Course Websites

Subject offerings of new and developing areas of knowledge in physics intended to augment the existing curriculum. See Class Schedule or departmental course information for topics and prerequisites. Course Information: May be repeated in the same or separate terms if topics vary.

Physics of Living Systems is a graduate course for students in physics and biophysics exploring how physical principles underlie the behavior of living systems. Drawing on tools from statistical mechanics, stochastic processes, nonlinear dynamics, and information theory, the course examines phenomena ranging from molecular-scale sensing and gene circuit logic to large-scale pattern formation and collective cell behavior. The course surveys both theoretical frameworks and the experimental techniques ? fluorescence microscopy, optical manipulation, and genomic methods ? that make quantitative biology possible. Students will engage with primary literature, complete problem sets that blend analytical and computational approaches, and carry out an independent final project. The course is designed to be accessible to physics graduate students with no prior biology background, and to biophysics students without a substantial physics background.