University of Helsinki

 

The Department of physics is a multidisciplinary, international high-level research and educational institution. The department is among the biggest departments of the university and the largest physics department in the country. The department has 28 professorships and the number of person years is about 240.

Among the tasks of the department are research in physics, meteorology and geophysics, and Bachelor's, Master's, and post-graduate degree education based on high-level research.

The General division is responsible for administrative, educational and technical services. The research associated with teacher training is done in didactical physics. Physics education is also given in the Swedish language at the master's level. The Department of physics is the only institution in the country where education in meteorology is given at the university level.

The research fields of the Division of materials physics are the structure and dynamics of matter, and the properties and changes of matter. The division has five research laboratories: the laboratory of nano materials, ion beam analysis laboratory, electronic structure laboratory, microtomography laboratory and electronics laboratory. Research is also done in medical physics and biophysics.

The Division of elementary particle physics is divided in two fields of research, particle theories and cosmology, and particle experiments. The division has a detector laboratory, which works in cooperation with the national detector laboratory in the Helsinki institute of physics.

The fields of research in the Division of atmospheric sciences and geophysics are aerosol dynamics, meteorology, geophysics and sun-earth physics. The division has four research laboratories, the laboratoy for aerosol physics, the SMEAR stations, the laboratory of radar- and mesometeorology and the geophysics laboratory.

The research fields of the department include experimental, computational and theoretical research.

The researchers in the department are actively involved in the research of the large international research centres, especially CERN, ESRF and ITER.

According to an international evaluation of research done by the University of Helsinki the department is among 10 % of the best European departments of physics. According to an evaluation of the European universities done by the German evaluation organisation for higher education, Centre for Higher Education Development, the Department of physics as the only Finnish institution in the field of mathematics and natural sciences, was found to be in the excellency class, which includes only 1,3 % of the institutions in this field.