General Information about the Faculty

Education The Faculty has educational programs leading to a B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. programs. The undergraduate program consists of basic baccalaureate program (7 semesters) followed by 3 semesters of graduate courses leading to the Master of Science degree in technical physics in the following specialization: Nuclear physics, Solid state physics, Computational physics, Energetic, Medical Physics & Dosimetry, (in co-operation with the Collegium Medicum, Jagiellonian University, Kraków) Environmental physics. The graduate program can be extended in the (four year) Ph.D. program. The Faculty offers Ph.D. thesis research in a broad range of areas including: technical nuclear physics, condensed matter physics, high energy physics, nuclear electronics, environmental physics. Due to the science-engineering-technological orientation of the University of Mining and Metallurgy, the faculty has major teaching assignments for students of other faculties at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. Some of lectures are offered in English. Scientific research The research activity of the Faculty comprises both the theoretical and experimental aspects of many major areas like; Elementary Particles Physics, Solid State Physics, Theoretical and Computing Physics, Nuclear Electronics, Radiation Detectors, X-ray Fluorescence and Microdosimetry, Hydrology and Gas Chromatography, Nuclear Geophysics, Effective Energy Conversion, Medical Physics, Industrial Radiometry. The Faculty research programs are carried out in close collaboration with many international laboratories and centers (e.g. DESY, CERN); and its scientific achievements are internationally recognized. Brief history of the Faculty The first Department of Physics at the University of Mining was established in 1919. ItÆs head, Professor Jan Stock, initiated also the first physics teaching facilities: student laboratory in general physics and a collection of demonstrations in physics used to illustrate the lectures. In 1925, his position was taken over by Professor Mieczys³aw Je¿ewski, who, together with his collaborators, starated research activities focused mainly on the physical properties of dielectrics and liquid crystals. In 1934, Dr Marian Miêsowicz, one of Professor Je¿ewski's assistants, originated an independent and pioneering research on hydrodynamics of liquid crystals that resulted in discovery of the anisotropy of their viscosity. Professor Miêsowicz works are widely recognised as fundamental for contemporary investigations in this field. At the end of 1930s, professor Miêsowicz turned his scientific interests towards nuclear physics. After World War Two, physicists community at the University divided into two Departments. Professor Je¿ewski became Head of the 1st Department of Physics and carried on his research on dielectrics and magnetic materials, while Professor Miêsowicz took over the 2nd Department of Physics and started intensive research on cosmic radiation. In the mid-fifties Prof. Miêsowicz led a group of Krakow elementary-particle physicists. This group, collaborating closely with the University of Mining and Metallurgy, was actually the department of the Warsaw Institute of Nuclear Research; and at the end of the fifties was incorporated into the structure of the Institute of Nuclear Physics in Krakow. Today, the complex of buildings at Kawiory Street houses the Marian Miêsowicz Centre of High Energy Physics, where the physicists from the University of Mining and Metallurgy, the Institute of Nuclear Physics in Krakow, and the Jagiellonian University work together. In 1962, the 2nd Department of Physics was transformed into the first University Institute of Nuclear Techniques. Five years later its name was changed to the Inter-branch Institute of Physics and Nuclear Techniques of the University of Mining and Metallurgy. Professor Leopold Jurkiewicz was its first Head. Finally, in 1991, by the decision of the University Senate, the Faculty of Physics and Nuclear Techniques was established. This meant an ultimate integration of the University physicists into one organisation and resulted in a unification of teaching programs in physics and in a certain "standardisation" of the profile of University graduates. Simultaneously, the new educational program leading to a MSc Eng. degree in technical physics was established, which can be viewed as a new quality in the University's curricula.