At what point can one be considered a physicist?

[Choppy]

For what it's worth, titles such as "medical doctor" can be protected by law - and much will depend on which law applies and the regulating bodies in your state or country.

I don't know that people are commonly if at all ever arrested for title use. But this becomes an issue in terms of professional identification. For example in some places a homeopath would not be able to use titles such as "doctor, physician, or surgeon" professionally because the title is restricted to those registered with the state or provincial college of physicians and surgeons.

The consequences of violating something this are, I believe, generally civil rather than criminal i.e. the college may sue those using a restricted title.

 

[Evan Maxwell]

I think physicist has more value than other titles doctors would have if for no other reason that there are so few of us that we should stick together and support each other with pride.

As for when you are a physicist, well, if you have at least a B.S. and are doing some kind of computing work or any related work that utilizes your knowledge of physics and utilizes the same kind of techniques you would use to solve problems in classical or quantum mechanics, than my view is that's good enough for me.

 

[Anding]

Perhaps a provocative point of view, but one way of looking at it is to say there are only of handful of true physicists existing in each generation. These are the people who make the kind significant and fundamental contributions to theory or experiment that will be read about again and again by generations to come. By their nature, these kinds of contributions are rare! All others who receive university, government, or corporate funding for activities in the field of physics you could call "physics professionals". Those who study or think about physics, whether in a university or an independent setting, you could call "students of physics". Under this definition, to be called a true physicist a person needs to have succeeded in making a breakthrough with the big questions that subsequent generations will hold in honour. Thus it can only be judged in retrospect those of whom are currently physics professionals or students of physics, will turn out to number among the physicists of history.

 

[Vanadium 50]

Not provocative, just uninformed. Physics does not make progress primarily via the lone genius who has popularizations ghostwritten. It makes progress by a large number of people chipping away at little pieces.

 

[Anding]

Not provocative, just uninformed. Physics does not make progress primarily via the lone genius who has popularizations ghostwritten. It makes progress by a large number of people chipping away at little pieces.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Structure_of_Scientific_Revolutions

Come on there is more to it that that :-) I believe you are well aware of Thomas Khun and may even have read the book (I haven't).

I don't necessarily agree with the point of view I suggested, but in posting it I wanted to get away from the idea of defining physicists as those who have a physics job , rather as those who will be remembered as physicists. It seems a more reliable criteria to apply (albeit in retrospect), even if it is overly selective.

 

[Evan Maxwell]

It sometimes seems to me that the days of individual physicists single-handedly making discoveries that completely transform science as Einstein, Neils Bohr and Rutherford did are long gone and in our times our academic climate is such that it is often teams and collaborations - which can grow to be very, very large - all working alongside each other in some capacity to achieve future ground breaking discoveries. Perhaps this may be a reason why the definition of who is and who is not a physicist should be expanded beyond its historic categories.

 

[ZapperZ]

I must say, after 5 pages of discussion, I find it rather amusing that so much time is devoted to something that I consider to be rather superficial. Is there really an issue or a problem here waiting to be solved? Is there really is a need to have such definitive guideline on when one calls oneself a "physicist", etc.? When and where did this problem crop up? In my professional line of work, and in all the years of my interactions with other professionals, I had never encounter a situation where I had to identify myself as a "physicist" or even question what someone else calls him or herself. Especially in the field of accelerator science where one can be from either a physics or engineering background, such issues are meaningless and irrelevant!

Or are we really making an issue out of a non-existent problem, the way many news agencies tried to do to fill up their broadcast time? Maybe we all here have come up with a solution waiting for a problem! How about that?

Zz.

 

[Pythagorean]

Is there really an issue or a problem here waiting to be solved? Is there really is a need to have such definitive guideline on when one calls oneself a "physicist", etc.?

No.

 

[Evan Maxwell]

ZapperZ, I think the sad truth is we live in a world where labels are often absolutely vital. And getting rid of this entirely, at least in the near future, is totally a pipe dream. Sad but true.

 

[Evo]

I must say, after 5 pages of discussion, I find it rather amusing that so much time is devoted to something that I consider to be rather superficial. Is there really an issue or a problem here waiting to be solved? Is there really is a need to have such definitive guideline on when one calls oneself a "physicist", etc.? When and where did this problem crop up? In my professional line of work, and in all the years of my interactions with other professionals, I had never encounter a situation where I had to identify myself as a "physicist" or even question what someone else calls him or herself. Especially in the field of accelerator science where one can be from either a physics or engineering background, such issues are meaningless and irrelevant!

Or are we really making an issue out of a non-existent problem, the way many news agencies tried to do to fill up their broadcast time? Maybe we all here have come up with a solution waiting for a problem! How about that?

Zz.

And this is a good place to end this thread.