A theoretical physicist E. Schrodinger asked "How can the events in space and time which take place within the spatial boundary of a living organism be accounted for by physics and chemistry?" ("What is life?", 1944). A quest to answer such a large and important question is sometimes called biophysics, and it is an interdisciplinary science that employs a wide range of ideas and techniques from physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics, computer science, psychology, and many other disciplines.
The Physics Department at Drew University offers biophysics courses and undergraduate research opportunities, which include the optical investigation of biological materials and computational modeling of neural systems. There are close collaborations with the faculties of other departments and distinguished RISE (Research Institute for Scientists Emeriti) Fellows. Students are actively involved in research projects (during the semester as well as summer), Honors theses, and independent studies. Faculty and students have been supported from National Science Foundation, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Research Corporation, Council on Undergraduate Research, and American Physical Society. For more information about biophysics at Drew, contact Dr. Minjoon Kouh.
Some of the biophysics research at Drew are: