Physics Facilities and Equipment

The Department of Physics and Astronomy is housed on the first and second floors of Grote Hall. Grote Hall underwent an eight million dollar renovation from 2008 to 2010.  This renovation resulted in new classrooms, labs, and research areas. There is a student study room, Grote 211 (home to the SPS) and a student project room, Grote 213.

Library resources include thousands of hard copy chemistry and physics books, on-line access to the over 50 journals, access to all electronic books published by the leading agencies, various scientific searching programs, access to the world literature through Web of Science searching and Interlibrary Loan (ILL).  The department also offers a PC computer lab in Grote 316. This lab operates from 6:10 a.m. until 7:30 p.m. weekdays. Each computer has Internet access and Microsoft Office, as well as molecular modeling (Scigress) and other specialized physics and astronomy software. The computers are networked to a copier/printer in the room that is part of a pay to print MocsPrint station.

Located within the department is scientific instrumentation with a value of about one million dollars. This includes a quantum sensing lab, rheometer, as well as other modern equipment appropriate for an outstanding undergraduate program in Physics. We also operate an observatory with a 20.5” telescope and a 24 foot planetarium. A list of some instruments is below.