Careers: Physics/help

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Question
Hey, I have talked to you before. I need you to answer a few questions for me if you can.
1.Where do you work.
2.If not a scientist in physics, how did you get all the information you know?
3.Did you go to college?
4.What did you study in college?
5.What is work like?
6.What exactly is your job title?
7.How often do you work with heat
8.What is an average day like for you?

please respond quickly as possible, thanks!

Answer
1.Where do you work.
Argonne National Laboratory, Illinois, U.S.A.

2.If not a scientist in physics, how did you get all the information you know?
see below

3.Did you go to college?
I am a scientist-physicist, currently pursuing Ph.D. in Physics at Illinois Institute of Technology. I obtained Bc. and MS. in Physics at the Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic, Europe.

4.What did you study in college?
It has always been a physics curriculum. That involved maths, physics, computers and cybernetics and throughout the years it got more and more specialized in experimental science of electronic structures - solid state, surfaces and interfaces.

5.What is work like?
Varied, demanding, sedentary, challenging, brain-storming. But it also is enjoyable, satisfying, confidence building.

6.What exactly is your job title?
At the Lab they name the position "Resident Associate". But it is a "Research Assistant" from the school's point of view. As I said above, I am still a doctorate student.

7.How often do you work with heat
I don't understand, what you mean by "work with heat". I use furnaces and hot plates occasionally for sample preparation, whereas my experiments usually take place at 4.2 kelvin temperature.

8.What is an average day like for you?
There is noting like an average day for me. I can spend the day preparing samples, preparing the necessary electronics, doing an experiment, reading scientific journals, studying theory, preparing a publication, searching internet for missing supplies, communicating with salespeople and technicians about their products we use or intend to buy, ... And most frequently a combination of all these. I am starting around 10am, finishing between 6 and 11 pm, depending on experiments running and nearing deadlines of projects.

I hope the information helped you.
Daniel

Careers: Physics

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Daniel Mazur

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Questions anyone (teenager, undergrad, graduate, professional) may ask on physics, mathematics or inorganic chemistry. Questions may concern subjects themselves or a possible future career in them, if you need advice on a school or hobby project, or you just came across a question that is beyond your current curriculum. I answer bare textbook problems sometimes, but I reserve the the right to redirect you to Physics-Physics section. The kind of questions I like to answer: I just started having science classes at school and they seem difficult, but I enjoy them. Where do I find more information on this, which is not in textbooks but still comprehensible to me? Just leaving high school, and I feel science is really the thing for me. Can you recommend a school and an undergrad program suitable to my inclinations? I am in my second undergraduate year in Physics. We learned the basics of universe expanding this year, the Hubble constant and all that, but invited speakers that gave talks on astrophysics in our department seemed not to agree with this model at all. Is it of any use at all? I am building a [materials research] experimental device for my masters/doctorate thesis and I have the following problem:... I have tried ..., but it still doesn't work. Where might the problem be?

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