Making Money in Physics

garrettmills9

Hello,

I am currently considering going into physics as a career. Even with the little knowledge that I have, I think the field will make an interesting and exciting career.

However, the honest truth is that I do care about money. Having a lot of money would open up many ways to do great things in my life, my family's life, and the lives of others. I can already predict that most of the answers to my question will read something like "Go into physics because you love it" or "If you want money, be a business major," but here it is anyway:

I want to work in physics (applied), and I want to make a lot of money ($150,000+). Can these two desires be reconciled? (please, I am more interested in legitimate answers to the question, not life tips about how money doesn't matter, but all answers are appreciated nonetheless).

Thank You

jesse73

You're not going to be able to do both unless you become a superstar in physics (Nobel Prize winner / University-Institute professor).

You could get a physics degree and more than $150k doing something other than physics like finance or consulting but you cant easily get a physics and make more than $150k doing physics (maybe so in a management position that you could have done with just an MBA) except for the case mentioned.

150k is in a high percentile in income so its going to take justification to pay you that much especially in the current economy.

Greg Bernhardt

A little insight into expected salaries
http://alocsin.hubpages.com/hub/High...n-and-Salaries

jbrussell93

When you say that you want to "go into physics", I assume that you mean eventually obtain a PhD in physics and become a researcher? My question is, do you really need to go into physics or would you be just as happy using physics? If you want to use physics in your career and make +$150k then there may be some options. The obvious one being engineering, but even most engineers don't make nearly that much unless they are in management in which case you probably wouldn't be using much physics anyway. But if you definitely want to major in physics and don't mind going to graduate school, then you may want to look into geophysics or medical physics. Many geophysics PhD's get swooped up by the oil and gas industry and make around what you'd be looking for. I've also heard that medical physicists make a good salary, but this also depends if you go the clinical or research route.

Any way you look at it... not many people can make that kind of money doing physics.

Choppy

No one is going to offer you a huge salary simply to be a physicist, but there are many physicists that make that kind of money.

Some options include:
(1) Entreprenuers. The most financially successful physicists I know have started companies, some even based on their PhD work. This is, of course a risky venture as with any entreprenuer, but if money is your goal, this is how to get a lot of it.

(2) Medical physics. This is a highly competative field, and you won't be starting with a $150k salary, but particularly in the US, that kind of annual salary is not unreasonable for those who become certified. Many medical physicists do some kind of consulting or contract work on the side.

(3) Consulting work. When deciding on a graduate project think about the applications of what you're learning and maybe find a mentor who does some of this kind of thing on the side.

(4) Geophysics. I don't know too much about this field, but it apparently pays rather well.

Locrian

We hear on this forum now and then about physicists in private industry reaching managerial levels that pay that amount. Plenty of medical physicists make that amount of money. I have no doubt there are some physicists in industrial/scientific sales positions that manage it.

But salary is a terrible measure of whether a career is financially rewarding. Many jobs (including a couple in physics) manage high salaries by postponing earnings until later in life, making for net present values that aren't particularly impressive. Some jobs, including many in physics, postpone mediocre earning until later in life, for some spectacularly low net present values.

I would reconsider your metric if I were you. Then do some more comparisons. It isn't as if physics is the only interesting career out there.

garrettmills9

Thank you everyone. These are great replies.

I certainly don't necessarily 'have' to do research in the traditional sense. Being an entrepreneur or being in management could be great careers. My question now then is what kind of company would a physicist start? What kind of consulting work? What kind of management positions and for whom?

Also, Locrian, I will definitely take that into consideration. I hadn't really thought about how those numbers can be misleading.

jesse73

If you want money (by doing management or finance) dont do physics there are so many easier ways to do that. An MBA takes 2 years post bachelors while a PhD take 5-8.

Seems easier to do engineering BS (ideally CS since elite CS BS grads get six digits) and do an MBA program after.

Choppy

Some examples:
Hiroyuki Fujita founder of QED
http://www.ismrm.org/news/APS.pdf

Max Lagally founder of nPoint and SonoPlot
http://www.bu.edu/mse/2000/04/30/apr...onsin-madison/

Robert Black, founder of CivaTech Oncology
http://www.civatechoncology.com/index.html

James Vickers, founder of Optonics and tau-Metrix
http://www.tau-metrix.com/company.html

Alex Shimkunas, founder of Nanostructures
http://www.nanostructures.com/founders.html

Rock Mackie, founder of Geometrics and TomoTherapy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Rockwell_Mackie

When you start reading up on these guys it's not hard to see the pattern. They develop a new technology as a part of their graduate work or later research, pattent it, and then found a new company to bring that technology to market.

There's a great article in a recent Physics Today on physics start-ups (obviously where I got a few of the names above):
http://www.physicstoday.org/resource...s1?bypassSSO=1

Shisnu

This might not be the most unbiased view, but you'd be surprised at how much physics gets used in engineering (particularly chemical engineering). I don't know exactly which aspects of physics you're interested in, but I'd argue that applied physics IS engineering.

And engineers get paid sheet loads, in both technical and management roles.

Again, I don't know at what stage you are in your career, but you can easily become a chartered engineer with a physics degree if you already have one / are working towards one.

And the world always needs more (chemical) engineers.

elkement

Choppy, that's an awesome list!! Thanks for the link to the article!

I'd like to add my favorite physicist entrepreneur that matches your pattern:

Frank Levinson, founder of Finisar
http://investing.businessweek.com/re...Title=FABRINET

I recommend his advice to entrepreneurs - very down-to-earth and common sense:
Top 10 Must Have For a Start-up
http://ecorner.stanford.edu/authorMa...o.html?mid=653

Locrian

Of course, for many grad students these days, any IP that comes about is property of the University, so some may not be able to follow quite that plan.

StatGuy2000

That is not necessarily true of all universities, either in Canada or the US. I know for a fact that in the University of Waterloo in Canada, any IP is the sole property of the developer and not of the university.

Choppy

This is an important point, but in addition to what Statguy2000 said, many universities establish programs to promote the commercialization of the innovation done on their campuses. And even if the university completely owns the intellectual property, that doesn't prevent the student who developed it from making money with it.

ModusPwnd

Each of the universities I have worked for have a scheme where IP revenue is split something like 70/30 between the university/student. Much of what they own just gets sat on though and not developed into profit.

rhombusjr

Why do you want to make $150k+ per year? Are you really going to be spending that much money? Chances are, you'll probably be just as happy making half of that (and there's psychology studies that can back this up).

ParticleGrl

The problem is that trying to do physics for a living, you're likely to make ~1/7 of that through your late 20s, and 1/3 of that through your mid 30s/early 40s. Coupled with the tremendous career uncertainty, this means delaying 'adulthood' (supporting a family and all those other non-work responsabilities). Those same psychological studies suggest this is a recipe for unhappiness.

It can be very hard to watch friends advance through their career, buy homes, drive relatively new cars,etc while you are a physicist who lives in a fairly bad part of town and took a second job on the weekends as a bartender in order to pay for repairs on your twenty year old car.