-2014, that enrollment had reached just over 5000. This past year, 2023-2024, it was almost 6000. Although increasing overall enrollment at UF has played some role, most of this growth reflects an increasing focus on STEM majors among UF’s entering students.
The annual growth rate comes to about 2%, which sounds very manageable. But in concrete terms it brings a lot of challenges: students need seats, classrooms, laboratories, instructors, and teaching assistants. The department is meeting the challenge in several ways. With the support of our dean and provost, we have been able to continue a robust program of faculty hiring in recent years. We have fifteen assistant professors in the department, with searches under way for new faculty in high energy theory and experimental biophysics. We have hired instructional faculty (lecturers), who have done a fabulous job leading our large courses – and we are searching for two more lecturers this year. We’re about to knock out a wall so that we can increase our classroom space!
Growth is a good problem to have. UF is recruiting better and better students, who want to learn physics, and many of these will become majors! Undergraduate teaching enables us to employ graduate teaching assistants and subsidize their research, and we have recently been able to ratchet up the stipends we pay our graduate students. Thanks to the generosity of our alumni and friends, we have been able to offer new scholarships and awards to recognize and support undergraduate student research in physics, along with funds for additional seminars, workshops, and visitors.
Growth brings new directions and opportunities and keeps us moving forward. Thank you for your continued support and engagement with our faculty, staff, and students!
Best regards,
Steve Hagen
Physics Department Chair