At which point in your education do you start calling yourself a physicist?

[Simfish]

Or a chemist/mathematician/etc?

I've seen undergrads start calling themselves physicists/mathematicians. To me, that seems premature, but there are points to it. I'm still debating over when I can finally start calling myself an astrophysicist.

 

[DBTS]

When you are working in the field and doing work pertaining to physics, etc...

 

[Pengwuino]

When you are working in the field and doing work pertaining to physics, etc...

+1.

What do you call yourself when you just graduated with your PhD and don't have a job yet? Unemployed.

Teehee. Seriously though, if you got a nobel prize in physics and you decided to go work as a manager at Best Buy, you'd call yourself a Best Buy manager because that's what you do.

 

[ThomasT]

Or a chemist/mathematician/etc?

I've seen undergrads start calling themselves physicists/mathematicians. To me, that seems premature, but there are points to it. I'm still debating over when I can finally start calling myself an astrophysicist.

How far along are you? Re what Penguino said, when you get a job as an astrophysicist, then you're an astrophysicist. Until then, you're just somebody who knows astrophysics to whatever extent that you know it.

 

[Jack21222]

When you are working in the field and doing work pertaining to physics, etc...

And I would say that includes grad students, because they work in the field. Otherwise, you're left with the uncomfortable proposition that de Broglie matter waves were not discovered by a physicist (because de Broglie was a grad student when working on that theory.)

 

[leroyjenkens]

+1.

What do you call yourself when you just graduated with your PhD and don't have a job yet? Unemployed.

Teehee. Seriously though, if you got a nobel prize in physics and you decided to go work as a manager at Best Buy, you'd call yourself a Best Buy manager because that's what you do.

I disagree. You can be a scientist without doing it as a profession. Think about all the amateur astronomers who don't make any money doing it. They're still looking up in the sky and discovering things just like a professional astronomer.

 

[Vanadium 50]

I would say "when other physicists start citing your work". This includes most grad students, but towards the end of their studentship, not towards the beginning.

 

[Pengwuino]

I disagree. You can be a scientist without doing it as a profession. Think about all the amateur astronomers who don't make any money doing it. They're still looking up in the sky and discovering things just like a professional astronomer.

Those amateur astronomers usually call themselves something else though depending on what their profession actually is. I don't know of a single amateur astronomer who makes a living off of it. It's like saying you're a gardener. You probably like gardening and may in fact run amateur experiments on plants, but in the end you're not doing it as a living and if someone asked what you do, you wouldn't say gardener. And no, that wasn't meant to compare astronomy to gardening. I know exactly what amateur astronomers do.

For example, the people I know/heard of being amateur astronomers mainly go by the titles Professor, Optometrist, Dentist, Doctor, CEO. Hmm, I don't mean to paint amateur astronomers as well wealthy. I suppose everyone I've heard of doesn't just exactly go outside with a 4" telescope and look at the stars... some of them have 14"+ automated telescopes at their homes! Lucky bums...

 

[leroyjenkens]

Those amateur astronomers usually call themselves something else though depending on what their profession actually is. I don't know of a single amateur astronomer who makes a living off of it. It's like saying you're a gardener. You probably like gardening and may in fact run amateur experiments on plants, but in the end you're not doing it as a living and if someone asked what you do, you wouldn't say gardener. And no, that wasn't meant to compare astronomy to gardening. I know exactly what amateur astronomers do.

For example, the people I know/heard of being amateur astronomers mainly go by the titles Professor, Optometrist, Dentist, Doctor, CEO. Hmm, I don't mean to paint amateur astronomers as well wealthy. I suppose everyone I've heard of doesn't just exactly go outside with a 4" telescope and look at the stars... some of them have 14"+ automated telescopes at their homes! Lucky bums...

I think if you do something scientific just like a professional scientist would do it, you are a scientist, despite the fact that it's not your profession. I think I read your post wrong. I thought you implied that the person would have to be a professional physicist to be considered a physicist.

 

[cronxeh]

I think somewhere between building a nuclear fusion reactor at home and defending your PhD thesis you can call yourself a physicist.

 

[AlephZero]

In an ideal world, the answer would probably be "when other people start calling you a physicist".

But hey, this is the X-factor generation. Anybody can be whatever they want to be. Concepts like "ability" and "practical experience" are just soooo 20th century

 

[Evo]

I think if you do something scientific just like a professional scientist would do it, you are a scientist, despite the fact that it's not your profession.

That would be wrong. If I start diagnosing people and prescribing treatment, does that mean I am a doctor?

 

[dydxforsn]

It's not really an important question. Just because society says you "know" physics and you yourself are practicing it, the distinction isn't really important. Nature doesn't care what society says.

I know you know this already and are probably looking for a different answer, but I'm trying to reinstate sanity into you. What society says about you isn't really important, you'll still be learning physics in much the same way your entire life.But a physicist is someone who's role in society is to investigate and provide solutions to today's problems using knowledge of the natural universe << Even if you're simply doing Laue diffraction to access the purity of crystals grown in someone else's lab, you're still a physicist. When you become a good physicist (now that is important) people know your name, your name becomes your title :D

 

[Jack21222]

In an ideal world, the answer would probably be "when other people start calling you a physicist".

But hey, this is the X-factor generation. Anybody can be whatever they want to be. Concepts like "ability" and "practical experience" are just soooo 20th century

The professor for my "Intermediate Laboratory Physics" class calls her students physicists, despite being undergrads. But I think that just might be a little bit of role-playing. We're basically pretending to be real scientists in that class, and she's playing along.

 

[Char. Limit]

When can you start calling yourself a mathematician, though? I mean, some mathematicians were discovering things in elementary school.

 

[Chi Meson]

I think it depends a bit on the context. I only have a Bachelor's. When people ask me what I do, I say "physics teacher." I think it would be pretentious to say I'm a "physicist" as an answer to that question, but I have in the past said things like "As a physicist, I'd be looking at the angle of the sun in the sky..." etc. As opposed to the profession of "Physicist," I'm referring to the objective, analytical mindset that the word implies.

 

[Pengwuino]

The professor for my "Intermediate Laboratory Physics" class calls her students physicists, despite being undergrads. But I think that just might be a little bit of role-playing. We're basically pretending to be real scientists in that class, and she's playing along.

That's ironic. My students call themselves students while it seems like their one goal in life is to NOT learn. Maybe role play is good in the class room.