BSc Physics

BSc in Physics

From atoms to galaxies — explore, experiment, measure and analyse the world around you

Viewed at the broadest level, physics studies natural phenomena, and searches for the general laws which govern them. The two extremes of scale, particle physics and cosmology as well as the more esoteric and speculative theories tend to dominate the public perception and the imagination of students, since they excite a sense of awe and wonder. 

Between the two extremes lies physics at the human and terrestrial scale, which gives us an understanding of our everyday experiences, as well as forms the basis for the technology which increasingly dominates and transforms our lives. 

A physicist’s way of thinking is not only useful in finding physical truths in other scientific fields but also offers an alternative (and now mainstream in many cases) to helping solve problems in economics, climate studies and social sciences.

Who should join us?

Our four-year rigorous programme is unique and opens up multiple academic or career possibilities for students. The study in physics is broad in scope while intense in the experiential aspect and social context. Besides the standard body of physics knowledge, we inculcate a unique way of thinking through our hands-on learning experience both in the classroom and laboratory. If you have an inclination towards this kind of approach, this is the programme for you.

Why study with us?

We offer Interdisciplinary Openness

Our programmes encourage you to explore and follow your interests. We design our courses to ensure that you can specialise in a subject of your choice while learning various subjects across disciplines.

A Common Curriculum for all students

You will meet all your classmates at the beginning of your course to build all the tools you need for your four years of study. This includes foundational courses, an understanding of India, interdisciplinary studies, and courses in creative expressions.

We provide Academic Assistance

Our consistent academic assistance through language support, peer tutoring, faculty mentorship, etc., ensures that you meet the programme’s academic requirements.

We ensure Financial Support

We extend need-based financial assistance to students that cover tuition and accommodation expenses.

Programme Structure

Course Structure

The Common Curriculum will introduce students to the study of the themes and areas that emphasise and build critical and analytical abilities, and sensibilities for dialogue, reflection and cooperative learning. The Common Curriculum has four sub-components organised as below:

Academic Reading and Writing: Introduces students to domain specific reading and writing skills

Creative Expressions: Students are empowered to participate with meaningful social connection, fostering a community of active and responsible citizens

Public Reasoning/​The World of Computing: The students will do one of the two courses. 

  • Public Reasoning: Introduces students to the practices of understanding as well arguing for claims in the public realm.
  • The World of Computing: This enables students to explore the potential of computing devices and computational reasoning

Understanding India: India’s history, society and possible future.

We offer broad introductory courses for you to have a good foundation and clear understanding of mechanics, electricity, heat, light and wave phenomena. These courses have an integrated tutorial and laboratory component.

These courses sometimes require an understanding of other scientific disciplines, and to ensure that you are able to study with ease, we offer you supportive courses in methods, chemistry, mathematics and biology.

Students must be prepared for the world of work at the end of the programme should they choose to enter it. We aim to provide the required skills and competencies for this through a Minor featuring courses in an Occupational or Interdisciplinary theme. These sets of courses are aimed to provide both conceptual understanding and skills and tools that will allow students to contribute through work and further study. 

Students can opt for a Minor in any one of the indicative areas listed below.

The selection of these indicative areas is based on the availability of courses and our evaluation of the student’s interests and academic needs. For each cohort, a final list of available courses will be announced at the end of their second semester.

  • Biodiversity Conservation

    Biodiversity conservation, management, and habitat restoration requires a multi-pronged approach, and an interdisciplinary understanding is essential. This OT will acquaint students with the rich biodiversity of the Indian subcontinent and the associated threats to them, and provide the students with the lens to identify pertinent questions such as — what to conserve, why to conserve, when to conserve, and how to conserve. The field of conservation binds the need for species and ecosystem conservation with the requirements for human well-being, livelihood, and rights. Through this curriculum, the students will be aware of the interdisciplinary approach in this field and will… 
    + See Courses

  • Climate Studies

    These courses will help you develop the knowledge necessary to understand the earth’s climate systems. You will examine and analyse the role of human activity on the earth’s climate and its effects on the present and future climate scenarios, and identify the effects of climate change on biodiversity through the lens of historical changes in the Holocene. We hope you will apply systems thinking to examine the origins of the climate crisis and proposed solutions and grow comfortable with civic engagement and transfer of knowledge and resources for climate solutions at different levels. 
    + See Courses

  • Data, Democracy and Development

    The set of courses will orient you to think about data as an essential part of building empathy and democratic values. We ensure you have the requisite tools for data collection, analysis, presentation, and dissemination so that you can construct the right platforms and build technologies that embody democratic principles. These courses will foster a culture of investigation with data, keeping in mind questions of ethics and politics. 
    + See Courses

  • Design for Communities

    Design concerns itself with envisioning, planning and creating objects, spaces or interactive systems to address a need or a problem. It attempts to meet the needs of a variety of users with responses that are aligned with their specific contexts. It aims to understand situations and create holistic, appropriate solutions. While design is a large discipline with many domains, this Occupational Track will look at the design of products, the practical use of technology in various enterprises and the design of spaces for accessibility and interaction. It includes the process of ideating, developing and refining products that meet specific market… 
    + See Courses

  • Disability, Accessibility and Inclusion

    The Occupational Track (Minor) prepares students to understand disability as a social, political, and rights-based issue while building the practical skills needed to create more inclusive environments. Rooted in contemporary disability studies, the programme explores the shift from a medical model of disability to a social model that focuses on removing barriers and ensuring dignity, participation, and equal opportunity.Students engage with the realities of disability in India, where access is shaped by intersections of caste, class, gender, poverty, and geography. The track introduces learners to disability rights frameworks, including the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities… 
    + See Courses

  • Education

    The Occupational Track (OT) in Education at Azim Premji University leverages the liberal arts tradition by fostering a deep understanding of human society and its relationship with education. This program delves into psychology, sociology, politics, and philosophy, revealing how these disciplines influence how individuals and societies approach learning. Additionally, the arts, humanities, and diverse philosophical perspectives enrich our understanding of educational thought and practice.The OT in Education recognizes the importance of analysing educational processes and systems at various levels, from individual student experiences to national and international trends. By examining different perspectives – personal, communal, organisational, national, and international –… 
    + See Courses

  • Financial Management for the Social Sector

    This Occupational Track (Minor) is designed to prepare students to address the financial and governance needs of social sector organisations. Rooted in the liberal arts tradition, it combines conceptual understanding with practical skills to help students engage with the financial realities of nonprofits, community institutions, cooperatives, foundations, and mission-driven enterprises.Students learn the fundamentals of accounting, budgeting, financial planning, internal controls, and statutory compliance while also examining how finance can promote equity, accountability, and sustainability. The programme pays special attention to the role of financial systems in communities, including access to savings, credit, insurance, pensions, and other services for low-income households.Through…
    + See Courses

  • Heritage Studies

    This Occupational Track (Minor) prepares students to engage with heritage as a dynamic field of study and practice. Moving beyond monuments and museums, the programme recognises heritage as something continuously created, interpreted, documented, and sustained through communities, institutions, and public engagement.Students explore diverse forms of heritage in India and beyond, including cultural traditions, neighbourhood histories, archives, scientific collections, technological knowledge, landscapes, and digital records. The track combines perspectives from the humanities, social sciences, and sciences to help students understand how heritage is shaped by history, ethics, policy, and everyday practice.Through a strongly applied learning model, students develop practical skills in… 
    + See Courses

  • Media and Journalism

    These courses will introduce you to the critical and conceptual tools involved in media texts. This course is based on research and practice, and you will study how media texts are created and their social, historical and political contexts. This course is for students who wish to prepare for careers in journalism, communications, and social work. 
    + See Courses

  • Music Education

    The undergraduate Occupational Track programme in Music Education is designed in collaboration with SaPa, the Subramaniam Academy of Performing Arts. SaPa is on a mission to make quality music education accessible to all. A large part of this involves creating enough music teachers to build the ecosystem for music education, and creating certifications and knowledge sets to make music teachers employable, both in schools and at music institutions.The Music Education OT aligns with this objective and aims to offer students an understanding of music itself, and how music may be taught in different environments. This will help students be employable,… 
    + See Courses

  • Public Health

    This Occupational Track (Minor) combines critical perspectives on health with practical skills that prepare students to contribute meaningfully to public health in diverse work settings. Rooted in the liberal arts tradition, the programme helps students understand health not only as a biological condition, but as a social phenomenon shaped by economic, political, environmental, and cultural factors.Students explore key public health challenges in India and globally, while examining how governments, communities, and non-state actors respond to them. The track introduces foundational analytical skills in epidemiology to understand disease burden, patterns of illness, and population health outcomes. It also develops the ability… 
    + See Courses

  • Sports and Fitness

    We believe that a regimen of physical activity can have a powerful effect on an individual’s physical, mental, and emotional well-being. Sport can be used as an effective tool to help an individual learn crucial life skills and also to build an empathetic, equitable community. In these set of courses, we want you to have a powerful experience of sport not just as a physical activity but as a way to build yourself and your social surroundings. We also want to teach you ways in which you can create these transformational experiences for others. 
    + See Courses

  • Technology for Social Good

    The Technology for Social Good occupational track has been designed based on the Azim Premji Foundation’s extensive experience in working with social sector organizations. Many of these organizations are addressing long-standing social problems through utmost dedication and a strong desire to improve the society we live in. There is a lot of scope for facilitating the work of these organizations through the use of digital technology. While accomplishing social change is a slow process requiring long-term engagement, digital technology can assist these organizations in making their operations more effective and by permitting better utilization of scarce resources. At present, these… 
    + See Courses

Students can craft their own educational experience by selecting courses in the following ways:

  • Students will have the option to take additional courses in their Disciplinary Major.
  • Interdisciplinary minor that will enable them for their further higher studies or career pathways.

These courses could also be selected to enhance and broaden their

  • Language skills and Quantitative reasoning capacities/​programming skills.
  • Understanding of themes outside their Major subject.
Physics Laboratory Students Experiment
Electricity and magnetism lab 1
Lab
Electricity and magnetism lab5

Classroom Practices

Students learn how to take responsibility for their own learning. Many classes are run in studio format, where instruction comprises lectures, lab demonstrations, and doing experiments in groups. Building experiments with one’s own hands and experiencing phenomena up close are as essential as problem solving and doing simulations in our courses. Independent projects give students a flavour for doing research.

Selected Honours Projects

Honours consists of a project and some coursework. The project is usually on a highly individualized and independent research problem proposed by the mentor or even the student.

  • Quantification of Structural coloration in Peacock’s tail feathers, Akshara Yagnik, mentored by Proteep Mallik

  • Triboelectricity in Plants: A Study of the Potential for Energy Harvesting from Plants, Anoosha Chandrashekar, mentored by Anish Mokashi

  • Building A Shack-Hartmann Wavefront Sensor Using Ball Lenses, Gagan Hegde, mentored by Richard Fernandes

  • Theorizing the Existence of Magnetic Monopoles, Mahathi Narayanaswamy, mentored by Sridhar K

  • Analysis of mosquito motion in a confined environment, Manasvi Sahu, mentored by Murthy OVSN

  • Building A Shack-Hartmann Wavefront Sensor Using Ball LensesCP Violation In K‑Meson And B‑Meson Systems: A review of strangeness oscillations and CP violation, Ramkrishna Joshi, mentored by Sridhar K

  • Design and Construction of a Telescopic Eyepiece, Shashanth Sriramanathan, mentored by Proteep Mallik

  • Deformable Liquid Crystal Droplets in Surfactant Media, Siddharth Sane, mentored by Rema Krishnaswamy

  • Rebuilding the Beckman 25 Spectrophotometer, Tushar Achar GS, mentored by Richard Fernandes

To find out more about our honours projects, watch the video here.

Publications

Published Papers

Resources

Related Stories

Explore

Faculty

All Programme faculty →

Admissions

Get in Touch