Escape UK: Seeking Physics Job Opportunities in a Beautiful Location

[Doofy]

I've lived in the UK all my life and I'm sick of it, sick of the weather, sick of the people, sick of the culture, sick of the long hours and stressing over irrelevant bull. I'm 24, male if it matters, I have nothing really holding me back apart from having family & friend here, and I want to enjoy the best years of my life living somewhere beautiful rather than some dreary british city.

I hold a first class MPhys degree from a good British university and am currently midway through a PhD based in high-energy particle physics, which I should be finished in ~2 years. After that I want to leave, my fantasy location being some secluded tropical island with white beaches and crystal clear oceans (ideally English-speaking).

However, I've got to support myself, and right now there is very little that appeals to me in terms of work/a career apart from something physics-based. I realize this probably limits my escape options significantly, but is anyone aware of any physics opportunities suitable for someone like myself, in a great location?

 

[chill_factor]

Geneva, Switzerland is beautiful. Clear skies, skiing, and it's Switzerland, nuff said.

There's also UC Berkeley in California. It's California, nuff said.

 

[jtbell]

There's also UC Berkeley in California. It's California, nuff said.

Stanford is also in the Bay Area.

Isn't there an underwater neutrino detector being proposed (or maybe even in operation) off Hawaii?

When I was a grad student in HEP years ago, the joke was that every collaboration wanted to have U of Hawaii in it, so they could have collaboration meetings there. My research group actually was in a collaboration with U of H, but I came on board very late in that particular experiment and never got to go there. (My dissertation work was with a different experiment and collaboration in the same group.)

 

[Doofy]

Stanford is also in the Bay Area.

Isn't there an underwater neutrino detector being proposed (or maybe even in operation) off Hawaii?

When I was a grad student in HEP years ago, the joke was that every collaboration wanted to have U of Hawaii in it, so they could have collaboration meetings there. My research group actually was in a collaboration with U of H, but I came on board very late in that particular experiment and never got to go there. (My dissertation work was with a different experiment and collaboration in the same group.)

ahh, hawaii would be perfect and neutrinos are my area, although I'd not heard of this. Apparently it's called the Hanohano (Hawaiian Anti Neutrino Observatory) and is supposedly under development according to a 2010 paper I just googled. That could be promising... I bet competition for a position there will be fierce...

 

[gikiian]

Approach a good professor at Quaid-e-Azam University, Pakistan :) Some professors over there are competent internationally. I plan to get my masters degree in HEP from there.

 

[Doofy]

Approach a good professor at Quaid-e-Azam University, Pakistan :) Some professors over there are competent internationally. I plan to get my masters degree in HEP from there.

I think I'll give Pakistan a miss given the amount of bombings etc.

 

[gikiian]

Then I would strongly suggest ICTP (International Center for Theoretical Physics) in Trieste, Italy. Have a look around the website (www.ICTP.it).

 

[Doofy]

Then I would strongly suggest ICTP (International Center for Theoretical Physics) in Trieste, Italy. Have a look around the website (www.ICTP.it).

I wasn't familiar but I'm not a theorist. Italy would be nice though.

 

[Meir Achuz]

ICTP caters to 3rd world physicists, and England isn't there yet.
I believe the Hawaian neutrino project was cancelled. Two scuba physicists drowned near its beginnng.
Hawaii was supplanted by 'ice cube' in Antartica, not quite tropical.
Geneva is nice, the main danger being mountain ciimbing.
The view from the Rad Lab in Berkeley would inspire, and Stanford is delightful.
Either of those two should be just right, but CERN is the center of HEP right now.

 

[Vanadium 50]

Trieste is the Baltimore of Italy.

 

[gikiian]

I wasn't familiar but I'm not a theorist. Italy would be nice though.

As far as I can understand, ICTP collaborates with Elettra Synchrotron facility (http://www.elettra.trieste.it/) to fulfill its experimental needs.

 

[meanrev]

Geneva, Switzerland is beautiful. Clear skies, skiing, and it's Switzerland, nuff said.

There's also UC Berkeley in California. It's California, nuff said.

Seconded. Geneva is beautiful.

 

[Doofy]

ICTP caters to 3rd world physicists, and England isn't there yet.
I believe the Hawaian neutrino project was cancelled. Two scuba physicists drowned near its beginnng.
Hawaii was supplanted by 'ice cube' in Antartica, not quite tropical.
Geneva is nice, the main danger being mountain ciimbing.
The view from the Rad Lab in Berkeley would inspire, and Stanford is delightful.
Either of those two should be just right, but CERN is the center of HEP right now.

Ahh well, there goes that dream... although having said that, I would actually do a short stint in the Antarctic if I got the opportunity. That would be unforgettable.

Trieste is the Baltimore of Italy.

Is Baltimore a bad place to be?

Seconded. Geneva is beautiful.

CERN has crossed my mind more than once. The skiing/snowboarding side is definitely a factor, lol.

 

[Vanadium 50]

Baltimore is not known as a beautiful city.

 

[gikiian]

Going to Trieste should be a rewarding experience as you get to work for betterment of the third-world countries (mostly Africa and South-Asia).

On the other hand wherever you go, beauty will slowly fade away, and you'll have to live with the reality. In my humble opinion, beauty and satisfaction are correlated to a VERY small degree.

 

[epenguin]

I wasn't familiar but I'm not a theorist. Italy would be nice though.

Capable, energetic and enterprising young people in Italy all go to the UK where they get out of a suffocating outdated system and culture and find work, opportunities and life they can't find in Italy, and never come back. OK the Italian physics community is one of the least worst parts of the country, and you could get a fellowship from the EU or other international organisation or programme.

Whenever I complained about things Italy I was told Ah but How Beautiful it is. Apart for the ongoing despoilage and overrating I wished I could be in Manchester or Dusseldorf or somewhere I wouldn't have to listen to that all the time.

Go ahead but don't break any links, attention to return ticket, you may appreciate the weather, people, culture better after experiencing something different.