About the Program

As a student pursuing a minor in Biophysics, you bridge the gap between biology and physics. Biology studies life in its variety and complexity. Physics looks for mathematical laws of nature and makes detailed predictions about the forces that drive systems. Finding the patterns in life and analyzing them with math and physics is a powerful way to gain insights.

If you are curious about biological processes and enjoy puzzle solving, designing experiments or working with numbers and computers, there are many exciting opportunities for you in biophysics. Biophysicists use the methods of mathematics, physics, chemistry and biology to study how living organisms work. They investigate how the brain processes and stores information, how the heart pumps blood, how muscles contract, how plants use light in photosynthesis, how genes are switched on and off and many other questions. 

The minor allows you flexibility to study processes at the cellular level, the physics of the human body and other organisms, the operation of medical diagnostic equipment and the science of climate change.

Curriculum

The Biophysics minor requires eighteen (18) hours of coursework.

Program Required CoursesCredits
PHY 210 – University Physics I*4
PHY 211 – University Physics II*4
PHY 220 – Medical Physics or PHY 310 – Biophysics: Structure & Motion or PHY 410 – Topics in Physics4
Six (6) Credits of Program Specific Electives6
Minimum Total Required Credits18
Program Specific Electives**Credits
PHY 208 – Energy and Climate Change3
PHY 209 – Computational Physics3
PHY 220 – Medical Physics4
PHY 305 – Revolutions of 20th Century Physics3
PHY 306 – Math Methods of Modern Physics1
PHY 310 – Biophysics: Structure & Motion3
PHY 320 – Biomechanics4
PHY 410 – Topics in Physics3–4

*PHY 110 and PHY 111 may be accepted with program permission.

**With permission, either MAR 368 (Advanced Oceanography II: PHY/CHE, 3 credits) or CHE 370 (Physical Chemistry I, 4 credits) can be substituted for one (1) elective course.