Columbia University Physics Department

The roots of graduate physics can be traced back to the opening of the School of Mines in 1864 although the department was only formally established in 1892.

Several years later, the Earnest Kempton Adams Fund enabled the department to invite distinguished scientists to the school.

Together with Willis Lamb's work on the understanding of the fine structure of hydrogen, these experiments were crucial to the later development of quantum electrodynamics, for which Feynman and Schwinger won the Nobel prize.

During this same time Chien-Shiung Wu was conducting landmark research at Nevis on weak interactions, which led to the theoretical prediction and subsequent observation of maximal parity nonconservation.

During this time Tsung-Dao Lee and his collaborators' work led to the discovery of parity and charge conjugation symmetries in the weak interaction.

Pupin Labs also houses a 400-Gigaflops dedicated supercomputer built by Norman Christ, which is used for calculations in lattice quantum chromodynamics.