PHY is...

The Division of Physics (PHY) is the unit of the Federal Government with primary responsibility for the health of physics research and education in the nation's colleges and universities. The Division is comprised of seven programs: Atomic, Molecular, Optical and Plasma Physics; Elementary Particle Physics; Gravitational Physics; Nuclear Physics; Particle and Nuclear Astrophysics; and Education and Interdisciplinary Research. The Physics budget in FY 2000 was $168.3 million. Modes of support include single investigator awards, group awards, centers and institutes, some interdisciplinary in nature, several national user facilities, as well as research equipment/instrumentation development grants. PHY supports 1100 college and university faculty, 460 postdocs, 815 graduate students, and 930 undergraduates.

PHY thus provides a great deal of infrastructure support for the field. PHY-supported user facilities serve thousands of U.S. researchers. These facilities include radioactive ion beam and light ion accelerators for nuclear physics, an electron-positron collider facility for elementary particle physics, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO), and the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), a joint NSF-DOE-CERN project at the high energy frontiers. PHY support also includes several multidisciplinary centers and institutes serving a very broad community. This year PHY started a new program of Physics Frontiers Centers aimed a providing critical resources and needed infrastructure to the most promising new areas of physics. Education is central to all PHY activities and all awards. The Research Experience for Undergraduates Site program is an important element in the support of education. PHY now supports 53 such Sites around the country introducing about 600 undergraduates annually to important forefront research activities in physics.