Gustaaf Brooijmans

Gustaaf is the worst professor I have had in my years at Columbia. He was impossible to understand in class, his handwriting is illegible, and his lectures do not correspond to what he tested us on. He was condescending and unfair when talking to him in person, as he told several students to drop the class if they were having even slight difficulties. He is the sole reason several students I know switched from Mechanical to Civil Engineering (which does not have 1403 as a prereq). If you are needing this class for Engineering prereqs, I highly suggest you take 2601 instead. He's buns.

Great professor, helpful in office hours, very reasonable workload, nice tests/exams. If you're not in a physics heavy major then chances are you might not take a class of his, but if you do have a class taught by him you will most likely enjoy it. Also, he has a fantastic accent.

His accent is totally understandable, he's entertaining, he explains things well. What more could one want? While I'm not a huge fan of E&M I looked forward to going to class and feel like I've gotten a reasonable amount out of it. The TA did the homework during recitation, so it was possible to get through the class with no work at all (although I wouldn't recommend this... you'll get screwed on the exams).

General intro of particle physics, calculation of cross sections, electroweak theory, Standard Model.

He's a nice guy but not the best professor. In order to study I would have to read up on the textbook and do a ton of practice problems because I couldn't always follow what was going on in lecture. But the exams weren't always bad as long as you actually try on the homeworks and make a real effort to study. He usually provided at least 2 old practice exams which was nice but the timing of the midterms was based on his schedule instead of the class schedule which was a bit annoying. We ended up taking a midterm on material that we finished a month prior which meant we had to go back and review everything after learning weeks of new material. Wouldn't recommend if you had the choice but he was the only professor at the time for a class I have to take so what can you do.

Basic thermal and statistical mechanics, some quantum statistics

I would definitely recommend this course to students who want to know more about particle physics, maybe some pre-knowledge about QFT would be good for understanding, but not necessary.

LECTURE: Professor Brooijmans has a fairly straightforward lecture. However its pretty much right out of the book. I found that he clarified parts that I found confusing so tl;dr it was helpful. HOMEWORK: He assigns an optional problem set with corresponding sections hes covered. However, I didn't find them particularly indicative of exam questions. They are good practice though. EXAMS: He always says if you do all the two dot problems in the textbook you'll be okay for the exam. I know people that did and they were indeed okay but I never had time for that. GRADING: You have a total of 3 midterms and 1 final that count for your grade. One of the midterms is dropped. That gives you a total of 30% for each of the two midterms counted and 1 final that is worth 40%. The dropped midterm is based on net grade and not how well you did in comparison to others. For example, the last exam on relativity was the one with the lowest grades with an average in the single digits. If you got a 15/30 on that exam, but 20s on the other ones where the average was about a 20/30, your dropped grade would be the 15/30. Sucks. tl;dr: fair section of physics 1403, don't expect magic and/or magnificent grades

I recommend every student who has interest in the particle physics to take this course. 1 Columbia University: Arts & Sciences Fall 2021 Course: PHYSGR6050_001_2021_3-PARTICLEPHENOMENOLOGY : PHYSGR6050_001_2021_3 - PARTICLE PHENOMENOLOGY Instructor: Gustaaf Brooijmans

Brooijmans is a good lecturer who clearly has a deep understanding of the material especially particle physics, largely through his experiences at the ATLAS experiment in Geneva. His lectures parallel the textbook almost exactly. The material in this course is really interesting, as it covers everything from sound, light, and even nuclear reactions to a survey of the many subatomic particles. In general the textbook does a good job of explaining the material, though Brooijmans inserts relevant anecdotes, uses interesting examples, and provides cool supplementary info into his lectures.