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College of Liberal Arts and Sciences University of Florida

Chair’s Letter / Fall 2025

Dear Physics Alumni & Friends,

Chair Steve Hagen
Chair Steve Hagen

In this edition of our newsletter, Davis Chen and Alex Busto of the UF Physics Graduate Community (PGC) describe the “Life after graduate school” (LAGS) seminars, a key initiative to promote communication between current graduate students and physics alumni who are active in the workplace.  We are thrilled to be able to support these events, which foster both in-person and online interaction between our students and physicists pursuing a variety of career paths.

LAGS is one of the ways that the Department of Physics can support experiential learning and career engagement for our students. Experiential learning is hands-on-learning that occurs outside the classroom. It can occur through diverse mechanisms such as internships, undergraduate research, cooperative education, volunteer service, study abroad and global exchange. UF has increasingly promoted experiential learning across all its departments and degree programs, for graduate and undergraduate students alike.

At the undergraduate level, UF is moving ahead to implement Quest 3, a campus-wide experiential learning requirement. Within a few years, all UF undergraduates will be required to engage in internships, study abroad, research, or other forms of experiential learning to meet their degree requirements.  In the coming spring, one of our newer faculty in high energy physics will be piloting an undergraduate research course that could be a model for implementing Quest 3 at a large enough scale to serve our physics majors.

We are also seeking contacts with Florida technical and scientific firms, for possible internship and outreach opportunities. We invite all alumni and friends of the physics department to help us promote experiential learning for our students. Please contact our experiential learning coordinator, Prof. Shawn Weatherford, if you know of research and internship opportunities in your own field.

As always, we are grateful for your continued support for our department!

Best regards,

Steve Hagen
Professor & Chair