The goal of this course is to acquaint the interested advanced undergraduate and beginning graduate student with the foundations, recent achievements, and current status of the field of elementary particle and nuclear physics. The course will be taught on a phenomenological level,  some rigorous mathematical derivation is inevitable, but hopefully will not dominate the material.

The principal prerequisite for the class is a working knowledge of quantum mechanics at the undergraduate level (completion of the PHYS 355/356 course series, or equivalent). Other less advanced prerequisites includes special relativity.  Prior knowledge of field theory is not required.

Solving concrete problems related to the course subject matter is essential for gaining a functional understanding of the topics studied. For this reason the course will include weekly homework assignments as well as a midterm and a final exam. Students are allowed and encouraged to solve the homework excercises together, in groups, i.e., the homework will not be pledged. However, each student is asked to write up independently her/his solutions that will be turned in.