In high school chemistry, we all learned about chemical reactions. But what brings two reacting molecules together?
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Department of Physics
Expand your understanding
of the universe
Physics Courses
Studying physics encourage critical thinking and problem solving, while helping you understand everything around you – and how it all works. Whether you are a physics major or merely looking for an exciting option to fulfill your quantitative sciences requirement, we have courses for you!
Undergraduate Advising
From beginning to end, we can help! Our advisors can help you choose classes, understand degree program requirements, and stay up-to-date on university and department policies and procedures. Consistent meetings with your advisor will ensure you’re on track.
Our Faculty
Our nationally recognized faculty are members of prestigious science organizations and are published in leading scientific journals. They conduct innovative research in various aspects of physics, and their acclaimed work has elevated ASU’s position as a premier institution.
Research Highlights
Dr Daniel Martin working in the Matyushov group has recently took advantage of one of the fastest high performance supercomputers (Anton, D. E. Shaw) to look at electron tunneling in proteins. Membrane-bound bc1 complex is one of the key elements of biology’s energy production chain in mitochondria of animals and photosynthetic centers of bacteria. Longer than 10 microseconds of fully atomistic computer simulations have allowed for the first time to study the protein's low frequency motions driving electron transfer. A broad range of fluctuations, spanning from picoseconds to microseconds, affects the transition. Surprisingly, slow motions, in the range 0.1-1.6 microseconds turned out to be particularly important. This work recently appeared in the J. Chem. Phys. 142, 161101 (2015).
Recent news from the department
August 13, 2019
Some of the world’s most accomplished scientific minds will converge on Arizona State University’s Tempe campus Nov.
July 15, 2019
There are a few things in life upon which we can rely, and one of those things is that Phoenix is hot in the summer. But how hot? It’s a more complicated question than you might think.
