"How to become a successful physicist"

[apostolosdt]

An interesting article has appeared in Physics Today, Vol. 75, Issue 9 (2022), p. 46., "How to become a successful physicist," by Carl Wieman of Stanford.

 

[symbolipoint]

An interesting article has appeared in Physics Today, Vol. 75, Issue 9 (2022), p. 46., "How to become a successful physicist," by Carl Wieman of Stanford.

Just began to look at article, online, by highlighting and right-clicking, choosing "New Tab" and found https://physicstoday.scitation.org/doi/10.1063/PT.3.5082 . The first interesting discussion is the "Master-apprentice" method...

 

[symbolipoint]

An interesting article has appeared in Physics Today, Vol. 75, Issue 9 (2022), p. 46., "How to become a successful physicist," by Carl Wieman of Stanford.

Something I do not find in the article, so which is therefore missing, is The process or processes which any successful physicist follows BEFORE formally studying Physics, etc., in school. Most students "begin their serious studies" at age of about 17, 18, 19. We should try to understand, what should be happening between age 1 and age 17, if someone is to become a successful physicist, or engineer, or biological scientist, or whatever.

 

[apostolosdt]

Something I do not find in the article, so which is therefore missing, is The process or processes which any successful physicist follows BEFORE formally studying Physics, etc., in school. Most students "begin their serious studies" at age of about 17, 18, 19. We should try to understand, what should be happening between age 1 and age 17, if someone is to become a successful physicist, or engineer, or biological scientist, or whatever.

I think Wieman's research group has confined its scope to postgrad years. Your comment, however, is interesting. I guess each one of us has a different story to tell.

 

[symbolipoint]

Something I do not find in the article, so which is therefore missing, is The process or processes which any successful physicist follows BEFORE formally studying Physics, etc., in school. Most students "begin their serious studies" at age of about 17, 18, 19. We should try to understand, what should be happening between age 1 and age 17, if someone is to become a successful physicist, or engineer, or biological scientist, or whatever.

YES! I AM SERIOUS ABOUT THIS!

 

[gleem]

"Everybody starts out as a scientist. Every child has the scientist's sense of wonder and awe." Carl Sagan

National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 1998. Every Child a Scientist: Achieving Scientific Literacy for All. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/6005.

 

[CrysPhys]

Something I do not find in the article, so which is therefore missing, is The process or processes which any successful physicist follows BEFORE formally studying Physics, etc., in school. Most students "begin their serious studies" at age of about 17, 18, 19. We should try to understand, what should be happening between age 1 and age 17, if someone is to become a successful physicist, or engineer, or biological scientist, or whatever.

The article focusses on training of PhD candidates by a thesis advisor. In the US, this phase would typically begin after completion of a bachelor's degree and after acceptance into a research group (in some US universities, students are not accepted into a research group until they have successfully passed their qualification exams). Hence, students would typically be ~21 or so. During the thesis research, the advisor has primary external (other than the students') responsibility ...and control... over the future success of the students.

Prior to the thesis research, there is a multitude of teachers (and other individuals), not a single individual, who influence the future success of the students. If you rewind enough, then the number of factors that influence students' future success in any particular field explodes (parents, family, friends, family economic status, country, neighborhood, government, educational opportunities, religion, culture, gender, ...)

 

[symbolipoint]

Prior to the thesis research, there is a multitude of teachers (and other individuals), not a single individual, who influence the future success of the students. If you rewind enough, then the number of factors that influence students' future success in any particular field explodes (parents, family, friends, family economic status, country, neighborhood, government, educational opportunities, religion, culture, gender, ...)

The passage finally begins to say something about what I asked, but does not take any paths. Should I register a new topic? I simply (or not so simply) asked, based purely on the title of the topic here, "How to become a successful physicist".

 

[PeterDonis]

YES! I AM SERIOUS ABOUT THIS!

Please do not shout.

which is therefore missing

The fact that an article which someone else used to start a thread, does not happen to address a question you personally find important, does not mean that information is "missing" from the article.

Should I register a new topic?

Since you appear to be asking about something different from the topic of the article referenced in the OP, yes, you should start a new thread.

 

[jtbell]

The article focusses on training of PhD candidates by a thesis advisor. In the US, this phase would typically begin after completion of a bachelor's degree and after acceptance into a research group (in some US universities, students are not accepted into a research group until they have successfully passed their qualification exams). Hence, students would typically be ~21 or so.

In the US, students typically finish their bachelor's degree at 22. I joined my PhD research group in the second half of my second year of grad school, i.e. at about age 24.

 

[CrysPhys]

In the US, students typically finish their bachelor's degree at 22. I joined my PhD research group in the second half of my second year of grad school, i.e. at about age 24.

Yes. There's a spread of ages. That's why I intentionally had the vague wording "~21 or so". I didn't want to get into the nuances of a kid's birthdate, cutoff date for entering kindergarten, and, if a kid's birthdate is close to the cutoff date, whether the parents are comfortable with the kid being among the youngest in the entering kindergarten class or whether the parents hold back the kid for a year (so the kid will be among the oldest).

And in some universities, entering grad students can join a research group right away; while, as I mentioned above, in other universities, grad students must pass their quals first.

In my particular instance, my birthdate was such that I was close to the kindergarten cutoff; my parents chose not to hold me back a year; and I got my bachelor's diploma when I was 21. If I had chosen to go to a grad school in which I was accepted into a research group right away, I would have joined a research group at 21. The grad school I did choose required passing the quals first. Most physics grad students took their quals at the start of their second year. I elected to take my quals early, after my first semester. I passed, and was accepted into a research group when I was 22.

 

[jtbell]

I didn't want to get into the nuances of a kid's birthdate, cutoff date for entering kindergarten, and, if a kid's birthdate is close to the cutoff date, whether the parents are comfortable with the kid being among the youngest in the entering kindergarten class or whether the parents hold back the kid for a year (so the kid will be among the oldest).

And then there are kids like me... I skipped an early grade. After that, I was a year younger than most of my classmates in school, college, and grad school.