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Expert: - 6/10/2011


Question
How well are visible tattoos and piercings tolerated in the world of professional physics? I suspect that most members of the community would /say/ they held no bias, but I wonder if, in practice, their impression would be tainted.
Can you think of any examples of successful and respected physicists or other researchers in a hard science who had obvious body modifications?

Thank you for your time

Answer
Hi Vinny:

Wow!  This is an interesting and unusual question but it should be answered.  My impression is that scientists tend to be fairly conservative about these things from a personal perspective.  That is, I don't know many physicists who have a lot of body modifications.  Basically, scientists tend to lag behind society as a whole in these matters.  That does not mean that there would be prejudices against such because respect for a scientist is earned by intellect not appearance.

There is also the fact that often physicists tend to be interested in other matters besides body modifications when they are young.  After all, the stereotype that we are all nerds is not that far from the mark...

As a whole scientists are pretty relaxed about personal appearance and I would think that body modifications would be less stigmatized than in the business world, for example.

Hope this helps,

Carlo

Careers: Physics

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Carlo Segre

Expertise

I can answer most questions about studying physics in college and graduate school; questions about condensed matter physics; x-ray physics; synchrotron radiation; and general and modern physics. I can also answer questions about careers in academia.

Experience

Professor of physics for 27 years at Illinois Institute of Technology. Academic adviser for undergraduates and graduate students. I have served on university promotion and tenure committees, search committees for Deans and Department Chairs. I have also been an Associate Department Chair and an Associate Dean. I have 30 years experience in materials science research and I have been responsible for building and now managing a User facility at the Advanced Photon Source.

Organizations
American Physical Society
Sigma Xi
American Chemical Society
American Associate for the Advancement of Science
International Centre for Diffraction Data (Fellow)
International X-ray Absorption Society


Publications
Nature; Physical Review Letters; Physical Review; Applied Physics Letters; Journal of Physical Chemistry; Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials; Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics; Solid State Communications; Physics Letters; Journal of Low Temperature Physics; Journal of Crystal Growth and Design; Physics Letters; Journal of Applied Physics; Journal of Archaeological Science; Physica C; Corrosion Science; Electrochimica Acta; Journal of Nuclear Materials

Education/Credentials
Ph.D. Physics, 1981 - University of California, San Diego
M.S. Physics, 1977 - University of California, San Diego
B.S. Physics, 1976 - University of illinois, Champaign-Urbana
B.S. Chemistry 1976 - University of illinois, Champaign-Urbana

Awards and Honors
Fellow, International Center for Diffraction Data

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