Should I Choose Nanotechnology or Physics?

[Jonnyb42]

I absolutely love physics, and I absolutely love engineering. The engineering field I would choose if I do engineering will be molecular engineering/nanotechnology, because I think its awesome, and it is going to be a very powerful technology in the near future. (If I chose physics, I would like to be a theoretical physicist!)

So I was just hoping to find some useful advice as to which I should choose.

I am afraid that if I choose engineering, I will be forced to ignore some physics, (which really makes me cringe. I want to learn ALL physics and ALL corresponding mathematics because I love it all!) But on the other hand I am afraid if I choose Physics, I will not get to create awesome things and/or life may be boring at times.

Thanks for any advice ahead of time!

Jonny

 

[FirstYearGrad]

Nanotechnology is not a subfield of engineering. Many different roads -- including physics -- will lead you there.

 

[Laserblade]

i don't know about US... but in here in Europe we have

Physics with Nanoscale Physics MSci
UCAS code: F392

 

[physiker_192]

Hi,Well, I would suggest that you do what you love most.
As has been mentioned earlier, the word nano is rather big & interdiscplinary. But it still mostly revolves around Physics.

For example, Computational topics in nanotech = computational + theoretical physics.
Experimental Nanotech = experimental physics + some chemistry/materials science

So again, do what you love most, & don't think too much about future employment etc...

You can have a look at:

http://www.nanohub.org"

If features some cool lectures (but remember, this is a selection, not all fields).

And if you choose Physics, it is not neccessarily that you will be become theoretical physicst, you can do both theoretical & experimental physics (this is very very close to Engineering).

Regarding Engineering schools, yes, they do tend to ignore the details (depending on the topic, e.g. in Semiconductor & physics of Nanoelectronics which is a typical topic for Electrical Engineering these days, you can't really skip the physical details).

Note: before selecting what to do, have a look at the lectures offered for the course and their content.