Opportunities in geophysics

What are the chances of a physicist finding an agreeable job in geophysics? The apparently poor prospects for jobs in academic physics led me to explore the possibilities in geophysics; this field, I guessed, is less dependent on government funds than is academic physics and should not have suffered the same kinds of cutbacks. For my survey of opportunities, I gleaned information from James T. Wilson, a seismologist, geologist and director of the University of Michigan Institute of Science and Technology; Helmut Landsberg of the University of Maryland, a past president of the American Geophysical Union; Homer Newell of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, now the AGU president; Milton Dobrin, president of the Society of Exploration Geophysicists and Richard Geyer, head of the department of oceanography at Texas A&M University. Here is a digest of what I learned.

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