9452338 Pifer Until recently our physics major program was narrowly directed at preparing a small number of elite students for graduate studies. The current employment situation has made it clear to us that we can no longer take the narrow view that graduate school is the only reasonable career goal for a scientifically able student, and in fact, there are many technically able students who would like to major in physics yet are not interested in graduate school. Many of these students are minorities or women. In response to these students' career interests, we have recently introduced an Applied Physics Major. The Applied option emphasizes a breadth of technical experience with an emphasis on experimental skills, and is intended for students who plan to seek industrial jobs immediately after graduation. The centerpiece of the option is a 3-credit, junior- level applied physics lab course. This lab currently uses experiments from our modern physics lab that are designed for students headed toward graduate school. We are requesting funds to introduce five applied-type experiments that are built around the needs of these students and involve modern instrumentation and experimental techniques of the type that students will encounter in industry. We are initially concentrating on two areas -- the scanning tunneling microscope and modern optics. The experiments to be introduced are the scanning tunneling microscope, the He-Ne laser, saturated absorption spectroscopy, holography, and the dye laser.
