The Kurukshetra University was established in 1956 by an act of the state legislature. The Department of Physics came into being in July 1961 with an intake of ten students to B.Sc.(Hons). Late Professor K. K. Nagpaul was the founder Head of the Department. M.Sc. Physics was introduced in July, 1963. Within a few years, the department was equipped with full-fledged laboratories for teaching and research. Late Sh. B.N. Chakarvarty, the then Governor of Haryana and Chancellor of the University laid the foundation stone of the present Physics block on October 27, 1967. It is a three-storey building of 21 bays and is centrally located on the University Campus. Within next couple of years, research laboratories in the fields of Experimental Nuclear Physics, High Energy Physics, Solid State Physics, Spectroscopy, Semiconductor Electronics and Lasers were established. Work in Theoretical Physics was also carried out simultaneously. Subsequently a significant number of students joined various research groups and the first Ph.D. degree from the department was awarded in the year 1969. Over the years the department has emerged as an excellent centre for teaching and research. The department has been fortunate enough to achieve an exalted status in academic and research environment in the discipline of Physics under the leadership of prominent Heads/Chairpersons viz: 1. Dr, K.K. Nagpaul (1961-1964, 1967-1970, 1982-1984), 2. Dr. Yog Prakash (1964-1965), 3. Prof. H.S. Hans (1965-1967), 4. Prof. Narendra Nath (1970-1982). 5. Prof. A.P. Sharma (1984-1986), 6. Prof. R.K. Mohindra (1986-1989), 7. Prof. K. Mahesh (1989-1992), 8. Prof. Ram Raj (1992-1995), 9. Prof. R.M.P. Jaiswal (1995-1997), 10. Prof. N.D. Sharma (1997-2000), 11. Prof. H.C. Sharma (2000-2000), 12. Prof. D.K. Chaturvedi (2000-2003), 13. Prof. Nafa Singh (2003-2006), 14. Prof. Shyam Kumar (2006-2009), 15.  Prof. S. C. Mishra (2009-2012), 16. Prof. M. S. Yadav (2012-2015), 17. Prof. R. K. Moudgil (2015-2018), 18. Prof. Sanjeev Aggarwal (2018-2021) & Currently, Prof. Fakir Chand is the Chairman of the Department since October 18, 2021.

 So far, department has produced about 175 Ph.Ds. and 240 M.Phils. At present 30 scholars are registered for their Ph.D. degree. So far about 600 research papers have been published by the faculty in the national and international journals of repute. At present the department offers four- semester M.Sc. (Physics) and Ph.D. (Physics) programs. In M.Sc. there are 120 seats. In the 1st and 2nd semesters, all the students have to take basic courses of Physics while in the 3rd and 4th semesters, they can opt for any two specializations out of six frontline courses in addition to two compulsory papers.