The Department of Physics was established in July 1965 as an academic unit of the Faculty of Science of the University of Dar es Salaam. Its first head of the department was Prof. D. Osborne from Australia. The department started with mostly non-African academic and technical staff. The first African academic staff were: Prof. Paul Vitta (Tanzanian), Dr. Nwachuku (Nigerian) and Dr. A.B.C.D. Kweri (Ugandan), who were employed in 1968/69. The first tutorial assistants who were the first graduates of the Department of Physics were the late Prof. E. Lushiku and the late Dr. E. Kashoro, who were employed in 1968. These were followed by Prof. John Nkoma and the late Prof. C. Kiwanga in 1971. The number of academic staff increased from 5 in 1965 to 22 in 2016 while the number of technical staff decreased from 14 in 1967 to 5 in 2016.
The decrease in the number of technical staff is due to several factors such as retirement of the staff, death, and shifting of some units and technical staff (electronics unit to CoICT and some staff to Central Science Workshop) to other departments and colleges. The department had only male academic and technical staff until 1987 when the first female technical staff, Ms Brenda Kazimili, was employed. Two more female technical staff, Ms Anna Nyenyembe and Ms. Agrepina Aloyce were employed in 1988 and 1989, respectively. The first female academic staff to be employed in the Department is Dr. Najat K. Mohammed (2001), and was followed by Dr. M. Samiji(2003).
The department was initially established to provide mainly secondary school physics teachers; hence, it started with only 2 programmes: BSc (Ed) and BSc (Gen). The BSc Applied Physics was launched in 1981, and was later revised to become BSc in Electronic Science and Communication, BSc (ESC). In 2012, the programme was shifted to the new College of Informatics and Communication Technology (CoICT). In 2013/14, the department, in collaboration with Tanzania Meteorology Agency (TMA), launched the BSc (Meteorology) program.
LEADERSHIP HISTORY - DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS
|
Name |
Period of Service |
|
Prof. D. Osborne |
1965 - 1971 |
|
2. Prof. Paul Vitta |
1972 - 1978 |
|
3. Prof. John Nkoma |
1979 –1981 |
|
4. Dr. Gharib Bilal |
1982 - 1988 |
|
5. Prof. Elias Lushiku |
1988 - 1994 |
|
6. Prof. Ernest C. Njau |
1994 - 2000 |
|
7. Dr. Christian B.S. Uiso |
2000 – 2003 and 2006 - 2009 |
|
8. Dr. Godfrey W. Mbise |
2003 - 2006 |
|
9. Dr. Ismael N. Makundi |
2009-2012 |
|
10. Dr. Najat K. Mohammed |
2012 -2018 and 2015-2018 |
|
Dr Nuru Mlyuka |
2019 - Todate |