The Escola de Ciências e Tecnologia (ECT) of the University of Trás-os-montes e Alto Douro (UTAD) offers several courses in the areas of sciences and technologies. The Physics Department (DF) collaborates in the teaching duties of ECT and of the other schools of UTAD, and its teachers and researchers collaborate and are members of several research centers. The main research areas of the physics department are the physics of condensed matter, physics of the atmosphere and the climate, and didactics in physical sciences.