This year, Carnegie Mellon is offering quantum physics as a new track for physics undergraduates. This change was spearheaded by Claire Gist, a third-year physics student, who is now a quantum physics student.
In addition to the standard bachelor of science in physics, Carnegie Mellon offers tracks in applied physics, astrophysics, biological physics, chemical physics, and computational physics. As a first-year, Gist noticed that these options “cover most of the bases that CMU has professors that do research in, but there’s a distinct lack of quantum.” She was on the physics steering committee, and she “was in a position where I knew the department head [Scott Dodelson] and was able to make suggestions, so I just asked about it, and we ended up talking about it a lot as a group.” They discussed both the possible desires of students and of employers. She says that “the physics department was, I think, very excited about the idea.” The main barrier was having to “write up a report and present it to different layers of university hierarchy to get something approved to officially add to a department … no one was ever against it, it just naturally takes time to approve things.”
According to the Physics Departent’s website, the new track offers “courses in theoretical and applied quantum physics, with course options in nuclear and particle physics, solid-state physics, or nanoscience and nanotechnology.” These courses were already offered, and students like Gist were already able to take the curriculum of the quantum track if they so desired (through the standard physics track). However, now it will be acknowledged on their transcript.
The new track will also require students to perform research. Gist says quantum physics research can be quite accessible to undergraduates, “especially since we do take introductory quantum sophomore year, and there are plenty of things that you can do where you don’t need to know every little thing to be able to do an experiment.” This way, students who want to do research will be able to neatly fit it into their schedule. To do research, she says, “you don’t have to be an amazing expert or, like, a super genius. You just have to be willing to put in some time to learn something outside your curriculum.” Students don’t have to declare a track within physics until their third-year spring semester, and Gist says the physics core curriculum encourages students to explore various subject areas before they declare.
Gist says that quantum physics isn’t just for people who want to become academics; there is currently a great deal of excitement surrounding the field, especially with regard to quantum computing, and so private companies and the government hire quantum physicists. According to the Physics Department website, the new track will prepare students “for research careers or graduate studies related to quantum materials, devices, and computing.”
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