Minor in Biophysics
About the Minor
Biophysics is the study of the complexity of life using tools provided by physics. It attempts to construct mathematical frameworks that explain, among many other topics, how organisms obtain energy from the environment, how complex structures appear in the cell, and how these relate to function. In essence, biophysics looks for principles that describe observed patterns and propose predictions based on these principles.
Admission Requirements
Consultation and approval of the program director and completion of one of the prerequisite sequences. Students who have completed the PHYS 152 , PHYS 153 , and PHYS 154 sequence will also be accepted into the minor provided they have an A- average in those courses and have completed MATH 121 and MATH 122 .
For more information about this minor, please visit the CoAS minors web page.
Program Requirements
| Required Pre-requisites | ||
| Contemporary Physics I | ||
| Contemporary Physics II | ||
| Contemporary Physics III | ||
OR | ||
| Fundamentals of Physics I | ||
| Fundamentals of Physics II | ||
| Fundamentals of Physics III | ||
| Core Requirements | ||
| PHYS 217 | Thermodynamics | 3.0-4.0 |
| or CHEM 253 | Thermodynamics and Kinetics | |
| or ENGR 210 | Introduction to Thermodynamics | |
| PHYS 262 | Introduction to Biophysics | 3.0 |
| PHYS 317 | Statistical Mechanics | 3.0 |
| PHYS 321 | Electromagnetic Fields I | 4.0 |
| PHYS 461 | Biophysics | 3.0 |
| PHYS 462 | Computational Biophysics | 3.0 |
| One course from the following: | 4.5 | |
| Cells and Genetics | ||
| Essential Biology | ||
| One course from the following: | 3.0-4.0 | |
| Cell, Molecular & Developmental Biology I | ||
| Principles of Cell Biology | ||
| Principles of Molecular Biology | ||
| Chemistry of Biomolecules | ||
| Total Credits | 26.5-28.5 | |