The Department of Physics at IIT Kanpur is reputed for its high quality academic programme and research in front-line areas of both fundamental and applied importance. The Department has at present 52 members in the Faculty assisted by a team of DST-Inspire Faculty Fellows and Postdoctoral Fellows as part of the academic staff. There are over 200 research scholars engaged in doctoral research at present.

BS/MS Programme

The Department participates in the undergraduate Core Courses in the B.Tech. Programme, and BS (4 yr) + MS (1 yr) Programme in Physics (making effective use of the flexibility in the new credit-based undergraduate Programme, with options for minor and double major in different disciplines) which includes basic and engineering sciences, workshop practices, courses on computation as well as   courses   on   humanities   and   social   sciences. The Department has a M.Sc. (2 yr) Programme as well as a Ph.D. Programme with specialization in many major areas of Physics. The Physics Department also offers a unique time-saving M.Sc. - Ph.D. (Dual Degree) Programme for those seeking to take advantage of our M.Sc. training to accelerate their progress in doctoral work. Furthermore, there is a large variety of courses offered by the Physics Faculty that are of interest to a number of Inter-Disciplinary Programmes of the Institute. The Physics Department also participates in the Laser Technology and the Materials Science Programmes of the Institute. 

The Department actively participates in front-line research in several major areas of Physics. The five main broad classes in which these research areas may be classified are: (i) Complex Systems, (ii) Condensed Matter Experiments (including ion beam, plasma and nuclear solid state), (iii) Condensed Matter Theory, (iv) High Energy Physics, and (v) Photonics and Quantum Technologies.

PH.D. Programme

The Department of Physics offers many subdisciplines in the Ph.D. programme. The requirements in the various programmes are prescribed to ensure that the scholars acquire enough professional maturity to enable them to deal with a wide range of research problems in their respective fields of specialization.

The  research  interests  of  the  department  include  topics  in  Atomic and Molecular Physics, Plasma Physics, Biological and Statistical Physics, Computational Physics, Dynamical Systems, Turbulence and Non-linear Physics, Fluid Dynamics, Evolutionary Games, , Soft Matter, Active Matter, Particle Physics, Beyond Standard Model phenomenology, QCD, Lattice Gauge Theories, Quantum Field Theory, Astrophysics, Cosmology, String Theory and Quantum Gravity - AdS/CFT  - Hydrodynamics, Biophotonics, Light-Matter Interaction, Photonics of Micro and Nano Structured Materials, Non-linear Optics, Fiber Optics, Quantum Optics, Laser Cooling and Trapping, Experimental and Theoretical Condensed  Matter Physics of strongly correlated electron systems, topological and nanomaterials; magnetism and superconductivity, semiconductor and magnetoelectronic devices, etc; Ion Beams and Nuclear Physics  Techniques, with  a substantial degree of Inter-Disciplinary activity.

Students with good academic record and strong motivation for a career in Physics can apply for admission to the Ph.D. Programme after earning Master’s degree (or the new BS 4-yr degree). The programme combines course work, guided research, independent study and teaching assignments, all designed with a view to making the scholar a professional physicist. The Ph.D course work consists of many pertinent and exciting elective courses that cover the ongoing research areas in the department.

ELECTIVE COURSES