Graduate studies in physics at URI began in 1949, when the department was first authorized to grant master's degrees. The doctoral program was started in 1964. The department has active research programs in a broad range of areas. Each research program is headed by a faculty member. Some programs have overlapping components because of intra-departmental collaborations. The research areas are listed on this page. For additional information, follow the links to webpages maintained by the researcher.

• Theoretical Research : Condensed matter physics. Low temperature physics. Nonlinear dynamics. Computational physics. Quantum electrodynamics. Statistical mechanics. List of theoretical research groups
• Experimental Research : Condensed matter physics. Low temperature physics. Neutron physics. Optics and Acoustics. Physical oceanography. Materials physics. Surface physics. Biological physics. List of experimental research groups
• Astronomy & Astrometry.

• Sensors & Surface Technology Partnership
• INBRE Centralized Research Core Facility
• Rhode Island Nuclear Science Center
• Nano Technology Initiative

• High-Flux Research Reactor at the Institut Laue-Langevin, Grenoble, France
• NIST Center for Neutron Research at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, Maryland
• National Synchrotron Light Source at Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York
• Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois

• Surface physics
• Superconductivity
• Hydrogen in metals

• Weak interactions
• Chaos
• Quantum electrodynamics
• Turbulent media

• Spin-polarized quantum systems
• Quantum crystals
• Quantum gases
• Fermi and Bose liquids
• Macroscopic quantum phenomena
• Superfluidity
• Helium and hydrogen systems
• Quantum diffusion

• Quantum transport
• Transport and interference effects in nanosystems
• Ultrathin multilayer films
• Systems with random boundaries
• Disordered quasi-2D systems
• Non-local hydrodynamics
• Surface physics

• Low-dimensional magnetism
• Spin dynamics
• Bethe ansatz
• Recursion method

• Hamiltonian chaos
• Integrability and nonintegrability in quantum mechanics

• Phase transitions and critical phenomena
• Critical dynamics
• Surface physics
• Van der Waals clusters

• Classical Monte Carlo methods
• Quantum Monte Carlo methods
• Large-scale parallel computations
• Finite-size scaling
• Optimization
• Many-body interactions and invariants

• Modeling of far-from-equilibrium systems
• Hierarchic rate equations
• Monte Carlo techniques
• Reaction-diffusion equations
• Master equations

• Diffusion and electromigration
• Non-equilibrium phase transitions
• Transport in disordered media
• Chemical wave propagation
• Chemical reactions on surfaces

• Molecular mechanism of force generation in biological systems: molecular nanomotors
• Molecular nanosyringe for environment-selective delivery of drugs and imaging probes into tumors
• Application of biomolecules for assembly of nanoparticles into nanowires and microcircuits

• Experimental surface physics
• Thin films
• Electron spectroscopies

• Slow neutron cross sections
• Neutron optics

• Atomic cluster beams
• Quantum liquids

• Neutron scattering
• X-ray scattering
• Magnetism in nanoparticles and surfaces

• Biological physics/optics and spectroscopy
• Biological physics: folding of membrane proteins
• Medical physics/nanotechnology: a new nanotechnology platform to target diseased tissue

• Ultra-cold neutrons
• Neutron optics

• Optical counterparts of low-frequency radio sources
• Radio source and optical source offsets