Welcome

Hell and welcome. My name is Omid, if you haven't gathered that information already, and I am a master's student at Uppsala University in Uppsala, Sweden. If you are not sure where that is, click here. The university is the oldest in Scandanavia, founded in 1477. It is ranked in the top 100 universities in the world for physics. The Physics department is large, with many divisions. I am following the astronomy and space physics profile.

A little bit about myself. I am originally Iranian though I grew up in Jackson, MS, USA. From there I attended Mississippi State University where I received my bachelor's degree in Physics in 2004. I spent some years working in the construction industry and then came to Uppsala to continue my course work.

The purpose of this blog is to give prospective students and others that are interested a small insight into life as a master's student in the physics department. More specifically, it will entail my experiences in the department and in Uppsala.

I would like to begin by discussing a little bit about how the program is structured. Unlike more master's programs that I am aware of, the program here is structured very independently. A master's student is not led by the hand and told this is what you need to do. You are released into a world of physicist's and you are expected not just to survive, but to succeed. For those that like independent study and relish in the chance to make your path, this is a great university. You are not expected to even follow the same profile while you are here. If for some reason, you find that you fit better in a different set of courses, you are free to follow a different profile (Ok, so maybe I didn't quite explain profiles clearly, scroll down a bit and they will be better explained).

The profiles in the Physics department are just paths for each specialization. As I mentioned before, I am following the astronomy and space physics profile, but other ones include geophysics, material physics, theoretical physics just to name a few.

If you would like to see a video of me talking about the program and a bit about life in Sweden, click here.

So now you know about the program, where we are, and what we do, let's get started...