The Department of Physics at the University of Pisa is an international center for scientific research and advanced education. Covered fields include the Physics of Fundamental Interactions, Physics of Matter, Theoretical Physics, Astrophysics and Applied Physics, with highly interdisciplinary research carried out in Nanotechnologies, Medical Physics, and in the Physics of the Universe.
The Department takes part in many international research projects at the frontier of Science, and collaborates tightly with the Pisa Division of the National Institute for Nucler Physics, and with several Institutes of National Research Council. A relevant partnership subsists with the European Gravitational Observatory, whose gravitational wave detector VIRGO strongly involves our Department.
The Department of Physics is the focus of a unique eco-system for higher education, in which we develop programmes jointly with researchers and professors of INFN, CNR, the Scuola Normale Superiore and the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna in Pisa.
External funds for research, raised in recent years, amount to several tens MEuros. We also collaborate with the Italian Institute of Technology, and with industry at national and international level, through technology transfer projects carried out with companies in various fields (e.g. new materials, quantum technologies, aerospace).
In the current National Research Quality Assessment (VQR-ANVUR), our Department is the highest in ranking among other Physics departments in its size quartile.
Broad and intense teaching activities are performed for about 1000 undergraduate students, and 60 PhD students and postgraduate students specializing in Medical Physics, all interacting with current frontier research:
- Master Degree in Physics; this is also connected with a double-degree path with Sorbonne Université and with Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz;
- Inter-department Master Degree in Materials and Nanotechnologies; this is entirely taught in English;
- PhD in Physics; listed in the ‘Innovative PhD Schools’ by the Italian Ministry of University, this is carried out jointly with INFN;
- National PhD in Space Science and Technology, founded in 2022 and coordinated by the University of Trento;
- Summer Schools promoted by the Department of Physics and validated by the University of Pisa; through Summer Schools, our undergraduate students can collaborate with international research groups. An example is our Summer School at Fermilab in Chicago.
We are also proudly committed to scientific divulgation, in the framework of the ‘Bruno Pontecorvo’ Department Center, as well as in national and international projects, including initiatives focused on Citizen Science.