Courses 2018-2019
PHY333H5F: Physics of the Cell
A biophysical description of the structural properties and biological processes of the cell. The course will focus on: membrane biophysics, osmosis and transport through membranes, cell division, differentiation and growth, cell motility and muscular movement, cellular communication, cellular signal transduction and control, nerve impulses, action potential, synaptic signal transmission, free energy transduction in biological systems and bioenergetics of the cell, photosynthesis and respiration, photobiophysics, photoreception, and bioluminescence.
PHY146H5F: Principles of Physics I
The first physics course is for students intending to pursue any of the Physics or Astronomy programs and highly recommended for some of the other programs in the Department of Chemical and Physical Sciences. This course provides a rigorous introduction to the concepts, approaches and tools that physicists use to describe the physical world through the study of classical and modern mechanics. Topics include mathematical physics, kinematics and dynamics as well as conservation laws for energy and momentum. Special relativity will be introduced as a topic that successfully addresses problems that arose in classical mechanics.
PHY433H5S: Medical Physics
An introduction to key physical principles applied to medical diagnostics, imaging and radiation therapy. Topics include: electrophysiology, electrocardiogram and encephalogram; biomagnetism, magnetocardiogram and magnetoencephalogram; atomic and nuclear physics, ionizing radiation, radioactivity, nuclear medicine; theory of image formation and analysis, X- and gamma-ray imaging, positron emission tomography; lasers, optical light-matter interactions, optical imaging and therapy; physics of ultrasound, Doppler scanning and imaging with ultrasound; principles of nuclear magnetic resonance, contrast in magnetic resonance imaging.
PHY2711S: Biophysical Techniques (Graduate course)
This course will provide a survey of experimental biophysical techniques. We will discuss methods that are used to examine both the structure and function of biophysical systems, from whole organisms down to single-molecules. The course is intended both for students intending to work within an experimental setting and to help those with theoretical interests understand how their ideas may be validated. Topics may include confocal and multiphoton imaging, current DNA and RNA sequencing techniques, high throughput methods, super-resolved microscopy, cryo-electron microscopy, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), Forster resonance energy transfer (FRET), optical and magnetic tweezers, atomic force microscopy (AFM), fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS), electrophysiology, as well as x-ray and neutron scattering.
Past Courses
PHY347H5S: Optics
This course focuses mainly on providing a strong foundation of wave optics, while also presenting advanced geometrical optics aspects and an introduction to modern optics and the quantum nature of light. The topics in this course may vary but will include: electromagnetic waves and the propagation of light, basic coherence concepts and the interference of light, Fraunhofer and Fresnel diffraction, matrix methods in paraxial optics, Fresnel equations, polarization and birefringence. Technical applications will accompany the lectures, allowing students to put into practice the optical principles learned during the lecture by performing laboratory experiments with lasers and other optical devices.
PHY245H5F: Vibrations and Waves
The analysis of vibrating systems and wave motion, introducing mathematical techniques such as complex numbers, eigenvalue problems, and Fourier series. Topics include: simple and coupled oscillators; dispersion relations and boundary conditions; travelling waves; propagation of electromagnetic waves in materials; reflection and transmission of waves at interfaces.
PHY255H5S: Introduction to Biomedical Physics