Physics Department Self-Study Report for the Academic Program Review Elliott Cheu, Kenneth Johns, Sumit Mazumdar, Ina Sarcevic, Charles Stafford, Bira van Kolck, Charles Wolgemuth April 6, 2018 Abstract This report contains material for the Academic Program Review of the physics department at the University of Arizona. The report covers the years from 2011-2017. Contents A Self Study Summary 10 B Unit Description and Goals 12 B.1 Department Mission and Alignment with the University of Arizona (UA) Strategic Plan... 12 B.2 Department Strategic Plan..................................... 12 B.2.1 Undergraduate and Graduate Student Engagement.................... 12 B.2.2 Faculty Hiring and Innovation............................... 15 C Unit History 17 C.1 Major Changes That Have Occurred Since the Last Academic Program Review (APR) (2011) 17 C.2 Recommendations from the Previous APR and Changes Made in Response........... 18 D Academic Quality 25 D.1 External Rankings.......................................... 25 D.2 Internal Rankings........................................... 26 D.3 Unit Peer Institutions........................................ 27 E Faculty 32 1 E.1 Research................................................ 32 E.2 External Funding........................................... 38 E.3 Participation in the Academic Profession.............................. 38 E.4 Teaching................................................ 43 E.5 Planned Faculty Hires........................................ 45 E.6 Compensation............................................. 46 E.7 Diversity................................................ 47 E.8 Biographical Sketches........................................ 47 F Unit Administration 48 G Unit Resources 50 G.1 Existing Unit Resources....................................... 50 G.2 Resource Needs............................................ 52 H Undergraduate Program 53 H.1 Overview............................................... 53 H.2 General Education.......................................... 53 H.3 Undergraduate Programs...................................... 54 H.4 Undergraduate Students....................................... 56 H.5 Learning Outcomes Assessment................................... 60 H.5.1 Expected Student Learning Outcomes........................... 60 H.5.2 Assessment Activities.................................... 60 H.5.3 Assessment Plan and Findings............................... 61 H.5.4 Changes Made in Response to Findings.......................... 61 I Graduate Program 62 I.1 Overview............................................... 62 I.2 Curriculum and Courses....................................... 62 I.3 Graduate Students.......................................... 65 I.4 Learning Outcomes Assessment................................... 68 2 I.4.1 Expected Student Learning Outcomes........................... 68 I.4.2 Assessment Activities.................................... 68 I.4.3 Assessment Plan and Findings............................... 69 I.4.4 Changes Made in Response to Findings.......................... 69 I.5 Post-Doctoral Fellows........................................ 70 J Academic Outreach 71 K Collaboration with Other Units 73 K.1 Collaborations in Research...................................... 73 L Faculty Planning 75 L.1 Faculty's Collective View of the Program's Future........................ 75 L.1.1 Student Engagement..................................... 75 L.1.2 Faculty Hiring and Innovation............................... 76 Appendices 77 A Peer Teaching Evaluation 77 B TCE Teaching Evaluations 80 C APR Teaching Rubric 109 D Faculty CV's 111 E Committees 170 F Academic Advisor Duties 172 G PHYS 200 Syllabus 174 H B.S. Requirements 179 I B.A. Requirements 181 3 J Proposed B.S. in Applied Physics Degree Requirements 183 K PHYS 382 Creative Project 188 L Senior Exit Survey 190 M Undergraduate Research Symposium Survey for Faculty 195 N Undergraduate Curriculum Map 197 O Ph.D. Requirements 201 P Professional Science Masters in Medical Physics Requirements 205 Q Graduate Curriculum Map 208 R Unit Profile Data 211 4 List of Tables 1 Physics department quality metrics used by the College of Science (COS)........... 26 2 Faculty awarded NSF, DOE or other young faculty awards since 2000............. 26 3 Faculty who have receivedUA research awards since 2000.................... 27 4 Faculty who have received national or international research awards since 2000........ 27 5 Comparison of statistics reflecting the undergraduate program atUA and peer departments. 28 6 Comparison of statistics reflecting the graduate program atUA and peer departments.... 28 7 Comparison of statistics reflecting the research program atUA and peer departments.... 28 8 List of tenured and tenure-track physics faculty.......................... 33 9 Faculty awards since 2010...................................... 34 10 Current grants and contracts. In the case of external PIs or subcontracts, the awarded in- stitution is listed under \Source", \PI" denotes the responsible local faculty member, and \Amount" refers to the physics department share......................... 39 11 Pending grants............................................ 40 12 Granted patents since 2010..................................... 40 13 Pending patents............................................ 40 14 Faculty leadership in professional societies since 2010....................... 40 15 Faculty participation in conference organization.......................... 41 16 Faculty editorial service since 2010................................. 42 17 Faculty participation in funding panels since 2010......................... 42 18 Faculty participation in advising boards and committees since 2010............... 43 19 Physics faculty teaching awards since 2009............................. 44 20 Summary of physics faculty arrivals and departures since the last APR............. 45 21 Physics faculty hires since the previous APR........................... 45 22 Physics faculty departures...................................... 46 23 Faculty tenure decisions and promotions.............................. 46 24 Academic year compensation comparison with peer institutions................. 46 25 Percentages of physics faculty by gender and race/ethnicity................... 47 26 List of classified staff in the department.............................. 49 5 27 Courses with course fees....................................... 51 28 Writing requirements in PHYS 200................................. 53 29 Opportunities for student learning in PHYS 200......................... 54 30 Enrolled physics majors....................................... 54 31 Completed physics majors...................................... 54 32 Seven year average of freshman counts and average SAT scores in physics, the COS, and the UA................................................... 56 33 Five year average (2012-2016) of the fraction of majors in the Honors program in the physics department, the COS, and theUA.................................. 57 34 Seven year average of the years to degree for students in physics, the COS, and theUA.... 57 35 Seven year average GPA of completed physics majors, majors in the COS, and all majors at theUA................................................. 57 36 Gender composition of undergraduate physics majors....................... 58 37 Race/ethnicity composition of undergraduate physics majors.................. 58 38 Honors courses offered in the physics department. Courses marked with are those that are co-convened with the non-honors version of the course.......................∗ 59 39 Enrolled and first year Ph.D. students and Professional Science Masters (PSM) students... 63 40 Completed Ph.D. and PSM degrees................................. 63 41 Six and eight year Ph.D. completion rates for three five-year cohorts.............. 63 42 Women in the graduate Ph.D. program.............................. 65 43 Ethnic composition of the graduate Ph.D. program........................ 66 44 Job placements of Ph.D. students - 2010-2013........................... 67 45 Job placements of Ph.D. students - 2014-2017........................... 68 46 Positions taken by postdocs immediately afterUA........................ 70 6 Abbreviations Used in this Report AA Academic Advisor. 50, 59 ABOR Arizona Board of Regents. 25, 27 ABR American Board of Radiology. 75 AFOSR Air Force Office of Science Research. 32, 34, 35, 38, 39 AIP American Institute of Physics. 54, 57 AMO Atomic, Molecular, and Optical physics. 15, 16, 19{21, 25, 28, 33, 35, 45, 64, 75 AMS Accelerator Mass Spectrometer. 37 APR Academic Program Review.1,5, 10, 11, 17, 45, 48, 72 APS American Physical Society. 32, 67, 76 ARO Army Research Office. 35, 38{40 ASO Academic Support Office. 48{50 ASU Arizona State University. 35 BPP Biological Physics Program. 35, 74 CAMPEP Commission on Accreditation of Medical Physics Education Programs. 24, 62 CAS Chinese Academy of Sciences. 32, 34 CBC Chemistry and Biochemistry. 19 CERN European Center for Nuclear Research. 15, 37 CIP Classification of Instructional Programs. 53, 62 CM Condensed Matter physics. 15, 16, 45 COOS College of Optical Sciences. 10, 14, 19, 74, 75 COS College of Science.5,6, 10, 15, 17, 19, 22, 24, 26, 27, 32, 34, 43, 48{51, 56, 57, 72, 73, 77 CUWiP Conferences for Women in Physics. 20 D2L Desire2Learn. 56, 64 DARPA Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. 35, 40 DDM Dynamical Dark Matter. 37 DES Dark Energy Survey. 36 DESC Dark Energy Science Collaboration.