Recent content by JJminusI

I know someone who did it and I went to a fair few USPAS courses myself during my graduate studies. The courses vary in quality from decent to very good depending on how many times the instructor has taught at USPAS. Some lessons I learned the hard way, that you might find useful: 1)...

100% of the white board (or write code down in a text document) interviews I have done required a compilable answer at the end that was of maximal efficiency. I failed one where I wrote a modular, functioning answer with unit tests because it wasn't the "preferred answer." I failed one where...

$60k-90k is the range I have heard from my friends working as postdocs national labs in the area (LLNL, LBL, SLAC). Scientists make more and that is what you are seeing, I think. I only know a few people who have worked at Livermore and all of them lived in Stockton or Pleasaton. I have a...

I work in accelerator physics but I don't run in the same circles as the schools you mentioned (except NIU a little bit). I assume that UTK works with Oak Ridge National Lab, so you'll probably end up doing something on the Spallation Neutron Source there. That is the big project, there must...

I don't know what you mean by "job positions that can be held by carriers of this degree." Any job or jobs in the field? What degree level? Bachelors? Masters? PhD? The best resource for job postings in the field of accelerators that I have found are: USPAS jobs board (can be slow to update)...

I don't know how I missed this the first time. A lot of the questions about coming to the USA to do accelerator work are colored by immigration stuff which I can't speak on at all. Right now, Michigan State is hiring a lot of people (by accelerator physics standards) for FRIB, SLAC is doing a...

The particle beam lines (as opposed to the x-ray beam lines) are first designed in a specialty code for accelerators like elegant, IMPACT or synergia. After that the engineers use SolidWorks (where I have worked) or SolidEdge (SLAC and FNAL) to create a model of the whole beam line. I don't...

This is totally true, and I encourage people who are interested in being a technician or an engineer to look at accelerators for work, it can be a lot of fun. This may be a conversation I am having with myself, but when you read material on the field of accelerator physics "begging" for...

ESRF is embarking on a large, 150 million Euro, upgrade to its machine. Helpfully, you can see all of the hiring they plan to do over the next 5 years, which include that upgrade, here. This listing also includes their projections for retirements, so it isn't just about the upgrade by any...

FYI, the 2010 article from Symmetry Magazine started off with statements from Tony Favale of Advanced Energy Systems: If you were hoping for a long term job at AES (back in 2010), you're out of luck as the auction of their assets started today. Word is that they missed out on the action of...

Of the two projects mentioned specifically in that article, EuroCirCol isn't isn't looking for an accelerator physicist. When I talked to one of the people doing the recruiting, they were looking for a particle physicist that can pick up the accelerator physics, not accelerator physicists...

Yes, and I explained why in my first post. A large fraction of the money these private companies take to do research related to the expertise of accelerator physicists comes from the same source that the academics take to do research: the DOE Office of Science, High Energy Physics. So, the...

The video does not need to be a recruitment video, nor do I need to think it is, for me to think that is an excellent example of what is wrong with how the job market in accelerator physics works. SBIR stands for Small Business Innovation and Research, that hardly qualifies as leaving...

Of course that video isn't a recruitment video, the DOE required the labs to make those presentations to dive into the Stewardship process. Clearly, you just want to use this thread to trumpet what you see as the virtues of accelerator physics, so I'll leave you to it. However, I strongly...

Taken out of the context of jobs, I agree with you about what people in academic accelerator physics think of the field (that it is all HEP), but I can assure you that Varian, Smiths, IBA and many more see accelerator physics very differently depending on their focus: medical systems, cargo...