Undergraduate Research
Research
In the Physics Department, students gain hands-on research experience with department faculty, innovative equipment and scientists from some of the world's top institutions. For more than a century, the department has spearheaded important discoveries in our labs and fostered generations of researchers, systems engineers, environmental scientists and biomedical engineers. Outside the department, our faculty hold leadership roles with partner institutes around the world, offering students unparalleled research and employment opportunities.
With lab groups across many interest areas, undergraduate and graduate students can build their research experience and present, publish and win awards for their work. Research is ongoing in experimental and theoretical nuclear physics, experimental and theoretical biophysics, and high-energy astrophysics.
Chryssa Kouveliotou
Professor of Astrophysics
“[The university] combines the academic environment and also the research environment because GW is located in a hub of educational institutions and research centers. … The people that exist at and near the university are such fantastic scientists and personalities.”
Faculty by Research Area
Research Facilities
The biophysics lab in Science and Engineering Hall
The Physics Department operates out of historic Corcoran Hall and the state-of-the-art Science and Engineering Hall (SEH). Labs are outfitted with cutting-edge equipment. The department also partners with researchers from other sciences at SEH, and faculty collaborate with many of the country's top research institutions located in the Washington, D.C., area.
GW Centers and Institutes
Our Researchers Making Headlines
Online Parenting Communities Pulled Closer to Extreme Groups
Previous research has shown that social media feeds the spread of misinformation. But exactly how that occurs has been unclear, leaving social media platforms struggling under the deluge of new material posted each day. Led by Professor of Physics Neil Johnson, the research team set out to better understand how the Facebook machinery helps misinformation thrive and spread through the platform’s network of online communities.
NASA Pact Rockets Astrophysics Impact
The GW Astrophysics Group within the Columbian College of Arts and Sciences (CCAS) is expanding its reach into space exploration with a new agreement with the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC). The milestone partnership will open doors to a greater imprint for the CCAS Physics Department in space science.
Excited states of strongly interacting matter predicted from first principles
The George Washington Lattice QCD collaboration has determined for the first time the existence and properties of strongly interacting three-body resonances from first principles.
Malicious Content Exploits Path Ways between Online Platforms
A new study led by GW researchers demonstrates how harmful content spreads through the online “hate multiverse” across popular platforms.
