Recent content by Sheets

Well, my first question is why would you want to move into a field that has worse career prospects than your own (or at least I think it does, I'm pretty bearish on nuclear physics these days)? On the other hand, I would probably hire you if you were any good. And my group right now does have...

I work at a national lab where the working conditions are somewhere between industry and academia. It is like academia because you're expected to submit proposals and chase money to do science but like industry because you are project driven & the projects have to cover your salary. Most people...

You are in a tough field. I received my PhD in low energy nuclear physics (LENP) 6 years ago and the field has only gotten worse since then. In US universities LENP is all but disappearing except for groups that do exotic particle searches and neutrino physics. The US national labs used to sweep...

"What are the major differences between a lecturer and a professor in the US university?" A lecturer is usually similar to an adjunct professor in the US. These jobs tend to be low pay, low job security, and have weak benefits. Having a PhD in physics will certainly qualify you for one of these...

I wouldn't fret over not getting into a research program right away as a first year student. Right now you should be working towards getting a solid understanding of basic physics (mechanics, e&m, thermo, basic qm), pick up some programming skills, and figuring out which area of physics you'd...

You would think that would be the case but it isn't what I've observed. I know of several people that continue on with soft money positions at universities after doing everything you talk about. But I think the university looks at such an individual and thinks, "This sucker has stayed around...

I think the PhD was worth it for me. But barely. Somehow I've stayed in science despite going to an unremarkable 2nd tier small private college and getting a PhD at another 2nd tier university. Partly this was a calculated effort on my part--I recognized an area where the hiring prospects...

Look at http://www.bogleheads.org -- especially the wiki. Even if you decide to take a more active approach to retirement planning the website is still extremely valuable. The biggest problem, IMO, with 401ks tend to be the limited options companies offer in their 401k options. If you are...

Congrats also. Out of curiosity what type of software job did you get?

Basically layoffs. Technically it's a voluntary separation right now but they're going to cut the same number of people regardless of how many take the separation package. See: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/04/us/los-alamos-braces-for-deep-cuts-at-lab.html?_r=1

Having a degree from a more prestigious university will always help you. Period. You might not end up at a national lab (you are aware lanl is shedding 10 percent of its workforce right now?) and HR people will probably be more impressed with MIT over KSU. That said, many 2nd tier schools...

Well, you better get into it before a flood of applicants makes jobs scarce ; ) Personally I think it would be interesting since I enjoy exploratory data analysis and modeling data. I often think about applying for positions in the industry (as I'm in the bay area where data mining is big)...

Having a degree in nuclear physics and working at the national labs I would suggest going for the NE PhD if your ultimate goal is to be at the DOE/NNSA labs. Studying nuclear physics means you study a purely academic subject like nuclear structure/reactions, neutrino/exotic particle searches...

So how'd you do? I think I'd have a problem with a couple of these during an interview.

It depends on what you are doing. Linear algebra, stochastic processes, statistics, differential equations, and numerical analysis are common maths associated with constructing models. Having a good grasp of this stuff would let you tackle a great number of problems. But after that there is...