New Mexico Tech Physics Graduate Program -- Let us spark the star in you!

Located in a rural setting in the desert southwest, New Mexico Tech is a small, Hispanic-serving STEM university of about 2000 students located in Socorro, NM. The Physics program prepares students for an M.S. or Ph.D.'s with concentrations in Astrophysics, Atmospheric Physics or Instrumentation. We have 12 full-time faculty (25{\%} women), with numerous adjuncts from local national labs (Sandia and Los Alamos National Labs) as well as from the operations center for NRAO's Very Large Array. We presently have about 25 students in the program (30{\%} women and 15{\%} international.) Students pursue research using local facilities such as the Langmuir Laboratory for lightning studies, NRAO's VLA, the physics department Beowulf cluster, NASA and NSF supported national facilities, and the Magdalena Ridge Observatory Interferometer (presently under construction.) Recent areas of graduate student research include: modeling atmospheric dynamics of the Earth and other planets; astrochemistry of galaxies using data from ALMA and Herschel and of variable stars using Spitzer; development of instrumentation to detect and characterize lightning strokes from clouds; studies of the atmospheric composition of Earth and exoplanets; and correlations of radio and x-ray emission from high-mass star forming regions. When not engaged in their studies or research, students enjoy outdoor activities including hiking, mountain biking and rock climbing, with the big city of Albuquerque only 1 hour away for those wanting urban experiences. We will present a brief overview of our program.