The Department of Physics
About the Department of Physics
The Physics Department at the University of Coimbra was created in 1772 as the Experimental Physics Office and was part of the Faculty of Philosophy.
Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, the Physics Office kept pace with scientific development and maintained a considerable exchange with the most prestigious European scientific centers of the time, even during periods of the country's greatest isolation.
The Physics Department is now part of the Faculty of Science and Technology and has modern teaching and research facilities in its own premises in the heart of Coimbra's Alta district. The library is recognized as one of the best of its kind in Europe. It has good classrooms with excellent acoustics and well-equipped laboratories for both practical teaching and research, as well as a modern computer network that extends throughout the building. In computing terms, it is an important hub in the high-performance computing network, with one of the fastest supercomputers installed in the country.
The Physics Department has one of the most qualified teaching staffs in the country, with 43 PhDs. Its research groups cover most areas of physics and related technologies. The number of scientific publications places the Physics Department among the most productive in Portugal. Its research centers are regularly evaluated by external entities appointed by the Foundation for Science and Technology. The latest evaluation rated these research units "Excellent" and "Very Good".
The Physics Department is part of several European research networks, and has scientific collaborations with the main research centers in Europe, namely CERN, ESA, ESO, RAL, etc. There is a broad exchange of ideas and cooperation.
The connection with the community is very important to us, particularly the strong links with non-university schools and companies. This is evidenced by the fact that more and more students are doing internships in companies during their academic career, and the active participation of companies in research and development projects leading to master's theses in the various master's degrees that the Physics Department coordinates.
The original rooms of the "Gabinete de Fysica" now house the Physics Museum, where you can see the instruments that were once part of teaching and research and which are now an important heritage, one of the most important in the world.
Lecture by Professor Constança Providência, Director of the Physics Department (2019-2023), on the 250th anniversary of FCTUC.