Secret Lives of the Hidden Physicists---from Spandex to Spintronics

COFFEE_KLATCH · Invited

Abstract

What is a physicist? A case is made for defining a physicist as anyone with a bachelor's degree (or higher) in physics. Under this definition, a large fraction of physicists are hidden, that is, they have left, or never belonged to, the traditional lot of Ph.D. academicians. Data from the Statistical Research Center at the American Institute of Physics and from a survey of members of the national physics honor society, Sigma Pi Sigma, show the vast array of actual career paths taken by physicists. From spandex to blackberries to bioinformatics to flight control to wind energy to spintronics, physicists can be found in nearly every job sector in some of the coolest and most farfetched careers imaginable.

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Authors

  • Stanley C. Solomon

    University of California and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Rutgers University, Utah State University, Brigham Young University, University of Utah, NASA, Duke University, FMA Research, Colorado State University, Dartmouth University, Idaho State University, Physics Department, Idaho State University, Physics Department, Utah State University, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Department of Physics, Nanjing University, China, University of California at Riverside, Physics Department, Colorado School of Mines, Physics Department, University of Utah, University of Nebraska - Lincoln, USU, Society of Physics Students, Arizona State University, Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), Namiki 1-1, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-0044, Japan, LANSCE-LC, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Van der Waals-Zeeman Institute, University of Amsterdam, Chemistry and Physics Dept., Virginia State University, University of Saskatchewan, Canada, Chalk River Laboratories, Physics Dept, Oxford University, Physics Dept, Utah State University, Sandia National Laboratories, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, DOE Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies, Sandia National Laboratories, National Center for Atmospheric Research