A collection of PHOTOGRAPHS from around the department are available by following this link
Department Mission Statement
Message from the Department Chair
An academic department designed to fit your goals:
The Physics & Engineering Department at Elizabethtown College is unique: small in size, big on quality. We offer 4-year degrees in Computer Engineering, Industrial Engineering, Engineering Physics, Physics, and Secondary Education Physics Certification. We also have a 3+2 engineering program: (Three years here and two years at a cooperating college -- two bachelors degrees. PSU is normally the cooperating college but students have gone elsewhere – for example, we now have a student at Johns Hopkins University.) Of our current 83 students, 6 are majoring in physics and 77 are majoring in engineering.
Faculty with real world experience
To underscore our strong belief in the importance of outside-of-classroom experience, ALL of our engineering professors have solid real-world engineering experience. We do not hire professors based exclusively on their academic backgrounds, but our professors nonetheless have outstanding academic credentials. The institutions where they completed their graduate studies include Caltech, Dartmouth, M.I.T., and Michigan.
A distinctive learning community
When you come to the Physics & Engineering Department, it’s like being part of a family. Unusual as it may seem to use the word “family," we use it advisedly. Only about 30 new students each year - taught by seven professors (two engineers/physicists, one physicist, one engineer/geophysicist, and three engineers) whose prime responsibilities are to develop your scientific and critical thinking abilities. In addition to those seven, a full time physics researcher and 118 other professors on the college faculty will round out a truly enriching education. Part of what makes "family" a reality is our upperclassmen. They take pride in mentoring new students.
Learning experientially
We encourage students to get good summer jobs in their career area and we are sometimes also directly responsible for finding those jobs. A good exposure to the career field outside of classrooms is an almost sure ticket for such graduates being preferred over those without similar experience. (Just as a sampling, students this year had paid employment in summer engineering positions in Harrisburg, PA; Bel Air, MD; Poughkeepsie, NY; and Coeur d'Alene, Idaho; and in physics research here at the college.) Additionally, as an engineering or physics major, you are likely to work for the department (tutors, lab assistants, or computer guru), the Learning Center (tutors), and/or by the Computer Center (installation, networking, Help Desk). Currently, we have ongoing, funded research in the department. Some motivated students may involve themselves in this research as part of course requirements and others are hired during summers to engage in research. This is quite unique for a small private college!
Graduate success
Our graduates have landed jobs with world-class companies. Just in the last few years, those companies have included Lucent, GE, Raytheon, Merck, Lockheed-Martin, Hershey Chocolate, Rockwell Avionics, and many others. We currently have eight recent graduates in full-time graduate programs (M.S. physics at George Washington; Ph.D. electrical engineering at PSU; Ph.D. civil engineering at PSU; Ph.D. chemical engineering at Rutgers; M.S. mechanical engineering at Vanderbilt; M.S. mechanical engineering at U. Connecticut; M.S. computer science at U. Massachusetts; and J.D. (law) at Villanova).
