The Should I Become a Physicist? Thread

osnarf

and only 19% were not in Physics, Engineering, or "Other Sciences", all of which I would probably be very happy working in. I may reconsider physics for grad school I thought it was much different.

ZapperZ

Science Careers section has a very useful tip in doing an oral presentation for non-native speakers.

http://sciencecareers.sciencemag.org...redit.a1100056

In particular, pay attention to the tips given on your presentation:

This is rather similar to what I suggested in Part XIV of "So You Want To Be A Physicist" essay:

The key thing to remember here is that, if your pronunciation is weak, you want to make sure that even if people don't listen to you, they will still get the message that you want to get across in a particular viewgraph. So make sure your viewgraphs has not only the necessary information, but also the "punchlilne" highlighted very clearly. The article suggested that you write down the punchline instead of the title for each viewgraph. That isn't such a bad idea.

Zz.

Jack21222

I re-read Zz's compendium of becoming a physicist a couple times a year. I just finished my 6th or 7th read-through, and every time, I pick up something new. I'm going into my final year of undergrad, so I focused on that area this time.

Thanks again, ZapperZ. If I ever run into you at a physics conference one of these days, I owe you a beer (or beverage of your choice).

ZapperZ

The AIP has released the latest data on US Physics Graduate Degrees.

http://www.aip.org/statistics/trends...ysgrad2008.pdf

This report covers the latest data gathered for 2008.

There is an overall increase in the number of PhD awarded since a significant drop in 2004. The average number of years in getting a PhD (starting with a Bachelor degree) is still around 6 years (see Fig. 6). Fig. 7 shows the distribution of specific areas in physics. Note that condensed matter/material science still leads the field, and this is reflected in the fact that this field also is the largest division in the APS.

Zz.

Veritas Seeke

Zapper's last entry was 6 years ago did the man die?

Mororvia

His last post on this forum was ~18hrs ago. I would wager he is still alive and kicking.

More on topic, its too bad more of the posters in this subforum don't browse through this thread and his writing before asking the same questions over and over.

ZapperZ

Yes, he's dead and presently is decaying away.

Zz.

weld

Hey Zapperz, what does doing experimental work involve?

Is it aesthetically satisfying? What would the average physicist say in that regard? Cause I think it sounds kind of boring, tinkering with machines, running experiments over and over again, just to verify a hypothesis. It get worse when such experiments may take a month or so to complete 100%.

Are there any places where one can do pure, theoretical research outside of academia, such as certain corporations or research institutes? How hard will you say it is to get a job at such places?

Regarding condensed matter physics, do most consider it boring and dull, or at least aesthetically inferior to that of other physics subfields?

If one gets tenure as theoretical physics prof, how much of one's time do you estimate one gets to do research? 90%, 80%?

ZapperZ

Er... I'm not sure where to start to dismiss such myth. That's like saying doing theoretical work is boring because one does nothing else but sit with a pen and paper solving equations!

Wow!

I strongly suggest you go look at, say ArXiv, and see the huge range of topics covered under condensed matter physics. As for it being "inferior", I can quote Robert Laughlin in his Nobel Prize speech:

Considering that the Higgs mechanism came out of condensed matter (see Anderson's work on spontaneous broken symmetry), and the fact that condensed matter system might be the first system to exhibit Majorana fermions ahead of any particle physics experiments, I don't know how anyone could even think of it being "inferior".

Zz.

GregJ

Fantastic read ZapperZ! Will re-read it tomorrow again :)

I haven't gone through the whole thread yet however.

ZapperZ

Thank you.

Since I was asked this a couple of times this week already, let me again post the link to the entire essay in its present form:

http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=df5w5j9q_5gj6wmt

I actually wrote a new entry for the essay a few weeks ago where I intended to put in my 2 cents on what it means to be a good and useful Academic Advisor. However, after writing it, I thought it became more of my own personal, idealized vision. Although I do have a graduate student that I mentor, and have had a few students here and there over the years, I don't think I have achieved the idealized version of an Academic Advisor. The main reason for this is that, as someone who isn't at an academic institution, we do not have a role as an academic advisor.

So what I ended up doing is rewriting the chapter on what I want an Academic Advisor to be, and posted it as a blog entry.

http://physicsandphysicists.blogspot...c-advisor.html

Zz.

GregJ

Re-read the essay again today along with your blog entry.

I am finding it all very useful as I will eventually move someday from the UK to the US to continue my studies (although that will be in quite some time). So it is nice to know what's ahead and perhaps avoid any mishaps that may arise.

The T.A. section was especially useful to me (something I never knew of until I read it in your essay) and something that I will certainly have to look at in more detail, so that someday I may actively aim for it.

The blog entry sounds what every Academic Advisor should be like. I imagine you're not too far off from that version ;)

ZapperZ

This is a report on a panel discussion held at SLAC on how to find jobs outside of Academia.

http://www.symmetrymagazine.org/brea...side-academia/

Many of the advices being given echoes what I had previously stated on here and in my essay, especially that on acquiring skills and knowledge in experiments/instrumentation.

Zz.

Condensate

Hi ZapperZ!

Are the courses in college going to be similar to the way high school AP courses are structured?
I ask because my interest in the Physics and Chemistry AP classes is low.

Brown Arrow

hey Greg

the links you have posted in your first post are not working,

Brown Arrow

for me I took university chem..physic..bio..math in HS....

for all my courses at university(UofT) we reviewed first semester for the intro courses..

AP in HS can make you hate the subject... Had experience with AP did not like it

PS: I'm doing specialist in Astrophysics... got a good sense of the physics part of the course going to be taking the Astor part in the winter

ZapperZ

Those were posted on a sister forum that is no longer running.

Again, and I should do this periodically, I suppose, the complete version of the essay (as of this moment) can be found at this link.

Zz.