Launching a new series of Physics World interviews providing career advice to physics graduates, Tushna Commissariat speaks to 10 top physicists from across academia and industry, to get their tips and guidance on building a long, happy and successful future career
Are you at the start of your career in physics, and do you wish you could get a little advice? Experience, as they say, is the best teacher and it always helps to consider a diverse range of views and opinions before picking your pathway. But who can you turn to for advice if you haven’t yet got going?
To help you along the way, I interviewed 10 of today’s top physicists, in the hope of providing you with some sage advice. We will be publishing their answers throughout this week, and we will add links to all the interviews to the box below.
I asked my interviewees the following three questions:
- What skills do you use every day in your job?
- What do you like best and least about your job?
- What do you know today that you wish you knew when you were starting out in your career?
Take a look at their responses over the course of this week. You may find some of their tips rather obvious; but you’ll definitely come across some eye-opening suggestions, unexpected home truths and, most importantly, words of comfort and encouragement.
Ask me anything
Our 10 top physicists offering career advice are:
Crystal Bailey, head of career programmes at the American Physical Society
Philippe Blondel, senior lecturer and deputy director of the Centre for Space, Atmospheric and Oceanic Science at the University of Bath, UK
James McKenzie, vice-president of business at the Institute of Physics, and chief executive of Crossfield Fusion
Helen Margolis, head of science for the time and frequency department at the UK’s National Physical Laboratory (NPL), and an NPL Fellow in Optical Frequency Standards and Metrology
Sadik Hafizovic, chief executive and founder of Zurich Instruments, which provides instruments for quantum computing
Priyamvada Natarajan, theoretical astrophysicist, professor and director of the Franke Program in Science and the Humanities at Yale University, US. She is the author of Mapping the Heavens
Giulia Thompson, head of system physics within global linac engineering at Elekta, a medical-device company that manufactures radiotherapy solutions for cancer care
Chao-Yang Lu, physics professor at the University of Science and Technology of China, focusing on quantum foundations, computation and communications
Libby Jackson, human exploration programme manager at the UK Space Agency
Cather Simpson, professor of physics and chemical sciences at the University of Auckland in New Zealand, and chief science officer of Engender Technologies
