The Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Rochester carries out cutting-edge research on Quantum Optics, Condensed Matter, Biophysics, star and planet formation and plasma Astrophysics, and High Energy and nuclear physics. Faculty members also participate in the Institute of Optics, and the Laboratory for Laser Energetics (home to the second most energetic fusion laser in the world).

The High Energy Physics group was involved in the construction and running of the CDF and D0 experiments at the Tevatron, in Illinois, the CLEO detector at the Cornell Electron Storage Ring and BESIII in Beijing, and the PHOBOS detector at Brookhaven. Currently the group is actively participating at the high energy frontier in CMS, at the Large Hadron Collider, studying neutrino interactions in Minerva at Fermilab, T2K in Japan, and Jupiter at Jefferson Lab, and exploring particle astrophysics in LUX at the Homestake mine, IceCube in Antartica, and HAWC in Mexico.