Love, Not Paycheck, Motivates Best Physics Students

Rarely do I read an issue of Physics Today or other science journal and not find some hand-wringing about the decline in the number of physics majors ( Physics Today, January 2002, page 42 ; November 2001, page 32; October 2001, page 11 ). I started hearing this kind of lament when I was in high school in the late 1970s: “I cannot urge students strongly enough to seek a degree in the physical sciences. In the 1990s, there will be a shortage of physical scientists that will be disastrous to the nation. People with PhDs in physics will be able to get any job they want.”

I defended a PhD in physics at Caltech in 1992 and searched for a postdoc position during 1991–93. Jobs were scarce, and many of my peers ended up modeling fast neutrons or fast money—not what they expected. Incoming students caught on, and many stayed away from physics. No sermons about the disastrous consequences of a lack of physics majors can compete with Adam Smith’s “invisible hand” (in The Wealth of Nations: An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes, 1776). That is, if no one is buying widgets, then maybe you should not be in the widget business.

I managed to find a position teaching physics and chemistry at a private high school. Now I love teaching, and I love doing research. The bittersweet reality is that I get to enjoy the one while I miss the other.

A new popular argument to boost physics enrollment has appeared ( Physics Today, April 2001, page 42): A physics degree prepares a student for many jobs outside academia. But few study physics in order to practice medicine or law; most physics students spend 4 to 10 years in school because they love physics. Nonphysics jobs do not provide a strong attraction to a physics major. Professors praise nonacademic careers for physics majors, but I have seen few forego tenured positions to seek those careers. If they did, university positions would open for young aspirants. Any takers? Don’t crowd the door.