Current instructor

Francis Halzen

Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 3.06/5 from 16 quality ratings. The adjusted rating blends this with the UW review average (3.66/5), weighted as 20 additional ratings. Smaller samples stay closer to that average. Each captured review is counted once in the prior; this does not correct who chooses to leave a review.

RMP profile ↗ · All captured review dates; profile matched by name.

What students say

Original student reviews · all captured dates

PHYS109 · course not matched
Quality 1/5Difficulty 3/5
Francis was a super sweet guy, but he seemed super confused about what he was teaching and the TA's would correct him a lot of the time. He was also really bad at answering questions. He would send the lecture notes and just read off of them during the class. The TA's taught way more content than Halzen even attempted to cover.
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PHYS109 · course not matched
Quality 1/5Difficulty 4/5
He's a really nice guy but his lectures do NOT help you with anything in your homework or labs or exams. He rambles on and does not go over any of the math problems which make up almost all of the problems on each test. I do not recommend this class unless Pupa is the only one teaching
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PHYS109 · course not matched
Quality 1/5Difficulty 4/5
This class was literally terrible and Francis is a really nice guy but actually doesn't teach you much. He cares more about the concepts rather than the mathematics, which is actually what all the tests are on. Our class had to go through 3-hour review sessions the day before the test with the TA to understand the material. Do not recommend.
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PHYS109 · course not matched
Quality 3/5Difficulty 2/5
Dr. Halzen is a very sweet guy, but his lectures can be kind of confusing. He gets off track easily and doesn't always make stuff super clear. In general, he's an okay professor but I think if he taught a harder class, I would have struggled. The subject material is interesting and he is clearly passionate, just not always very articulate.
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PHYS107 · course not matched
Quality 2/5Difficulty 2/5
Very nice old man but not very helpful. He writes a ton of formulas on the board, and you just copy it all down. I never knew what was going on. He assigns 5 problems from the book a week. Figure out how to do those, and you will be fine. Tests are exactly like the homework and study guide questions. Easy A, without any work.
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PHY107 · course not matched
Quality 2/5Difficulty 3/5
He is very nice but not the best professor. His lectures are unclear and tests are somewhat hard. Grading scale is predominantly based on 3 exams. I would not recommend him as a professor.
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Personal experiences, not a representative survey. Profile matching and captured coverage are shown in the source details.

Classes with Francis Halzen

PHYSICS 990

Research

1–12 credits

Research supervised by individual faculty members. Students formulate and plan original research, creating work that contributes to the field of physics.

Offering recorded · Spring 2027 · Sources

Pupa GilbertIrena Knezevic+78 more

No recorded grade history

Recorded teaching history

Distinct courses recorded per term

Explore courses taught by this instructor →
Browse recorded courses
TermCourseTitle
Spring 2027PHYSICS 198Directed Study
Spring 2027PHYSICS 299Directed Study
Spring 2027PHYSICS 498Directed Study
Spring 2027PHYSICS 499Directed Study
Spring 2027PHYSICS 681Senior Honors Thesis
Spring 2027PHYSICS 682Senior Honors Thesis
Spring 2027PHYSICS 691Senior Thesis
Spring 2027PHYSICS 692Senior Thesis
Spring 2027PHYSICS 990Research
Fall 2026PHYSICS 990Research

Teaching history may be incomplete. Course pages contain course-specific feedback and citations.

Instructor identity & provenance 
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