Department of Physics and Astronomy

Notice for the beginning of the semester

The summer semester will start as planned on April 20. Because of the rules on social distancing due to the COVID-19 virus all the courses of the coming semester will be held in a virtual format. Details on the courses and their implementation can be found here. Further information, in particular about exams is given here.

As soon as a timeline is available that details the softening of the rules currently in place we will inform you here about a possible implementation at our department.

General information provided by the University can be found here.

Physik

The department of physics and astronomy is dedicated to a broadly laid-out programme of teaching and research. It feels itself committed to Humboldt's ideal of teaching rooted in research and sees its research programme an the borders of knowledge as a prerequisite for teaching and training its students at high quality.

Research

Research encompasses core areas of fundamental physics as well as interdisciplinary border areas. In the core areas, research focuses on elementary particle physics, the structure and evolution of the universe, and the properties of complex classical and quantum systems. The interdisciplinary border areas include environmental physics, bio- and medical physics as well as technical computer science. Research is located at 4 department institutes and the Heidelberg Centre for Astronomy. Apart from that, the research environment in Heidelberg is distinguished by a multitude of extra-university research institutions which are topically and personally closely connected to the department. ... more.

Physics degrees

The courses of study include a Bachelors degree, a Masters degree and a doctoral programme with a wide scope. The department currently educates about 2000 students. About 1500 of these are enrolled in the undergraduate courses, and more than 400 participate in the doctoral programme. With over three hundred Bachelors or Masters graduations and over one hundred doctoral degrees awarded in the academic year 2015, Heidelberg lies at the top of all German physics departments. Education and training are strongly oriented towards research.