Physics as a career, 2

So I have just graduated from UPR-M with a B.S. in Theoretical Physics. What's next, flipping burgers?

I learned about the inner workings of nature. Most important, I learned how to explore this inner workings, and even how to determine if my predictions are correct. A physicist is an observer of nature. He/she puts theories into motion, or thinks about how to use a certain phenomena to make our daily lives easier. Where can I work as a physicist?

First of all, I am not a physicist yet. Right now I am in some weird intermediate state. To understand physical theories better, (I believe) I need a some-what deeper exposure to physics. This exposure can be found in graduate school. I find myself in this step: going to start graduate school in Stony Brook University on fall 2006.

Does everybody have to go to graduate school? I am not sure, but don't think so. Not all tasks requires graduate education. The first thing that comes to my mind is being a "lab technician". My definition of a lab technician would be somebody who carry out instructions on how to assemble experimental setups. He/she follow these instructions from a researcher, the person in charge of research. Other positions can be some kind of consultant to companies or as a teacher in schools.

I want to go to graduate school because I seek a deeper understanding of theoretical physics. What should I expect to do after graduation? I guess the natural choice is the academia or some research institutions (laboratories, etc.). The academia is my favorite option since I enjoy sharing ideas with people, mainly ideas I already know. It is not about not thinking about new ideas, but I find the subject of talking about something you already knew rewarding in the sense that you can still "discover" or understand that something better. I served as a mathematics (and sometimes physics) tutor at UPR-M for 7 terms (2003-06). During my times at tutoring I re-learned many notions that I did not got right in the classroom.

I will not be the only person starting graduate school in physics next fall. Maybe millions worldwide. So there is some challenge to it. Before you become a full time "tenured" professor, one has to go through an evaluation period. This process is sometime not successful to many.

It is not about giving up, but recently I have been thinking of a worst case scenario: I am able to finish my Ph.D. Now I am over-qualified for many jobs. I am also unable to earn a position in the academia. What should I do now? Do I need to be in the academia to be a physicist? I guess so, otherwise I could be considered a crackpot. Do I care about what other people think? No.

My point is that I could think about physics anywhere. I just need some preparation. An overview. A push. Graduate school. It is not about wasting 5-6 years in a painful environment just to end not working as a physicist. But what is working as a physicist? Well thinking about physics. So I do not need to be in the academia. The benefits of the academia is that it offers colleagues to share ideas and opinions. Updates on how physics is doing today or tomorrow. I am pretty sure there are more "benefits" for doing science in an academic environment.

I always dream about having a restaurant. The type where I only serve breakfast. I love breakfast. Just pancakes, toast, eggs, French toast, oatmeal, juice. Coffee! Melvin would not mind working during the mornings in my breakfast place, then in the afternoons resting and relaxing while during the evening thinking and wondering about physics. It could be done. No bureaucracy, and sadly no students.

In the end, it is still early to think about all this. But the thought of a physicist thinking about physics anywhere is so simple and pretty. Maybe to simple. In any case, now that I will start graduate school, I will just follow along with what I believe makes me happy. Only time will tell where I will be 10 years from now.

Physics as a career, 1

After graduating from UPR - Mayagüez and earning a Bachelor in Science (with concentration on theoretical physics), one of my professor sat down with me and asked me some questions. The only one I will talk about was something like "how would you attract first year students?"”

The department of physics is infamous for its relatively low requirements for acceptance. Colegio is most famous for the engineering schools, and most students in Puerto Rico want to become engineers. Still, most of these students do not know what engineering is about and fail in their studies. Because of their popularity, all the engineering programs in Mayagüez have the highest requirements. Students that failed to get into an engineering program choose (most of the time) to start in the physics department and then change. The process of changing is something that can be done, but really not well accomplish by most students. Hence the department of physics has a certain amount of students that do not want to be there.

When I was in high school, for a time, I wanted to be an engineer. But later I realized that I did not knew what engineering was about. Instead I choose physics, with "“the study of energy and matter, and their interaction". And I follow that interest to this day, just graduating and becoming a graduate student at Stony Brook University. As a student I saw, first hand, how engineering students hated physics and math. Some thought that it was all a waste of time; that old people were really bored to come up with all this topics of forces and momentum, electricity and magnetism, etc. I pity them, because they do not knew what engineering was about.

So what is it about? Some say it is about learning physics and coming up with ways of how it can help. Then you throw in all that cost efficient crap to make it more "“realistic"”. But in the core it is just that. You need to learn and understand physics if you want to become an engineer. There is no escaping.

Of course, physicist also study how can physics help. They have come up with important inventions. So by this measure, one cannot tell what the difference between a physicist and an engineer is. Others say it is the approach they take to solve a problem. I heard the following example from a physicist from Purdue University who came to UPR-M once.

Some company wants to know how to determine the content of containers without opening them. Some engineers suggested drilling tiny holes and measuring. The physicist suggested using some form of spectroscopy to learn, with opening, the content of the containers.

So you see the difference in approach.

My view is that a physicist learned the fundamental concepts of nature. They are able to understand the principle behind things, in general, and gain a wider view of problems. On the other hand, an engineer basically is taught applications of all this principles, so one can say that to certain extent an engineer only works with specific problems. This is not completely true, but it serves as a good approximation.

Ok, so how should I attract more students to physics? This is not about painting physics as fun and exciting. Physics IS fun and exciting, but not to everybody. Some people just do not like science. This group of people enjoys some other things, like music, art, philosophy. It is part of diversity. A larger group does not like science because they have had bad experiences and frustrations. This is the kind of person that can be "“attracted"” to the department of physics.

The first thing that comes to my mind is the feeling I get every time I learned something new in the classroom, or some new experiment in the lab. Physics tries to understand how nature works. All the current theories explain some common phenomena, but also take us to realms such as near stars or black holes, and atoms and the elementary particles that make them. When you learn physics (and you search for physics) you gain the "knowledge" or understanding of how nature manifests itself.

That is the joy of physics, to me.

A physicist also has more "“freedom"”, if they choose to work in the academic. But then again, it all depends of ones view of freedom. Also physics students can go into engineering schools safely, having been exposed to a wide variety of areas. On the other hand, an engineering student most likely does not understand anything about relativity or quantum theory.

So yeah, just talking about what you could learn. Not promising anything fancy like company cars, beach houses, etc.

That is my way of attracting students. What about after graduation? Stay tuned.

Blogging

I have been a tad lazy and had not posted in a while. But I have been thinking. Reading blogs online has made me realize that this medium can also serve as a way to let out your ego. I have always been afraid of my evil-dormant ego inside my little head.

When I started the blog, I saw it as a way to share my experiences (a have record) of learning physics at an upper level (on my way to a Ph.D.). So I intended to write about topics that I learned and ideas that occur to me. I do not want to start ranting about other scientist or theories. Maybe I will do that some other way.

Looking forward to graduate school!

Graduation!

Yesterday was the 92^nd graduation ceremony of UPR- Mayagüez. I shared the Enrico Fermi prize with my young friend Luis B. Arroyo. Also I finished my B.S. with a Magna Cum Laude award.

I was happy. Not that excited, but happy. I just know that the best is still to come in Stony Brook University. The prize made me happy too. I will always remember my days in Puerto Rico.