Master in Physics

Today, a very wide range of jobs needs the physicist's abilities:

• Fundamental research (within universities or large research centers such as CERN or ESA), in physics, astrophysics, geophysics or biophysics

• Applied research (physics, nuclear medicine, imagery, telecommunications, energy production, meteorology, ...)

• Teaching (secondary school or academic teaching) with the "Teaching Ability" ("Agrégation")

• Research and development centers (computer sciences, engineering, actuarial affairs, ...)

• Industry (aerospace, microelectronics, environment, medicine, computer sciences, banks, insurances, ...)

• Consulting companies

Thanks to their analytical capabilities, physicists are very much in demand in the market place.

Their broad knowledge base and their capacity of adaptation allow physicists to exert in a wide range of professions: academic researcher, industrial researcher, teacher, financial sector, consultant,... They are encountered where new technologies develop, in research laboratories, in development or production industry units. They are apt to take up new challenges such as inventing new materials, investigating global warming and pollution, developing space missions... Their physics background helps them to apply analytical reasoning to other disciplines (environment, finance, biophysics, medicine,...), thereby enabling them to solve the problems encountered in our modern societies. Thanks to all of these qualities, physicists easily find jobs.

• To acquire scientific expertise in physics

• To master the scientific thought process and approach

• To communicate in a manner adapted to the context and the public

• To develop oneself professionally while respecting ethical questions in ones area of expertise

• To acquire scientific expertise in physics

  • To be critical and to develop a scientific method: an analytical and rigorous way of thinking

  • To identify and understand the principles underlying natural phenomena (conservation laws, symmetries, ...)

  • To understand the laws of nature through their formulation in classical and quantum mechanics, electromagnetism, quantum field theory, special and general relativity, thermodynamics, statistical physics, astrophysics...

  • To master the main mathematical, experimental and technological tools of modern physics

  • To use fundamental principles of physics to create or innovate

• To master the scientific thought process and approach:

  • To deduce new laws from observational facts, possibly through an interdisciplinary approach, and to formalize them within a theory

  • To discover new consequences of existing theories

  • To conceptualize and to model complex principles

  • To formulate working hypothesis or experimental protocols that can be tested and possibly refuted to assess the precision of these theories

  • To develop, optimize and exploit experimental devices

  • To analyze data

  • To confront experimental measurements with theoretical predictions and with simulations

• To communicate in a manner adapted to the context and the public:

  • To present research in a scientifically rigorous way, with an appropriate bibliography

  • To present different aspects of physics in a manner adapted to the context and the public

• To develop oneself professionally while respecting ethical questions in ones area of expertise:

  • To be self-critical in the evaluation of ones own competences

  • To respect sources and intellectual property

  • To be conscious of the importance of applying ethical rules when dealing with the technological applications of physics

  • To act as a pedagogue, to conceive how to teach a subject, to analyze the organizational and institutional context of the educational system in which one practices (MA finalité didactique)

  • To realize, individually or with peers, a critical and rigorous analysis of ones own teaching practices and their impact on students (MA finalité didactique)

Physics is concerned with the fundamental laws that govern nature. From elementary particles to the universe at large, physics explores all possible scales. It allows a better understanding of the structure of matter and allows to predict its behavior.

The ULB master in Physics provides a full education in physics, through a thorough knowledge, in particular, of :

• Plasma physics

• Nuclear physics

• Elementary particle and astroparticle physics

• Fundamental interaction physics

• Quantum physics

• Astrophysics and cosmology

• Statistical physics

• Complex systems physics

• Nonlinear optics

• Condensed matter physics

• Hydrodynamics

• Prices and distinctions: Nobel 1977, Nobel 2013, Wolf Foundation 2004, Gravity Research Foundation 1978, Franqui 1982, 2000 et 2006

• First physics departement (in CFB) in terms of publication and citations

• Active collaboration with important research centers (CERN, European Space Agency, European Southern Observatory, DESY, ESRF, ...)

• Many projects and international missions (CMS experience, GAIA, ...)

• Competitive research grants obtained (e.g. 4 ERC in the last 5 years)

• Direction of the Solvay International Institutes for Physics and Chemistry

The physicist's education necessitates an in-depth knowledge of mathematical tools. It also implies both a working method and a scientific background allowing one to tackle new problems and to develop new research axes (in research institutes, but also in the private sector). It implies learning computing sciences as well as designing and using complex devices. It drives each student towards the finest state-of-the-art understanding of the properties of nature.

The Master in Physics aims at allowing students to specialize in every possible field of modern physics and to open to them the doors to worldwide research, industrial development or teaching.

For more than a century, Brussels has been a widely recognized place for physics excellence, through the Solvay Conferences, created in 1911. The ULB Physics Department still hosts the direction of International Solvay Institutes for Physics and Chemistry. Through the organization, on a regular basis, of Colloquia, Chairs and Conferences that students are very welcome to attend, the Solvay Institutes contribute to the development and international recognition of the Physics Department.

Finally, an important aspect of the ULB Physics Department is the constant participation of many researchers (PhD students, post-doctoral and confirmed researchers) in the teaching activities (exercises, master thesis, training courses), keeping a tight link between physics education and research at the highest level.

http://www.ulb.ac.be/enseignements/support-enseignements/reussir.html