The department has developed a flexible Ph.D. program that provides a broad, advanced education in physics while at the same time giving students opportunity for emphasizing their special interests. Physics Ph.D. students can choose to further enhance their interdisciplinary research and collaborations through participating in one of the two degree specializations below.

INTERDISCIPLINARY DEGREE SPECIALIZATIONS

Computational Science, Mathematics, & Engineering (CSME)

http://csme.ucsd.edu/
CSME is an interdisciplinary Ph.D. specialization program designed to to train the next generation of scientists, mathematics, and engineers in the use of modern tools of computational science. It is integrated into the existing Physics doctoral program as well as 6 other core participating departments.

Quantitative Biology (QBIO)

http://qbio.ucsd.edu/
Quantitative Biology (qBio) is a newly created interdisciplinary Ph.D. Specialization. qBio refers to the use of quantitative approaches to discover the organizational principles of living systems. The goal of the program is to prepare students with the theoretical concepts and experimental approaches for taking on pioneering studies of the living systems. Prior knowledge in biology is not required.