Introduction to School of Physical Science and Technology

The School of Physical Science and Technology at Southwest Jiaotong University, formerly known as the Department of General Physics established in 1948, has undergone significant development through the Department of Applied Physics and the College of Science. In 2006, it officially became the School of Physical Science and Technology. Today, it stands as a comprehensive institution, harmoniously integrating basic education, scientific research, and disciplinary development. It combines natural and applied sciences, excelling in fundamental and cutting-edge research.

The school offers a three-tiered educational system, providing education at the undergraduate, master's, and doctoral levels. At the undergraduate level, it offers two nationally recognized first-class undergraduate programs, Applied Physics and Electronic Information Science and Technology. At the postgraduate level, it encompasses the fields of physics, electromagnetic fields and microwave technology, and physical electronics within the broader disciplines of physics and electronic science and technology. The school received doctoral degree-granting authority in the field of physics in 2016.

In the US News 2023 World University Subject Rankings, the School of Physical Science and Technology holds three positions among the sixteen disciplines listed for Southwest Jiaotong University, specifically in the field of physics as a first-level discipline and in the sub-disciplines of condensed matter physics and optics.

The school is structured into three departments (Physics, Applied Physics, and Electronic Information Science and Technology) and two teaching centers (the National Experimental Teaching Demonstration Center for Physics and the Graduate Education Teaching Center). It boasts a dedicated faculty of 130 members, including 109 full-time teachers, 23 professors (researchers), and 44 associate professors (associate researchers). The faculty includes three individuals recognized at the national level, 21 at the provincial and ministerial levels, and 26 at the university level. Currently, the school has 1,204 undergraduate students, 335 master's students, and 81 doctoral students.

The School of Physical Science and Technology is responsible for teaching general physics and physics experiments for the entire university, as well as relevant courses for other majors within the university. The school has taken a proactive approach to explore and implement in-depth innovations in its teaching system, modes, methods, and means. Several courses, such as "University Physics M" and "University Physics Experiment," have been designated as first-class national undergraduate courses. The school has also been granted five first-class courses in Sichuan Province and one high-quality online open course for higher education institutions. It has won two awards for teaching achievements in Sichuan Province, with 11 young teachers achieving success in national and provincial teaching competitions.

The school places a high emphasis on the quality of talent development and actively promotes the integration of science and education. It offers specialized programs, such as the "Elite Student Program in Physics," a joint program with the Institute of High Energy Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences known as the "Qian Sanqiang Elite Program," and the "Nuclear Physics Fusion Elite Program" jointly run with the Southwestern Institute of Physics, China National Nuclear Corporation. These programs create comprehensive research and practical development models covering the entire undergraduate and postgraduate education process to enhance the quality of talent development.

Leveraging its research teams and platforms, the school has been a pioneer in advancing the "project-oriented professional courses" reform. It continuously strengthens its scientific and technological innovation activities to enhance students' practical and innovative capabilities. Students have accumulated nearly 900 awards in scientific and technological innovation competitions, including 27 national first prizes. Both master's and doctoral students have been ranked first in terms of the number of SCI papers published per person at the university.

The school continuously enhances its research teams through talent development and recruitment. It refines key research directions, leading to strengths in research fields such as plasma physics, theoretical physics, condensed matter physics, optics, radio physics, astrophysics, electromagnetic fields and microwave technology, and physical electronics. While focusing on national strategic priorities and international technological frontiers, the school vigorously promotes organized scientific research. Over the past five years, it has undertaken dozens of projects funded by the National Key Research and Development Program, the National Natural Science Foundation of China, and the National Major Scientific Instruments and Equipment Development Special Fund, with research funding exceeding 30 million RMB in 2022. During this period, it has published over 500 SCI papers, including six that were ranked in the top 1% in global citation frequency according to ESI (Essential Science Indicators).

In terms of platform construction, the school is co-building the first quasi-axisymmetric stellarator in China known as the China’s First Quasi-symmetric Stellarator (CFQS) project with the National Institute for Fusion Science in Japan, which is included in Sichuan Province's major scientific and technological infrastructure construction sequence. The school represents Southwest Jiaotong University in the International Energy Agency's (IEA) Stellarator Technology Cooperation project. Additionally, the school is a core member of the construction unit for the National Major Scientific and Technological Infrastructure Project "Large High Altitude Air Shower Observatory (LHAASO)" during the 14th Five-Year Plan period. It is responsible for the laser calibration and construction of the LHAASO telescope, as well as the operation and remote control of the atmospheric monitoring system.

(Department of Physics)

The Department of Physics is a teaching and scientific research unit that undertakes the teaching tasks of the public basic courses of physics for the majors of science and Engineering in our university. In recent years, according to our school's orientation and training objectives, the Department of Physics takes "cultivating people by virtue" as its fundamental task, and with the sustained and vigorous support of schools and colleges, the Department of Physics has formed a good development trend in teaching, scientific research and other aspects, which is characterized by reasonable structure of teachers, complete teaching quality system and open innovation.

 The Department of Physics has a high-quality team of teachers with reasonable title, age and educational background, stable unity and enterprising spirit. There are 42 faculty members, accounting for 40% of the total number of teaching and scientific research, including 6 professors, 20 associate professors, 12 lecturers and 4 laboratory engineering staff.

As the teaching unit of the public basic course of physics, the Department of Physics undertakes about 5,000 people/year teaching of the basic courses of "University Physics" and "University Physics Experiments" in Golden University every year, including general physics courses, all English courses and bilingual courses for all students. Now we have provincial physics teaching team and national physics experimental teaching demonstration center. And it has set up one provincial and ministerial top-quality course (university physics) and one university-level top-quality course (university physics experiment).

On the basis of teaching work, the Department of Physics is based on teaching reform and innovation, and is committed to training innovative talents. In the past five years, great achievements have been made in the construction of textbooks, teaching reform projects and teaching reform papers. In 2016 and 2017, two students won the first prize in the finals of the National Young Teachers'Teaching Competition for Basic Physics Courses in Colleges and Universities. At the same time, the Department of Physics, as the guiding unit of the College Students'Physics Association and the College Students' Electronic Association, has won many awards in various competitions, such as the National College Students'Physics Experiment Competition, the Chinese College Students' Physics Academic Competition and the National College Students'Electronic Design Competition.

The Faculty of Physics Department is strong in years, reasonable in structure and strong in scientific research and innovation. They are engaged in scientific research in condensed matter physics, atomic and molecular physics, theoretical physics, high-pressure physics, astrophysics, material physics, quantum optics and other disciplines. In the past five years, it has undertaken 8 projects of the National Natural Science Foundation, 2 National Defense Science and technology innovation projects, 3 provincial and ministerial projects, 11 patents and more than 100 scientific research papers.

 (Department of Applied Physics)

The Department of Applied Physics has always regarded human resources as the most important strategic resources for the development of disciplines and specialties, paying equal attention to training and introduction, and further optimizing the structure of teachers. There are 25 faculty members in the Department of Applied Physics, including 5 professors (researchers)/tutors, 10 associate professors, 10 lecturers and 20 teachers under 40 years of age. All teachers have doctoral degrees: 1 expert in the 1000-person Program of the Central Group Department, 2 outstanding talents in the new century of the Ministry of Education, 1 academic and technological leader in Sichuan Province and 1 outstanding expert in Sichuan Province with outstanding contributions, and 3 scholar in the School's "Eagle Program". The structure of the teaching staff has formed a team with young and middle-aged teachers as the backbone, high academic level and innovative spirit. As one of the main builders of the first-level subject of physics, the Department of Applied Physics covers the second-level subjects of plasma physics, theoretical physics, condensed matter physics, atomic and molecular physics, optics and so on. Further optimization of discipline structure has initially formed a cross-disciplinary, comprehensive development and solid foundation of discipline support system, and formed a cooperative development mechanism with good penetration and interaction in teaching, scientific research and discipline construction.

The Department of Applied Physics has closely surrounded the needs of national and local economic construction and actively carried out scientific research. Five scientific research teams with distinctive characteristics, stable research directions and reasonable academic echelons have been formed, including the Fusion Research Institute, the Key Laboratory of High Pressure Science and Technology of Sichuan Universities, the Center of Theoretical Physics, the Center of Nanomaterials and Computational Physics, and the Quantum Photoelectric Laboratory. 

The Department of Applied Physics has taken effective measures to deepen the teaching reform, improve the ability and level of personnel training, attach importance to the teaching of Applied Physics courses, and better meet the needs of economic and social development for high-quality innovative talents. In the teaching work, we should actively guide undergraduates to carry out research-based learning, pay attention to cultivating students'innovative consciousness and practical ability, and undergraduates have won many awards in various competitions above the provincial level. At present, there are more than 230 undergraduates in the school.

(Department of Electronic Information Science and Technology)

The Department of Electronic Information Science and Technology of the College of Physical Science and Technology was established by the former Department of Electronic Engineering and the Department of Photoelectric Engineering. The current undergraduate specialty "Electronic Information Science and Technology" relies on the First-Level Discipline doctoral program "Physics", the First-Level Discipline master program "Physics", the second-level discipline "Electromagnetic Field and Microwave Technology" and "Physical Electronics". The undergraduate majors of electronic information science and technology are Sichuan characteristic specialty and excellent engineer construction specialty. There are two research directions of photoelectric technology, electromagnetic field and microwave technology.

At present, there are 34 faculty members in electronic information science and technology, including 28 teachers and 6 other professionals and technicians. Professor 7, Doctor 4, Associate Professor 13, Lecturer 8, Engineer 4, Assistant Engineer 1, Worker 1, Doctor and above education 24, Special Professor 1, Sichuan outstanding contribution expert, Sichuan academic and technological leader 1.

In the fields of photoelectric detection, antenna technology, microwave and radio frequency circuit, computational electromagnetics, radio wave propagation, electromagnetic compatibility and electromagnetic scattering, a number of scientific research achievements have been made and their school-running characteristics have been formed. Teachers with reasonable age structure, higher educational level and clear professional orientation have been established, and specialties with technological innovation and engineering innovation as the main research and innovation system have been specially created， a number of professional teams in the relevant fields to achieve the leading edge of technology.

The Department of Electronic Information Engineering is mainly responsible for the teaching and experimental work of the undergraduate majors of Electronic Information Science and Technology, the graduate majors of Electromagnetic Field and Microwave Technology, Physical Electronics, Physics, etc. The main courses offered are signal and system, electromagnetic field and electromagnetic wave, digital signal processing, digital communication principle, applied optics, physical optics, optoelectronics, sensor technology, photoelectric detection technology, non-destructive testing technology, photoelectric image processing, antenna principle and design, microwave theory and technology, digital communication principle, microwave circuit and experiment, electromagnetic compatibility theory and technology, radio propagation, etc.

The electronic information system has formed distinct characteristics in the research fields of photoelectric detection, high power microwave, antenna and propagation. In recent years, it has undertaken more than 20 national projects, more than 30 vertical and horizontal projects, published more than 100 papers, authorized more than 20 invention patents, published 4 works, won three provincial and ministerial awards, and spent more than 6 million yuan on scientific research.