Career path forward for a physics autodidact?

[Kevin Chieppo]

Hi, everybody. I did an undergrad in computer engineering, and am currently happily in a software development position, but I've always had a passion for physics and could see myself loving being in a position where I'm working in clean energy. I've spent lots of free time learning about and brushing up on different areas in physics like quantum mechanics, special, and general relativity, and their mathematical foundations. I was thinking that quantum in particular would be great to know for solar and nuclear energy jobs.

Given your experience, what do you think would be the best path forward for me? I wouldn't be excited about incurring more school debt, and this is partially what drove me to pursue these subjects on my own time, but unfortunately it seems to be the case that official schooling is what best attracts companies.

Thank you for reading.

 

[Dr. Courtney]

Few are likely to believe you are decent at physics without a degree in at or some kind of other independent verification.

Getting a good score on the Physics GRE would probably convince a lot more people than your own recounting of what you studied and how hard you worked at it. Of course, without a lot of undergraduate coursework in Physics, good Physics GRE scores are few and far between.

Other details about possible paths forward depend heavily on geographical and other constraints as well as the details of your existing undergrad degree and how you might leverage your computer engineering experience to get your foot in the door of a more physics-oriented job. A 3.8 GPA from a top 50 school and lots of number crunching might open doors that a 2.8 GPA from Backwater U and web design or system administration experience will not.

 

[Kevin Chieppo]

Thank you for your truthful, albeit a bit discouraging, response. I may just study outside of work a little bit each day for my own enjoyment for the time being, as I think my main focus right now needs to be making money and paying off extant student loans. Down the road, if I feel ready for the Physics GRE, I think I'll give it a shot.

 

[Marisa5]

I would presume that nuclear has demand for computer engineers to design control systems and such (I don't know a whole lot about computer engineering, sorry), so maybe you could get into the stuff you want tangentially and then learn the physics you want from the other people working there. That could scratch the itch for you, perhaps.

 

[klotza]

I think your best is to get into a physicsy field as a programmer or a computer engineer, rather than as a physicist. All areas of physics research require computer programming, and a lot of bigger operations (startup companies, national labs, research collaborations, etc) tend to hire computer people externally while having the fundamental physics aspect stay in the academic setting. So I think you'll have better luck getting hired as a computer person, and then using your knowledge of physics to thrive and move internally, rather than trying to get in as a physics person.

You've mentioned solar, and there are other areas of semiconductor physics that you can get involved in, like LEDs (which are just reverse solar panels, essentially) and the computer chip or hard drive industries. Quantum computing has recently entered the private sector and most of the physics-related jobs require PhDs, but the computer engineering side of things doesn't. Nuclear power, while requiring quantum mechanics to understand at the atomic level, doesn't really draw much upon it in the day to day, although again there is need for computer engineers.

Just to give you a sense of what I mean, a job at Argonne National Lab for a software developer and a job at D-Wave quantum computing. This isn't even getting into solar or other more mature industries.

I guess back to your original question, if you want to convince physicists that a computerino is good at physics, perhaps you can try the Kaggle Particle Physics challenge.

 

[Kevin Chieppo]

I would presume that nuclear has demand for computer engineers to design control systems and such (I don't know a whole lot about computer engineering, sorry), so maybe you could get into the stuff you want tangentially and then learn the physics you want from the other people working there. That could scratch the itch for you, perhaps.

Thank you for the response, Marisa. This is another possibility I was considering.

 

[Kevin Chieppo]

I think your best is to get into a physicsy field as a programmer or a computer engineer, rather than as a physicist. All areas of physics research require computer programming, and a lot of bigger operations (startup companies, national labs, research collaborations, etc) tend to hire computer people externally while having the fundamental physics aspect stay in the academic setting. So I think you'll have better luck getting hired as a computer person, and then using your knowledge of physics to thrive and move internally, rather than trying to get in as a physics person.

You've mentioned solar, and there are other areas of semiconductor physics that you can get involved in, like LEDs (which are just reverse solar panels, essentially) and the computer chip or hard drive industries. Quantum computing has recently entered the private sector and most of the physics-related jobs require PhDs, but the computer engineering side of things doesn't. Nuclear power, while requiring quantum mechanics to understand at the atomic level, doesn't really draw much upon it in the day to day, although again there is need for computer engineers.

Just to give you a sense of what I mean, a job at Argonne National Lab for a software developer and a job at D-Wave quantum computing. This isn't even getting into solar or other more mature industries.

I guess back to your original question, if you want to convince physicists that a computerino is good at physics, perhaps you can try the Kaggle Particle Physics challenge.

Thank you for your response, klotza. I appreciate your advice and the suggestions. Sorry, I'm keeping these responses short; I've been very busy lately - mostly the day job thing.

 

[DEvens]

I would presume that nuclear has demand for computer engineers to design control systems and such (I don't know a whole lot about computer engineering, sorry), so maybe you could get into the stuff you want tangentially and then learn the physics you want from the other people working there. That could scratch the itch for you, perhaps.

Nuclear does have such need. Sadly, nuclear is not itself in much demand with the exception of a very few countries. The USA, for example, has not built a new reactor in quite some time. Canada, my country, last finished a power reactor in the early 1990s. We built a reactor for isotopes, but never finished commissioning, and abandoned the project.

If you are French or Chinese, you might be able to get yourself in the door. China is building a new reactor several times per year. France is involved as a sub-contractor to build in several countries.

 

[russ_watters]

Nuclear does have such need. Sadly, nuclear is not itself in much demand with the exception of a very few countries. The USA, for example, has not built a new reactor in quite some time. Canada, my country, last finished a power reactor in the early 1990s. We built a reactor for isotopes, but never finished commissioning, and abandoned the project.

We've had some rumblings of activity, and did indeed have a new reactor come online a few years ago:
https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/nuclear/us-nuclear-industry.php

But the overall concern is valid: I think and hope nuclear will have a major resurgence, and getting in on the ground floor to start a 40 year career would be great. But even if it happens, it is anybody's guess when it would really start. It's a gamble.