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St. Olaf a national leader in producing physics majors

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Gus DeMann ’12 (left) and Noah Mitchell ’12 are among the physics students who have graduated from St. Olaf recently. A new set of data from the American Physical Society shows that St. Olaf is a national leader in producing physics majors.

St. Olaf College is one of the nation’s top producers of physics degrees, according to a ranking by the American Physical Society (APS).

Granting an average of 24 physics degrees per year, St. Olaf ranked third among all undergraduate institutions in the nation and is the top-ranked liberal arts college on the list, coming in behind the United States Naval Academy and the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse.

“Our program is thriving, and students clearly find it attractive,” says Associate Professor of Physics and Department Chair Brian Borovsky ’94. “I think it reflects the energy we devote to the program, the attention we focus on students, and the high levels of interest in physics among St. Olaf students.”

The degree data the APS used in the ranking is representative of the most recent three years of available data. The APS is a nonprofit membership organization working to advance and diffuse the knowledge of physics. Representing more than 50,000 members, the APS is the second largest society of physicists in the world.