Department of Physics and Astronomy - Minnesota State University Moorhead

Department of Physics and Astronomy
College of Health, Science, & the Environment

Department SeminarBiomedical Engineering - Utilizing STEM Fields in Healthcare
by Andrew Larson (Sanford Health)

Friday, February 15 at 3:00 pm in Hagen 325
Biomedical engineering is a multidisciplinary field concerned with creating solutions to problems in healthcare. Some engineers find themselves interfacing with a variety of processionals to take a medical device, biotechnology, or software from concept all the way to a doctors’ hands.Life after Science
by Beau Scheving (Cirrus Aircraft)

Friday, February 22 at 3:00 pm in Hagen 325
For my presentation I will be exploring the differences between college and the workforce as well as the skills you learn in college you need to be successful in the workplace. From the first day you stepped onto campus your future is laid out for you. You will take the classes required by your major, follow a syllabus provided by a professor, and answer the questions laid out in front of you. But in work and life the path isn’t always this clear. There won’t always be someone to hand you a problem and ask you to fix it. You will have to find the problems for yourself. The skills you learn here at MSUM go much farther than memorizing equations or spitting out the correct numerical answer. The most important skills you will want to leave MSUM with is your problem solving abilities and your adaptability to many different situations. These are the skills that have helped me the most and is what we will be exploring together in this presentation.

Department News

Get Rewarded for Demonstrating your Demo!: The Department is offering five $100 awards for our first Physics Demo Descriptor Competition. See the scholarship page for details, applications due 5pm on February 4, 2019
Society of Physics Students wins national award: The Society of Physics Students (SPS) has been once again recognized by the SPS National Council for their quality and quantity of activities they do with the wider community. The SPS National Council awarded the Minnesota State University Moorhead SPS Chapter a 2017-18 Distinguished Chapter. This is the sixth consecutive year that the MSUM SPS Chapter has been recognized with a Distinguished or Outstanding chapter award. (Dec. 11)
Sherry Fieber-Beyer '03 awarded Distinguished Alumni Award: Physics and Astronomy alum Dr. Sherry Fieber-Beyer is currently "a research assistant professor at the University of North Dakota, [and] has devoted herself to teaching graduate students the art of scientific space research. She is the sole female faculty member in the department. Beyer also currently acts as the Space Studies Alumni Coordinator and has assisted in the establishment of their alumni website and many alumni events and communication." (June 25).

Mission Statement

Our mission is to provide excellent undergraduate instruction in physics and astronomy. In lower division courses, faculty use lecture demonstrations, cooperative learning methods, hands-on activities, and field trips to develop a broad working knowledge of physics. In upper division courses, in addition to the above methods, students learn through cooperative projects, research with faculty, and hands-on instrumentation and computation projects.

About the Department of Physics and Astronomy

The MSUM Physics and Astronomy program is a student-centered program. We provide students with educational opportunities in the classroom and outside it in order to improve their preparation for a career using physics.

We have facilities including a nanotechnology and robotics lab, a student-built NMR machine, and the Paul P. Feder observatory.

Our faculty have high quality research programs in space physics, robotics, extragalactic, galactic, and solar system astrophysics, and physics education. Our undergraduate students participate in these research programs and gain experience to prepare them for careers in physics and related fields.

Contact Information
Office: Hagen Hall 307
Phone: (218) 477-2141
Email: lindellj@mnstate.edu

Send ground mail to:
Department of Physics and Astronomy
Minnesota State University Moorhead
1104 7th Avenue South, Hagen Hall 307
Moorhead, MN 56563

An interactive campus map of Minnesota State University Moorhead is available to find Hagen Hall.