Link to the University of Waterloo home page
2014-2015

The Undergraduate Calendar

 

 

Science Academic Plans

Physics and Astronomy

Honours Life Physics (Biophysics Specialization; Joint with Biology)
Advisor:  M. Campbell, R. Jayasundera, B.-Y. Ha, (Physics and Astronomy) and Z. Leonenko, (Biology and Physics and Astronomy)

Consult your undergraduate advisor and the Life Physics webpage for suggested sequencing of the required courses. Students specializing in Biophysics may take STAT 202 Introductory Statistics for Scientists in place of PHYS 225 Modeling Life Physics and PHYS 437A or PHYS 437A/B Research Project or BIOL 499A/B Senior Honours Project, in place of PHYS 491 Special Topics in Life, Medical and Biophysics. Note that PHYS 437A/B and BIOL 499A/B are taken over two terms. Besides the core courses, students in the Biophysics specialization are required to take:

PHYS 121 Mechanics/Lab (PHYS 111L or 131L)
PHYS 122 Waves, Electricity and Magnetism
PHYS 122L Waves, Electricity and Magnetism Laboratory
 or PHYS 132L Waves, Electricity, Magnetism and Measurement Laboratory
PHYS 234 Quantum Physics 1
PHYS 242 Electricity and Magnetism 1
PHYS 242L Electricity and Magnetism Laboratory
PHYS 263 Classical Mechanics and Special Relativity
PHYS 358 Thermal Physics
PHYS 359 Statistical Mechanics
One additional 300- or 400-level Physics course
MATH 114 Linear Algebra for Science
MATH 227 Calculus 3 for Honours Physics
MATH 228 Differential Equations for Physics and Chemistry
BIOL 308 Principles of Molecular Biology
An additional 2.5 units of 300- or 400-level Biology courses

Suggested electives for this specialization:

PHYS 334, 342364 are prerequisites to a number of fourth year physics courses.

Students intending to continue to Graduate School (including for instance biology, physics, biophysics):  If you are planning to undertake graduate work after completing your undergraduate degree program, we recommend that you choose electives that will give you the desired background for your choice of graduate program, school and area of specialization. Please consult with an undergraduate advisor and graduate officer regarding other electives needed for your choice of graduate program.

For those Life Physics students taking the Biophysics Specialization who are interested in Experimental Methods, 2.0 units are recommended from:

PHYS 131L Mechanics Laboratory (in place of 111L)
PHYS 132L Mechanics, Waves and Measurement Laboratory (in place of 122L)
PHYS 236 Computational Physics 1
PHYS 260L Intermediate Physics Laboratory 1
PHYS 391/PHYS 391L Electronics/Laboratory
PHYS 392/392L Scientific Measurement and Control/Laboratory
 or PHYS 353/353L Digital Electronics/Laboratory
BIOL 335L Molecular Biology Techniques
BIOL 361 Biostatistics and Experimental Design

For those Life Physics students taking the Biophysics Specialization who are interested in Theoretical Methods, 2.0 lecture units are recommended from:
BIOL 364 Mathematical Modeling in Biology
AMATH 382/BIOL 382 Computational Modeling of Cellular Systems
PHYS 236 Computational Physics 1
PHYS 239 Scientific Computation 1
PHYS 364 Mathematical Physics 1
PHYS 365 Mathematical Physics 2
PHYS 334 Quantum Physics 2
PSYCH 420 An Introduction to Computational Neuroscience Methods
CS 473 Medical Image Processing
SYDE 384 Biological and Human Systems (for those who have not taken BIOL 273)
SYDE 444 Biomedical Measurement and Signal Processing

For those Life Physics students taking the Biophysics Specialization who are interested in Biophotonics, PHYS 364 Mathematical Physics 1 and PHYS 342 Electricity and Magnetism 2 are recommended with an additional 1.0 lecture unit from:

PHYS 393 Physical Optics
PHYS 394 Light matter Interaction
PHYS 391/PHYS 391L Electronics/Laboratory
PHYS 392/392L Scientific Measurement and Control/Laboratory
 or PHYS 353/353L Digital Electronics/Laboratory

For those Life Physics students taking the Biophysics Specialization who are interested in Microbiology, BIOL 240/240L Fundamentals of Microbiology/Laboratory and BIOL 241 Introduction to Applied Microbiology are recommended with an additional 2.0 units from:

BIOL 345, 346, 348L, 431, 442, 443, 444, 447, 448, 449

For those Life Physics students in the Biophysics Specialization who are interested in Environmental Sciences, BIOL 150 Organismal and Evolutionary Ecology, BIOL 350 Ecosystem Ecology and BIOL 359 Evolution are recommended with an additional 1.5 units from:

BIOL 351, 354, 361, 383, 450, 452, 455, 456, 457, 462, 470, 479, 480, 488, PHYS 364

For those Life Physics students in the Biophysics Specialization who are interested in Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, BIOL 309 Analytical Methods in Molecular Biology, BIOL 342 Molecular Biotechnology 1 and BIOL 432 Molecular Biotechnology 2 are recommended with an additional 1.5 units from:

BIOL 331, 335L, 434, 483, 484


Office of the Registrar
University of Waterloo
2nd Floor, Needles Hall
200 University Avenue West
Waterloo, Ontario, Canada N2L 3G1
519 888 4567