Physics is that branch of science that attempts to discover all laws that govern the physical universe, from the smallest subatomic particle to the universe itself. Further, physics seeks to express these laws in a mathematical language in order that for a given set of initial conditions of a system, all future properties of the system that can be known will be predictable to a calculable accuracy.

The Physics Program offers an educational opportunity that provides a minor and that serves the needs of students who wish to satisfy core curriculum science requirements or major requirements of other departments. In addition, it serves those students in one of the cooperative plans in engineering that the University of St. Thomas has entered into with other universities.

The objective of the Physics Program is to provide an excellent undergraduate opportunity as a minor and as a service to other departments and programs that require physics courses for their major, minor and pre-professional students.

Astronomy, the study of stars, planets, and other heavenly objects beyond Earth’s immediate environment, has occupied a central position in mankind’s quest for intellectual understanding of Nature and the universal laws which govern and explain matter and energy. Historically, the development of science and the scientific method have received much of their initial motivation from trying to understand the behavior of the various lights observed in the night sky. The study of astronomy provides a natural backdrop for tracing the historical and philosophical development of mankind’s quest for understanding both our place in the Cosmos and the important role that science plays in that quest. Astronomy studies how and where stars are born, how they live out their lives, and how they die. It looks at the grouping of stars into galaxies and the behavior of matter over the vast spatial and temporal scales of the Universe.