Department of Physics and Astronomy
The Department of Physics and Astronomy is part of the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences at the University of Bonn and is made up of the Argelander Institute for Astronomy, the Helmholtz Institute for Radiation and Nuclear Physics, the Institute for Applied Physics and the Physikalisches Institut.
On this page you can find out more about the organization of the department with its various institutes and its facilities.
Institutes
Research in various fields of physics and astronomy, from nuclear, hadron and particle physics to optics, condensed matter and radio astronomy, is carried out at the four institutes of the department. The physicists at these four institutions jointly design and carry out a wide range of activities for students, researchers, young people and the general public.
AIfA: Argelander Institute for Astronomy
The institute’s research groups concentrate on all manner of different fields in theoretical and observational astronomy, from the stars through to cosmology.
HISKP: Helmholtz Institute for Radiation and Nuclear Physics
The research done here focuses primarily on experimental and theoretical hadron and nuclear physics.
IAP: Institute of Applied Physics
The IAP’s main areas of research are quantum optics, non-linear quantum optics and quantum technology.
PI: Physikalisches Institut
The research done here focuses on particle physics, condensed matter and photonics as well as accelerator physics.
Equality
The Department of Physics and Astronomy is active both with its own initiatives and in the University of Bonn's equal opportunities concept in order to create a fair and healthy environment for all students and staff. A central goal is to promote the visibility and satisfaction of women* in all areas of physics, from studying to top-level research.
Research facilities
Numerous research facilities offer the physicists in the specialist group a unique environment for cutting-edge research in both experimental and theoretical physics.
Workshops
All kinds of experiment take place at the physics institutes at the Poppelsdorf site. In order to support the research and projects under way, three of the institutes run various scientific precision mechanics workshops, which together form the Physics Workshop Network.
In addition, electronic devices are developed and repaired at the electronics lab of the PI, HISKP and FTD.
Physics Library and CIP pools
The "Physics Library" is a joint library of the Physikalisches Institut (PI), the Helmholtz Institute for Radiation and Nuclear Physics (HISKP) and the Institute of Applied Physics (IAP) and is housed in the PI's institute library.
Two CIP pools are available to physics/astronomy students for exercises for computer-based lectures.