Can I call myself a physicist yet?

[Pengwuino]

Whenever I think of someones title, it's always their work title as opposed to their education come to think of it. This is actually quite a head scratcher. If you wind up as an ice cream man and got your phd in physics, can you really call yourself a physicist? On the other hand, what if you've been doing physics-related work for 20 years then decide to change careers to being a food preparer, is it fair that you can no longer call yourself a physicist? I don't see anything wrong with "I'm a physicist currently flipping burgers"

One thing I and actually a couple of friends of mine have wondered is if you stick with the title of "physicist" being someone with a phd and experience and such... what do you call someone with just a BS or MS? We can't be engineers because we certainly have no formal engineering training...

 

[Feezik]

You right. very right!
without a copy of certificate, it mean nothing to prove quality!

 

[qntty]

I think you are all missing the point. There are times when one is asked for a title related to one's education. You have to say something. How you wish to define the meaning of "specialist" from there is arbitrary.

But if one isn't actively involved in doing physics then there seems to almost always be a title that's more descriptive than "physicist".

Physics girl phd could say she's a Physics Professor

flatmaster could say he's a student [of physics]

It seems that physicist would became an overly vague term if it could mean anything from a student to an engineer.

 

[lisab]

Whenever I think of someones title, it's always their work title as opposed to their education come to think of it. This is actually quite a head scratcher. If you wind up as an ice cream man and got your phd in physics, can you really call yourself a physicist? On the other hand, what if you've been doing physics-related work for 20 years then decide to change careers to being a food preparer, is it fair that you can no longer call yourself a physicist? I don't see anything wrong with "I'm a physicist currently flipping burgers"

One thing I and actually a couple of friends of mine have wondered is if you stick with the title of "physicist" being someone with a phd and experience and such... what do you call someone with just a BS or MS? We can't be engineers because we certainly have no formal engineering training...

To complicate things even more, the job title is usually a committee decision (or worse, an HR committe decision ). I'm a Research Technologist...what the heck is that?!? In my field, it means a scientist who primarily works in the lab...a hands-on scientist. But no one knows that...it sounds like a made-up title!

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Tell me this: Are all engineers the same? Do all engineers bring the same knowledge and skills to the table?

 

[Cyrus]

What is "doing physics"? I use the physics that I studied every day. If you mean research, then that would be a research physicist.

If you are making something for a customer, you've entered the world of engineering. Even if your degree is in physics, you're an engineer.

I was being asked what qualifies me to do the work I was insuring. The real answer is that I can figure out what I need to know because, and only because of my physics degree.

Doing insurance work doesn't make you a physicist. You're an insurance guy with a physics degree. The same way I'm an Aerospace engineer with a Mechanical Degree.

 

[Cyrus]

Then again does that mean anyone doing any scientific/engineering job can say they're a physicist

That's a stupid question. Clearly, a biologist doing science isn't a physicist. So not "any one doing a scientific/engineering job can say they're a physicist". You bird brain.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

If you are making something for a customer, you've entered the world of engineering. Even if your degree is in physics, you're an engineer.

In no way could I claim to be an engineer. I don't have an engineering degree. I was claiming that I was capable of doing engineering.

Doing insurance work doesn't make you a physicst. You're an insurance guy with a physics degree. The same way I'm an Aerospace engineer with a Mechanical Degree.

That isn't what I said. My insurance agent told me that he needed a title in order to file the application in which I was claiming to be capable of doing electrical engineering work.

 

[Cyrus]

Tell me this: Are all engineers the same? Do all engineers bring the same knowledge and skills to the table?

Well, that's why they insert the word (Aero, Mech, Bio, Civil, Chem) infront of the word engineer.

 

[//:phoenix:\\]

I seriously doubt the OP has a BA in physics and minor in chemistry. He seems more like someone who has just started out in physics and thinks it is a nice name to call oneself. "Well I am a physicist!" If you study physics and are pursuing it for a career, you are a student of physics, when you obtain a degree in the field and work as physicist, you are a physicist. I don't think he has a BA because of the latter. Just my opinion though...

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Well, that's why they insert the word (Aero, Mech, Bio, Civil, Chem) infront of the word engineer.

What do physics students study?

 

[Cyrus]

In no way could I claim to be an engineer. I don't have an engineering degree. I was claiming that I was capable of doing engineering.

That isn't what I said. My insurance agent told me that he needed a title in order to file the application in which I was claiming to be capable of doing electrical engineering work.

Why couldn't you claim to be an engineer? You were hired to do engineering work, right?

 

[Cyrus]

What do physics students study?

You have a BS in physics, I'm sure you're well aware of what they study. Physicists, by definition, search for the fundamental mechanisms by how things work. Engineers use those mechanism to make things and further technology.

Engineers make a product.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

By the way, as a finer point of law, I could be sued for legally calling myself an engineer. However, I am completely legal and insured to do engineering given that I am careful about the jobs I take. I can't design a bridge, but I can design for concept testing and various types of industrial applications.

 

[Cyrus]

By the way, as a finer point of law, I could be sued for legally calling myself an engineer. However, I am completely legal and insured to do engineering.

Why can you be sued for calling yourself an engineer? What law, specifically says that.

 

[//:phoenix:\\]

If you don't have a degree in engineering and can be sued because of it you merely have the knowledge of an engineer, not the credentials that would make you an engineer. You aren't an engineer but rather someone with knowledge of engineering. Just because a 1 year old baby can add 1 + 1 and know that it equals 2, doesn't make that baby a mathematician. In order to be a mathematician you have to study mathematics and earn the credentials to call yourself a mathematician.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

You have a BS in physics, I'm sure you're well aware of what they study. Physicists, by definition, search for the fundamental mechanisms by how things work. Engineers use those mechanism to make things and further technology.

Engineers make a product.

Do you assume that a physics graduate does not lay claim to knowledge specific to physics graduates? Do you think that all engineers gets as much physics as a physics grad?

 

[Cyrus]

Do you assume that a physics graduate does not lay claim to knowledge specific to physics graduates? Do you think that all engineers gets as much physics as a physics grad?

What?...

 

[Ivan Seeking]

If you don't have a degree in engineering and can be sued because of it you merely have the knowledge of an engineer, not the credentials that would make you an engineer. You aren't an engineer but rather someone with knowledge of engineering. Just because a 1 year old baby can add 1 + 1 and know that it equals 2, doesn't make that baby a mathematician. In order to be a mathematician you have to study mathematics and earn the credentials to call yourself a mathematician.

Well, I've had my own company for 11 years and I do all sorts of engineering. In fact, my career was made by solving problems that stumped the band.

 

[Cyrus]

If you don't have a degree in engineering and can be sued because of it you merely have the knowledge of an engineer, not the credentials that would make you an engineer. You aren't an engineer but rather someone with knowledge of engineering. Just because a 1 year old baby can add 1 + 1 and know that it equals 2, doesn't make that baby a mathematician. In order to be a mathematician you have to study mathematics and earn the credentials to call yourself a mathematician.

I don't understand the point of this post.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

What?...

What didn't you understand?

 

[JaredJames]

Tell me this: Are all engineers the same? Do all engineers bring the same knowledge and skills to the table?

Certainly not! I am studying for a BEng (Hons) in Aerospace Engineering. I am taught 50% of my course in classes with only other aero students, and the other 50% (mainly the pure maths/stats stuff) with the mechanical engineers. However there is also the civil engineers who are educated completely separate from us, plus there are the Bio and Chemical engineers who are trained in a whole other section of the uni and nothing what so ever related to us (I've never even met one).

I personally conside myself a Student Aerospace Engineer, and when I start my placement next month I will be classed as a Student Aerospace Engineer which, if successful and offered a full time job after completing my studies, I would still be an Aerospace Engineer, but the job title would be Project Engineer. To me, it's simply a matter of what I want to call it when someone asks me what I do, I prefer Aerospace Engineer as it is more specific to what I am/will be trained to do. Although based on any experience and future work, I may change this to a more suited title. From what I have read, the title of Project Engineer simply means you are experienced enough to work on projects by yourself (without supervision) and has absolutely no bearing on what you are actually qualified in (hence me preferring aerospace engineer.

 

[//:phoenix:\\]

I don't understand the point of this post.

I was replying to the thread and Ivan. Simply knowing engineering doesn't make you an engineer. You have to have the knowledge added with the necessary degree.

But, isn't there some type of philosophy that opposes what I said in the aforementioned? I think I read something about it a while back.

 

[Cyrus]

What didn't you understand?

Your post.

 

[Cyrus]

Simply knowing engineering doesn't make you an engineer. You have to have the knowledge added with the necessary degree.

That is a nonsensical statement.

 

[//:phoenix:\\]

Well, I've had my own company for 11 years and I do all sorts of engineering. In fact, my career was made by solving problems that stumped the band.

Don't you need a degree also as you stated you could get sued?

That nonsensical statement.

What made it nonsensical?

 

[junglebeast]

You are all over-complicating this.

According to Wikipedia, "A physicist is a scientist who studies or practices physics", and "A scientist, in the broadest sense, refers to any person that engages in a systematic activity to acquire knowledge".

According to Dictionary.com,

A physicist is "a scientist who specializes in physics," a Scientist is "A person having expert knowledge of one or more sciences, especially a natural or physical science," and a specialist is "One who is devoted to a particular occupation or branch of study or research."

According to Merriem-Webster, a scientist is "a specialist in physics," and a specialist is "one who concentrates their efforts on a particular occupation, practice, or branch of learning."

Clearly, to be a physicist according to these sources, you don't need a PhD, you don't need to work for a government lab, you only need to be someone who is currently devoted and has a current expertise, in physics.

So there you have it, fartmaster...you can call yourself a physicist.

 

[JaredJames]

Just out of curiosity, when people here think of physics are you thinking quantum mechanics and such or are you thinking more along the lines of A level (high school) physics? Because physics in the A level sense had a lot of mechanics in them and as such are very applicable to engineering, whereas a physics degree won't be quite so engineering involved.

 

[Cyrus]

Don't you need a degree also as you stated you could get sued?
What made it nonsensical?

Go back and reread what you wrote. You contradicted yourself.

You don't need a degree in engineering to do engineering work. No one is going to sue you. This is all nonsense.

For the last time, you need *in some cases* an engineering degree, if you want to do work that requires a licensed engineer to sign off on something. That's it.

 

[JaredJames]

You don't need a degree to be an engineer, a degree simply gives you a piece of paper that proves you have the knowledge as opposed to not having one where an employer would have to take your word for it. I have met many non-degree engineers who know a hell of a lot more than some graduates.