Physics & Astronomy Department

Relative to enrollment, Hampden-Sydney College educates a large share of the nation's industrial, research, and teaching physicists. This is not by accident; the faculty, innovative in their teaching and active in research, teaches in modern, state-of-the-art facilities housing equipment not typically found in an undergraduate college. Students can work with faculty members specializing in astronomy, astrophysics, superconductivity, physical acoustics, condensed matter, nuclear physics, digital electronics, and computational physics. Hampden-Sydney boasts its own astronomical observatory housing a fully automated, research-grade, computerized reflecting telescope - one of the finest small-college facilities of its kind in the country.

At our commencement exercises in May 2012, Professor Walter "Mike" McDermott was presented with the Thomas Edward Crawley Award for Service to the College.  His noteworthy service includes chairing the search committee to select our present Dean of the Faculty, chairing the Physics Department for six years, and serving on the Academic Affairs Committee.

Physics major Shihao Tian (HSC '12) will be starting graduate school in Physics at Cornell University.

Will Boone (HSC '12) will be starting graduate school in Medical Physics at Georgia Tech.

Bubbles play an important role in the propagation of sound in water.

Simply trying to measure the speed of sound with traditional techniques is not possible because the wave gets strongly attenuated.

DR. STANLEY A. CHEYNE,
PROFESSOR OF PHYSICS AND ASTRONOMY