Several impressive research laboratories are housed in Connecticut College's department of physics, astronomy and geophysics. You can work with faculty members on exciting research projects. Much of our research equipment is designed and fabricated right here at the College, giving you unique and boundless opportunities to design, construct and test different systems.

  • The Daghlian accelerator laboratory houses a 1-million volt positive ion accelerator, Pelletron-designed and built by National Electrostatics Corporation. The beams from the accelerator are used in two different research projects in the areas of atmospheric physics, comets and planetary physics, and archaeology and environmental studies research. 

  • The 20 inch Ritchey-Chretien Cassegrain telescope in the Olin Observatory is equipped with a modern CCD camera, on which students conduct differential photometry projects on various celestial objects ranging from active galactic nuclei to comets and asteroids. Contact professors Leslie Brown or Mike Weinstein for more information. 

  • The state's largest recirculating hydraulic flume used to replicate flow in natural rivers. This system circulates more than 10 gallons a second to produce patterns of erosion and deposition. Turbulence can be measured with an acoustic Doppler velocimeter.A photonics laboratory that hosts a fully-automated semiconductor device characterization setup, a high-speed optoelectronic system for generation of high power and short optical pulses for free-space optical communication applications. Contact Professor Doug Thompson for more information.

  • The photonics lab hosts a fully-automated semiconductor device characterization setup, a high-speed optoelectronic system for generation of high power and short optical pulses for free-space optical communication applications. The photonics research focuses on the invention of new semiconductor device concepts, the practical realization of those devices, and their integration into subsystems. Contact Professor Mohamed Diagne for more information.