Resources, Energy, Heartburn for Academic Physics

Abstract

Rigden and Stith reply: Nigel Goldenfeld has a good idea with student-led seminars. It appears that students at the University of Illinois responded positively, so we say do it. Still, we emphasize that bringing alumni and students together is a win-win-win situation. The first victory is that students meet people who once walked the path they are now walking. The second, which is very important, is that by inviting alumni, we are saying that we value them. The third win is that alumni enjoy the opportunity to talk with students.The energy industry is home to many physicists, and those we have met find that their physics education was a good preparation for their work. They would agree with John Fanchi, and so do we.David Kohler suggests that we have no motivation other than the self-serving one of filling our physics classrooms. That was not in the forefront of our thinking. We believe a major in physics provides a powerful base from which a baccalaureate student can pursue a number of interesting careers, and the evidence supports this. Furthermore, we believe that faculty members have an obligation to acquaint students to the broad range of opportunities and to give them the tools to make informed decisions about their future. However, we also acknowledge our desire to help those physics departments whose classrooms are so empty that the efficacy of their program is challenged.Kohler says that calling any student with a degree in physics a physicist “is a bit of a stretch.” Perhaps so. In part, we are reacting to a couple of realities. For many years, the physics community acknowledged as physicists only PhDs in academe. (More recently, the distinction has been extended to industrial physicists.) We reject such a narrow definition of physicist. Every year, about one-third of graduating physics bachelors go to graduate school in physics; however, only half obtain a doctorate. Many others leave with a master’s in physics. Is it inaccurate to call them physicists? Every year, about half of the graduating physics bachelors go directly into the workplace; many of them eventually obtain a master’s degree in physics. What should we call these alumni? Engineers? Why not call them physicists? Jeffrey Marque makes the point that the asymmetry in Physics Today’s help-wanted ads contributes to the perception problems among physics students about the nature of careers. Perhaps that asymmetry instead reflects the perception that human resources directors in industry may have about the Physics Today audience. If one looks at the American Institute of Physics jobs Web site (http://www.aip.org/industry.html) one finds that 28% (96 out of 346) of the jobs listed are nonacademic. Although that number does not represent the proportion of physics-trained graduates in the job market, it is a step in the right direction and reminds us of how far we must go to reach our goal of educating our graduates about available careers.© 2004 American Institute of Physics.