thinking about getting a PhD in Scientific Computing

octol

So I've got an MSc in Engineering physics and I'm now deciding if I should go find a job in the industry, or stay in school to get a PhD, more specifically in Scientific computing and numerical analysis. Getting the PhD is very temping, but the main thing holding me back is that I don't know how easy it is to get a job in the industry afterwards.

So I'm wondering, does anyone know how big (or small) the demand is for PhD's in Scientific computing in the industry?

octol

So noone has any experience about PhD's in scientific computing/numerical analysis?

marlon

Yes, i am doing a PhD in computational physics in THIS place. I work on the interface between a metal gate and the high k dielectric of a MOSFET transistor.

marlon

J77

Can you be more specific?

ie. numerics with respect to what application?

octol

Well, for example these projects here:
http://user.it.uu.se/~gkreiss/doktorandannons.htm
I'm most interested in something similar to the one mentioned there about multi-phase flow. Does such a PhD have any future in the industry?

J77

Yeah - for example, in the UK, a lot of PDE people I know have gone into (inudstrial) consultancy. This involves stuff like, eg., modelling and working on the longitivity and decommision of nuclear reactors.

Sounds like an open project that one - possible applications are obviously geo-reservoir type stuff - I did something similar for my masters (check out this place: http://www.bpi.cam.ac.uk/)