Department of Physics and Astronomy

Physics and Astronomy courses have been a part of the University of Denver since the beginning, though not always as a shared department. In 1931, the Engineering Schools merged with the Science Departments, including the separate Physic and Astronomy departments, to form a School of Science and Engineering. At this time, Astronomy was not offered as a major. Prior to the 1950s when the two split, Mathematics and Astronomy were one department. By 1970, Astronomy was part of the Department of Physics, intermittently called the Department of Physics and Astronomy. In 1982, the College of Engineering re-launched under the Physics Department after a 10 year hiatus. In 1989, a gift from alum William Herschel Womble allowed for the creation of an endowed astronomy chair in the Physics Department and a formal re-naming as the Department of Physics and Astronomy. The Astronomy program relaunched with an undergraduate minor and a graduate curriculum in 1993.