Expert: Daniel Mazur - 10/24/2009

Question
Currently, I'm a seventh grader who has a dream of pursuing a career in mathematics or science. My personal interests in math are formulas and equations. From your personal experiences can you answer these questions, please: What degree do you have to at least earn? How many years does it take to get the degree? What do you do as a physicist? What is the average salary? How many hours per day do you have to work? Is it a stressing job? Are there any hazardous environments that physicists work in? Is there high demand for the job? Are there any other things you can add to being a physicist? Thanks.

Answer
Hi Jonathan,

What degree do you have to at least earn?
I know experimental physicists, who have a Master's degree. Those who work in the industry do quite well with Master's. A vast majority of scientists working in the governmental labs and at universities have Ph.D.'s though. To work at universities you either have a Ph.D. or you are there as a Ph.D.-seeking assistant, I don't know anybody with a permanent university position without a Ph.D.
How many years does it take to get the degree?
After graduating a high school, Master's will usually take 6 years and a Ph.D. 10 years. A small percentage of people manage it in a shorter time, a lot of people take longer. I got my Ph.D 10.5 years (21 semesters) after graduating high school.
What do you do as a physicist?
I do experimental physics in condensed matter with special focus on surfaces and interfaces of solids - usually crystals. In the center of it there are experiments involving surface preparation in an ultra-high vacuum, mapping the surface using the scanning tunneling microscope and probing the near-surface region by other techniques. Without getting too technical I can tell you that they measure crystalline structure (atoms distance) and chemical composition (nature of the atoms).
What is the average salary?
This depends strongly on what position one holds. As a post-doctorate assistant you may be earning ~$70000 per year. As a full-time professor you may get $120000-$250000 a year depending on your previous career, your fame, where you are employed and other factors. It is hard to consider averages, the spread is large.
How many hours per day do you have to work?
8.5 hours a day is what is my obligation by contract. My work is task-based, however, so I can choose my hours to a large extent and can stay a little shorter or much longer without causing any disturbance.
Is it a stressing job?
Yes, I think it is. If you imagine you are trying things that nobody's ever done before, so you don't know in advance, if the Nature will let you wrestle its secret from it (i.e. if you are going to find anything new or not), it is quite stressing. Without any results your career in science will and dismally.
Are there any hazardous environments that physicists work in?
Yes, but these vary between places and between specializations. These include spaces with X-rays, dangerous chemicals and (biologists and medical researchers) bacteriae. Most places in the world, however, try to reduce the possibility of our direct contact with these agents to negligible minimum, so while you observe the work safety rules, nothing should befall you.
Is there high demand for the job?
This is a relative question. The demand generally outweighs the supply of positions. Not much for post-doctorate assistants, but very much for any permanent position. Every post-doc wants to get a permanent position afterwards and the number of professorships and permanent researcher positions is much smaller than the number of post-doc positions.
Are there any other things you can add to being a physicist?
You need to be fast and well thinking, but talent alone gets you nowhere. You must be a hardworker and need to have patience as well to become a good scientist.

Take care.
Daniel