Physical engineering faculty

The Physical Engineering Faculty was set up in 1966, but it was in the early sixties when the necessity of establishing the faculty had been substantiated and preparation for opening a degree in physical engineering had started. Academician Budker, Director of SB RAS Institute of Nuclear Physics and Professor Lyshchinsky, Rector of Novosibirsk Institute of Electrical Engineering were the founding fathers of the Physical Engineering Faculty. In 1963 Academician Budker wrote that at all times it was the discoveries in physics which formed the basis of new technical equipment. “The history of physics consists of a continuous process of great discoveries transfer from science to industrial production. But the science itself, its methods, and the equipment are becoming industrialized and are in need of highly skilled engineers. The present-day engineer-physicist is a broadly educated person competent both in physics and engineering. His task is application of the up-to-date discoveries in physics to technology and the use of the latest achievements of engineering in physics research.”

1992 is considered to be another landmark in the history of the faculty. As a result of reorganizion of the faculty structure, SB RAS Institute of Nuclear Physics and Institute of Laser Physics became the basic institutes of the Physical Engineering Faculty.

The two leading departments of the faculty are the Department of Electrophysical Installations and Accelerators and the Department of Laser Systems.

The faculty offers B.Sc. and M.Sc. programs in the fields of physics and engineering physics and engineer’s degree in the areas of charged particle beam physics and accelerator technique.

From the very beginning, the training process conception has been formed on the basis of the idea of Moscow Physical Engineering Institute unique methods of individual training of young specialists which, in its turn, consists of the following concepts:

1. careful selection of the most talented young people capable of doing creative work and interested in it;

2. direct participation of leading researchers in the training process; close contacts with research institutions;

3. individual approach to students aimed at developing their creative abilities;

4. absorption of students in the atmosphere of creativeness and research on the basis of the most up-to-date laboratory equipment and unique research facilities.

The faculty trains specialists in the fields of nuclear and laser physics and knowledge-intensive technologies for the leading SB RAS institutes.

Profound fundamental training in physics and mathematics which is practically not different from this at the physics faculties of the leading research universities is the most important part of the training process. The faculty is implementing the conception of university education as an integrated educational and research activity.

During the first four years students are given fundamental training in the basic subjects: physics and mathematics, and knowledge of the present-day methods of experimental research, methods and technical facilities for automatic data processing and data collection. In connection with the above, profound study of computer science and computer technologies is offered. Special attention is paid to the foreign languages study. An intensive course of English is given both to undergraduate and graduate students.

From their third year of study, students of the faculty are given training both at the university and the basic research institutes. They are assigned an adviser and do supervised research. Students are involved in the research teams at the institutes’ laboratories. Their term and degree papers are included in the research programs of the institutes’ laboratories. Students participate in the work of research seminars and are actively involved in the atmosphere of the research conducted. Wide international relations of the SB RAS institutes, numerous research seminars and conferences, including those with the participation of foreign researchers, give students unique opportunities for professional growth.

As a result, the faculty graduates have some research works published, they gain experience to make presentations at scientific conferences including those with English as the conference working language. Even in the difficult present-day economic situation, more than sixty percent of the graduates continue their work as researchers at the SB RAS research institutes.

Those, who chose to pursue their careers in other fields of activity, effectively adapt to practical work due to the fundamental basic education and wide professional skills obtained.

Department of Electrophysical Installations and Accelerators

The Department offers Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in physics and Engineer’s degree in charged particle beam physics and accelerator technique. The major subjects taught are Methods of Mathematical Physics; Computational Methods in Physics, Introduction into Computer Methods of Physics, Fundamentals of Radioelectronics, Present-Day Problems of Physical Experiment, Design of Electrophysical Installations and Devices.