Basel Universität
Departement für Physik
Departement für Physik

Why study Physics in Basel?


There are numerous reasons that make studying in Basel very attractive:

  1. The rather over seeable size of the typical first year Bachelors class (typically around 20 students per year) gives a favorable number of students per professor, which is not only an important figure for class room lectures but particularly relevant for lab courses and hands-on research experience available to students in our research groups.
  2. The ongoing research activities (see also about us) make our Department in Basel probably the fore-most institution in Switzerland for studying Nano Physics as well as Nano Science (poster).
  3. The environment of excellence in research in Basel is reflected in the teaching activities of our devoted professors and lecturers.
  4. Reflecting our active research groups, we offer a wide variety of specialized courses in Nano Physics and Astro / Nuclear & Particle physics, taught by professors who are established and well known researchers in their fields.
  5. The departments of Biology, Chemistry, Computer Science and Mathematics offer a large number courses complementing and extending the Physics Curriculum, particularly in Nano Sciences.

Our focus of research is Nano physics as well as Astro/Nucelar/Particle physics. With our many active research groups we have been able to attract the following major centers to our Department:

  1. the Swiss Nanoscience Institute (SNI), National Competence Center of Research (NCCR) in Nanoscale Science
  2. the Basel QC2 Center for Quantum Computation and Quantum Coherence

We understand the terms Nano and Nano physics as a very broad collection of diverse research that all merges in one way or another at the nanometer scale, uniting not only various research efforts within physics but also activities in chemistry, biology and medical research.


Though we are a rather small institute (with currently 11 departmental chairs), we enjoy an excellent reputation on an international level and are very well cited in the scientific community, with an average of 24.5 citations per paper on place 5 (sorted by citations per paper) among all physics departments with more than 1000 publications, as ranked by Essential Science Indicators (ESI), Web of Science. See also the table in about us.


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