Current instructor

Gary Shiu

Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 3.99/5 from 67 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

PHYS831 · course not matched
Quality 5/5Difficulty 3/5
Excellent lectures. You will get good grades if you attend class.
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PHYS831 · course not matched
Quality 5/5Difficulty 4/5
The first few weeks felt like I wasn't learning much from lectures but he really knows what he's doing. By the end of QFT1 (and QFT2) I had completely mastered the material in a way that really helped with my research. Definitely recommend!
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PHY832 · course not matched
Quality 5/5Difficulty 4/5
An amazing course. Advanced quantum mechanics is a difficult subject, but Gary did a great job in breaking things down to an understandable level. You learned a lot of physics by following the lectures and doing the homework.
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PHY831 · course not matched
Quality 5/5Difficulty 4/5
Gary is scary smart! I learned so much from him. This course is difficult but it is totally worth it. If you want to learn advanced physics at UW-Madison, he is definitely the guy.
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PHY202 · course not matched
Quality 5/5Difficulty 4/5
I enjoyed lectures with Gary. I thought lectures were well organized and that I was adequately prepared for the exams. I think that the course adapted really well to changing from multiple choice to free response on the exams. The discussion sheets did really well preparing us for the exams and the overall content on the exams was very fair.
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PHY202 · course not matched
Quality 5/5Difficulty 5/5
Gary has got to be the funniest professor I've had, always had some unexpected one liners. But aside from that he was a very good professor, I liked his slides and thought he complemented them very well with his words. One of the better professors I've had.
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Personal experiences, not a representative survey. Profile matching and captured coverage are shown in the source details.

Classes with Gary Shiu

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 299Directed 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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