The Department of Applied Physics (DFA) was created in 1975 as part of the Institute of Physics at Unicamp.Today the research groups work in several areas of physics, from basic to applied science. The research lines include theoretical and experimental studies of biological,nanoscopic and self-assembled systems, surface physics, opto-electronic devices and magnetic materials. Despite the diverse lines of research, the department shares a common effort in the synthesis of new materials and their characterization. This effort generates a great deal of interaction between groups, either by collaboration between researchers and/or sharing infrastructure and technical support. Due to the need to produce and characterize materials, another important feature of the department is its complex instrumentation and highly trained technical support staff. The use of this infrastructure in scientifically relevant research has led to an expressive number of publications in some of the most reputed scientific publications. In addition, several researchers from DFA have strong interactions with both; public and private productive sectors.