Letters to the editor: non-academia careers

Responding to “Why do so many physics students want to work in academia?” (Cara Giovanetti, September 2024)

Letter: Helping students succeed beyond academia

I greatly appreciated Cara Giovanetti’s Back Page article in the October issue of APS News. Although it addresses the problem as a current-day issue, it closely reflects my grad school experience from 60 years ago. I can attest that the solutions Cara plans to try in her teaching career are good ones.

I had a wonderful undergraduate physics experience at a (then) small state college. It even helped me on my chosen career path in federal government physics by placing me in summer intern positions with Army and NASA missile programs. However, all I knew then about graduate school was that I needed to go there to learn enough physics to actually have a career. When my undergrad advisor told me to go to Clemson University (and the Clemson physics department offered me an assistantship), I went.

As it turned out, Clemson and I were not a good fit, as I discovered in my first year. As Cara described, the physics faculty was very focused on graduating future university professors (at that time, I should point out; things may have changed by now). My plans did not fit that model. Why not transfer to another grad school, you ask? It was the middle of the Vietnam War. If you left the school where you were registered, you were sent immediately to basic training, and Vietnam eight weeks later. So I stuck it out, eventually leaving with a master’s degree and a lot of Ph.D.-level courses under my belt.

Thanks to my summer intern jobs, I was able to have two careers: one with Boeing doing space research for NASA, and one in the Scientific and Technical Intelligence (S&TI) community of the Department of Defense. And in the S&TI position, I was able to complete a Doctor of Science degree in the field of non-linear laser beam propagation. In that position I was able to do what Cara plans to do, but in reverse. I stayed in touch with many of my Clemson classmates who became college professors, and recruited students they recommended when my group needed to fill positions for directed energy weapons analysts. Thus, I applaud Cara’s thinking ahead to how to help students prepare for jobs outside of academia.

— By Ronald I. Miller (Huntsville, AL)

Letter: Resources for non-academic pathways

The October “Back Page” essay does indeed describe a major issue in physics: the incessant push for full-time academic careers (which will be achieved, ultimately, by only 5% of physics students).

I am proud to have been part of the J-TUPP (Joint Task Force on Undergraduate Physics Programs) team, which published the PHYS21 report, as well as the PIPELINE (Promoting Physics Innovation and Entrepreneurship Education) program, which published the EPIC report, both of which address the issues the essay highlighted. The EP3 Guide is yet another project to address career development for physics students. The APS Careers office, headed by Crystal Bailey, does an amazing job promoting non-academic careers and the education preparation for them.

I urge APS members to engage with these documents and programs, as the future of the discipline is critically dependent on preparing students for the careers they will most likely pursue — in many fields, disciplines, and applications.

— Douglas N. Arion (Bethlehem, NH)

The views expressed in interviews and in opinion pieces, like the Opinion page, are not necessarily those of APS. APS News welcomes letters responding to these and other issues.