Rochester Institute of Technology News
Physics MS

RIT will begin offering a new Ph.D. in the fall of 2024 that is designed to prepare graduates to extend the frontiers of fundamental scientific knowledge and develop new advances in technologies at the forefronts of 21st century physics.

Innovation, value, co-op education, and excellence in undergraduate teaching are among the categories in which RIT is highly ranked and listed as one of the best national universities by U.S. News & World Report.

Dean Sophia Maggelakis will be leaving RIT to become the senior vice president for academic affairs and provost at Wentworth Institute of Technology. Maggelakis joined RIT as an assistant professor in 1990, became head of the School of Mathematical Sciences in 2001, and became dean of the College of Science in 2010.

Associate Professor Ben Zwickl will head to the University of Oslo this fall to research what he calls one of the most understudied aspects of the undergraduate physics curriculum.

RIT graduate degree programs in engineering, science, and business were featured in the U.S. News & World Report 2023 edition of Best Graduate Schools, released in March.

RIT is extending a special graduate tuition scholarship program to recent alumni as the COVID-19 pandemic enters its third year. The program helps alumni who graduated during the pandemic enhance their skill set for the new economy through master’s degrees that build upon collaboration, analytical thinking, complex problem solving, and flexibility. 

Three faculty members who chose to start their research careers at RIT received prestigious National Science Foundation CAREER Awards in 2021. Their research aims to advance the foundations of machine intelligence, artificial intelligence, and clean energy.

RIT has again been recognized as one of the best national universities by U.S. News & World Report, which also cited the university as among the most innovative, best valued, and with highly regarded cooperative education and internship programs.

RIT graduate programs are among the best in the nation, according to the U.S. News & World Report annual statistical survey of graduate programs.

Assistant Professor Pratik Dholabhai from RIT’s School of Physics and Astronomy received an NSF Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award and grant for his five-year project to conduct fundamental physics research on complex materials in solid oxide fuel cells.

Professor Seth Hubbard is an expert in designing, growing, and fabricating solar cells and said that if the cost of these highly efficient solar cells can be reduced enough, they could be used to help devices ranging from smartphones to drones to cars.

RIT’s Future Photon Initiative (FPI) and L3Harris have entered into a new industry partnership to develop quantum technologies. The partners will begin developing next steps for experiments and analysis focused on quantum information processing for communication, sensing, and computing.