History:

The department was established in 1972 at the time of the founding of Karaganda State University. The first head of the department was L.F. Ilyina, who was invited from Almaty by the rector E.A. Buketov. The academic development of the department was reflected in the changes of its names: the Department of General Physics and Methods of Teaching Physics, then the Department of General Physics and Thermal Physics, the Department of General and Theoretical Physics, and currently it is called the Department of Physics and Nanotechnologies. At different times, the department was headed by Yu.A. Soynikov, S.S. Kontaev, T.A. Kunakbaev, Yu.N. Antipov, M.K. Kurmanov, T.M. Mukatov, A.Zh. Turmukhambetov, K.M. Aryngazin, A.O. Saulebekov, S.E. Sakipova, and A.S. Kudusov. L.F. Ilyina and A.Zh. Turmukhambetov served as deans of the Faculty of Physics; Yu.N. Antipov held the position of Vice-Rector for Research, and S.S. Kontaev was the Rector of the Institute for Advanced Training of Teachers. The department has always created favorable conditions for the professional development of its staff. While working at the department, Yu.N. Antipov, K.Z. Alzhanov, G.A. Kvetsle, Yu.A. Soynikov, S.S. Kontaev, V.E. Gladkov, V.V. Bryukhanov, G.V. Melnikov, T.Zh. Kunakbaev, K.K. Kussaiynov, K.K. Musenov, G. Roizman, N.M. Ospanov and others defended their кандидат (PhD-equivalent) dissertations. Students: The department has 230 students, including holders of state grants and representatives from other regions of Kazakhstan. Over the past five years, the student population of the department has increased fivefold. Employment: The employment rate of graduates of the educational programs 6B01504 Physics–Informatics and 6B01503 Physics is 100%, while the employment rate of graduates of the educational program 6B05304 Physics is 80%. Academic Staff: The department employs 22 members of the academic staff, including professors, Doctors of Science, Candidates of Science, master’s degree holders, as well as recipients of the national title “Best University Teacher”. Trilingual Education Program: The department has developed educational programs that provide instruction simultaneously in Kazakh, Russian, and English: 6B01504 Physics–Informatics, 6B01503 Physics, 6B05304 Physics. Dissertation Council: Since 2019, a dissertation council has been operating at the department for the defense of doctoral dissertations and the awarding of the PhD degree in the educational program 8D05302 – Physics (6D060400 – Physics). The Chair of the Council is PhD, Associate Professor T.M. Serikov. Accreditation and Leadership: The educational programs of the department have passed national accreditation by BSAQAA and have taken worthy positions in the national rankings of Atameken, ARTA, and BSAQAA. Partners: State Scientific Center “Institute of Organic Intermediates and Dyes” (Russia) Institute of Crystallography of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Russia) Institute of Chemistry and Technology of Polymer Materials, Almaty (Kazakhstan) B.I. Stepanov Institute of Physics of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus (Belarus) Institute of Organic Chemistry of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (Ukraine) Kaliningrad State Technical University (Russia) K.I. Satpayev Kazakh National Technical University (Kazakhstan) Lomonosov Moscow State University (Russia) National Research Tomsk Polytechnic University (Russia) Taras Shevchenko National University (Ukraine) Orenburg State University (Russia) Saint Petersburg State University (Russia) Texas Tech University (USA) Tomsk State University (Russia) P.N. Lebedev Physical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Russia) Institute of Physics and Technology, Almaty (Kazakhstan) Centre for Biochemistry and Structural Biology, Lund University (Sweden) Center for Photochemistry of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Russia) School of Pharmacy and Biomolecular Sciences, University of Brighton (United Kingdom). Laboratory Facilities: For non-physics educational programs, the “Physics” teaching laboratory operates, while for physics educational programs the department is equipped with the teaching laboratories “Nanotechnology”, “Modeling of Physical Processes”, “Methods of Teaching Physics”, “STEM Laboratory”, “Demonstration Experiment in Physics”, “School Physics Practicum”, “Mechanics”, “Molecular Physics”, “Electricity and Magnetism”, and “Optics and Atomic Physics”. Research Laboratories: The Institute of Molecular Nanophotonics includes research laboratories “Transient Absorption and Photonics”, “Luminescence Kinetics”, “Chemistry and Technology of Nanostructures”, “Synthesis and Diagnostics of Nanomaterials”, and “Optical and Photoelectric Spectroscopy”. Students have access to computer classrooms designed for studying computer science, programming, digital and analog electronics.