The Physics Department is one of the founding departments of the University of Dhaka which began its long and glorious journey in 1921. There are about 700 students in the department of which 140 are enrolled in the undergraduate program annually and about 100 are enrolled in the postgraduate program. On top of its own courses, the department also offers courses to students of other departments of the Science Faculty, for instance, Mathematics, Chemistry, Geology, Applied Chemistry and Chemical Technology.

Presently there are about fifty faculty members in the department. The department is proud to have had many distinguished physicists as its past members among whom were S.N. Bose and K.S. Krishnan.

It was the remarkable discovery of S.N. Bose, while being in the Physics Department of the University of Dhaka that led to the recent demonstration of the amazing phenomenon like the Bose-Einstein Condensation. Also the discovery of the Raman Effect was expedited by the experiments performed by Krishnan at this department. The whole nation takes pride in these remarkable achievements and the department tries to maintain this heritage to this day.

Dr. Walter A. Jenkins was appointed as Professor and also the founding Head of this Department at the recommendation of the advisory committee. S.N. Bose joined as a reader in the department in 1921. A major overhaul in the educational system was brought into the Science Faculty during the seventies, thanks to the diligent efforts of Prof. A.K. Rafiqullah and other members of the Physics Department. The syllabi were changed accordingly and the department underwent a period of modernisation. In the same vein, 4-year B.S. Degree was introduced in 1997 and an M.S. Program for the fifth year students was begun in 2001. New courses were introduced and a computational laboratory was set up around 2001.