University of Houston Clear Lake Physics Program

The University of Houston Clear Lake's Physics Program exists as a distinct academic program within the Department of Physical and Applied Sciences under the College of Science and Engineering. The program focuses on teaching bachelors and masters level physicists, many of whom come form under-represented and non-traditional backgrounds. The program ranks as the 14th best in the state of Texas.
History
The Physics Program at UHCL grew up next to NASA's Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center (JSC) when UHCL was still an upper-level undergraduate and graduate institution. Its original mission did not allow the university to teach freshmen, sophomores or doctoral students, so the university focused on juniors, seniors and master’s degree students. There was initially an interdisciplinary Physical Sciences program but that program eventually lost enrollment and needed to be replaced.
Between 2002 and 2004, the faculty worked to develop a new proposal for a Physics degree at UHCL. They focused on first establishing a Master's degree in Physics while the undergraduate degree remained Physical Sciences. This new program proved successful due to an unprecedented level of support from employees of JSC and its contractors. Over 200 employees at JSC responded to an online survey saying that they would be interested in pursuing an MS in Physics at UHCL. During this time several new activities were initiated, including the Guest Lecture Series, Astrophysics Seminar Series and the first attempt at establishing a Physics Club at UHCL.
In the fall of 2004, the Physics Master's degree program officially opened for business. At the time, it was believed to be the only Physics Program in the country to focus on training non-traditional students. Almost all graduate courses were offered in the evenings and over 95% of the students worked full-time. The focus on Space Science and space related physics remained, while traditional core Physics courses were added with the same standards as other national graduate physics programs.
In the Fall of 2006, the UHCL Physics program started one of the first Professional Science Master's Degrees (PSM) with its sub-plan in Technical Management. In 2007, it worked with the University of Houston to establish a Collaborative Ph.D. program. In Spring 2009, Astronaut Lee Morin earned an MS in Physics making him the 1st astronaut to officially graduate from the Physics program (six total from the Physics and Physical Sciences programs).
In Fall 2009, UHCL started a new bachelor's degree in Physics. An Engineering Physics Sub-Plan was added the undergraduate curriculum in the Fall of 2011. In 2014, the UHCL Physics Program became an APS Bridge Program Partnership Site. This coincided with the admission of UHCL’s first freshmen class and the transition of UHCL into a four-year comprehensive university. A Computational Physics Sub-plan was added in the Fall of 2018.
Teaching
The program offers a bachelor of science degree in physics with optional specializations in Engineering Physics and Computational Physics. At the graduate level, the program offers a masters degree in physics with an optional specialization in Technical Management. The program also partners with the University of Houston on a Collaborative Physics Ph.D. Program.

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