Undergraduate/Graduate Research Question

[jmason52]

I am in the process of applying for graduate school in Physics. I already have a BS degree in Biology, so am only taking the requisite courses both at a local community college, and as an undergraduate at the university in question. Last week, I made an appointment to speak with the chairman of the graduate admissions committee for physics there to discuss my options. Along the way, research opportunities came up.

He seemed to think that funding wasn't in any immediate danger, at least for the next 5 years. After that, he was fuzzy. But then he asked me what I was interested in. I told him gravity, gravity waves, and the relativity associated with them. He advised that there was only one professor that studied that, and that he didnt think there was much going on in that field, at least until the next satellite launch in 2013 or 2015? He then suggested that instead, I consider solar research. Said they had several big groups on that, lots of money, yada, yada, yada.

Is this advice normal in these types of discussions? Do you think, given what background I've related, that it might be good advice? I don't mind solar research - in fact, that in some form would probably have been my second choice anyway. It just seemed odd that he tried so strongly to steer me that direction.

Thanks for your opinions!

 

[eri]

Gravity wave research is very dependent on LIGO (which is working but not expected to detect anything) and LISA (which would detect them but might never get launched). I think he might be referring to the LISA Pathfinder Mission, which will probably still get launched sometime in 2013. It's mostly testing the technology needed for LISA, not gravitational waves. So if LISA doesn't get launched at all, you'd really have nothing to work with, and be unlikely to find a job in the field.

Sounds like you're looking at attending Montana State. They are a big center for solar research, which has far more of a future, so look into that unless you really had your heart set on working with gravitational waves. All my friends working in that field are doing things like predicting what LISA might see and trying to figure out how to reduce the LISA data and get rid of background noise; their research might never actually be useful.