Faculty Position in Condensed Matter Physics

Wake Forest University

The WFU Physics Department invites applications for a tenure-track position at the Assistant or early Associate Professor level to begin in August 2009. Candidates from all areas of condensed matter physics (both experimentalists and theorists) are encouraged to apply.

The successful candidate will join a department of 13 faculty members plus 4 research faculty with expertise and collaborations in condensed matter physics, computational physics, nanoscience, biophysics, optics, and gravitational physics. Excellence in undergraduate and graduate teaching of physics and establishment of an independent research program with external funding will be expected. Applicants with cutting-edge research interests who can complement and utilize ongoing departmental research efforts and facilities dedicated to basic energy sciences at the interfaces of nanoscience, optical physics, material design, and biophysics are especially encouraged.

Applicants should submit a CV, a Philosophy of Teaching statement, a research plan, and they should provide the names and contact information of at least three references to Chair, Search Committee, Department of Physics, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC 27109-7507. Application materials can be sent electronically in the form of a single PDF document to wfuphysrecruit@lists.wfu.edu. Consideration of applications will begin on October 15, 2008, and continue until the position is filled.

Wake Forest University is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer.

Olin Hall, home to the Wake Forest Physics department

Wake Forest University

Wake Forest University is a private university with about 4400 undergraduates and more than 700 graduate students, in addition to professional schools of medicine, law, business, and divinity. Wake Forest University ranks 30th among national universities-doctoral in the new edition of US News & World Report's guide, "America's Best Colleges." The annual guide gives Wake Forest high marks for its small classes, low student-faculty ratio, high graduation and retention rates, financial resources and alumni giving.

The university is a leader in the use of technology in higher education.  It was the first university to issue two laptop computers to each undergraduate -- one when they enter the university, replaced by a second at the beginning of the third year. Faculty receive a laptop computer every second year (currently a Lenovo Thinkpad T61, 2.1GHz Core 2 Duo with 2GB of RAM). Forbes.com reported that The Princeton Review ranked Wake Forest University second in its October, 2003 report on "America's Most Connected Campuses," a detailed survey of Internet use in higher education.

The Department of Physics

The helical structure of nanotubes produced at the Center for Nanotechnology spontaneously break parity and are being studied for effects of non-trivial geometric phases.

The Physics Department offers BA, BS, MS and PhD degrees. The department currently has about 20 graduate students and graduates about 10-15 physics majors per year. The majority of our undergraduates participate in research. The department currently has thirteen regular faculty members, two visiting assistant professors, four research faculty, and several postdoctoral associates. Support staff include an Instructional Resource Manager, a laser/optical specialist, an academic computing specialist, an administrative coordinator, a secretary, and a part-time machinist. The department has excellent facilities in Olin Physical Laboratory and the nearby Center for Nanotechnology and Molecular Materials, which recently launched two nanotechnology startup companies.

The Physics Department is a major contributor and user of the WFU DEAC cluster, a high performance computing environment that is centrally maintained by the University. This resource, having approximately 200 compute nodes and 10 TB of disk space, is managed by two full-time system administrators, who provide hardware design and maintenance as well as software support and training to the users.

For more information, please visit:

• An online campus tour
• The Department of Physics home page
• Wake Forest University
• City of Winston-Salem