Black Hole Eats Star: Student Charts Record Blast
Physics PhD student Eliza Neights was part of a NASA mission that recorded a gamma-ray burst, the most powerful class of cosmic explosions, that lasted for days.
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 physics of living systems, and high-energy 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.”
Chryssa Kouveliotou
Professor of Astrophysics
Faculty by Research Area
Research Facilities
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
Affiliated Institutions
Physics Computing Cluster (Gamow)
Completed in the basement of Corcoran Hall in September 2024, the cluster is envisioned as infrastructure to support the teaching and research mission of the Physics Department.
Physics Making Headlines
More Than Pretty Pictures: Space Telescopes Transform Science and Society
GW faculty explored how images from the Hubble and James Webb telescopes reshape science and influence policy, priorities and public perception.
George Washington University senior Olivia Nippe-Jeakins, a physics major, received the Universities Space Research Association (USRA) Distinguished Undergraduate Award.
Ask a GW Expert: Alexander van der Horst on Friction and Tennis Courts
Alexander van der Horst, chair of the Physics Department, explains differences among tennis court surfaces as the U.S. Open tournament gets underway.