Behind the Cover: October 2022

Each month, Physics Today editors explore the research and design choices that inspired the latest cover of the magazine.

Each year, Physics Today devotes its October issue to an aspect of careers in the physical sciences, such as becoming and being a physicist , early-career physicists , and physicists in industry . This year the focus is on physicists in government: Christine Middleton reports on working at NSF , Tess Jaffe shares her experiences at public-sector research institutes in Europe , and Carl Williams details his path from academia to NIST . For the first time, Physics Today also has an online hub for the Careers issue, which supplements the articles in the magazine with new, online-exclusive stories and archival content.

For the print issue, the Physics Today art director, Donna Padian, crafted a collage to adorn the cover (above) and full-page opening images to accompany each of the three feature articles (below). Against a colorful background, the images highlight a grayscale photograph of, from left to right below, NSF headquarters, Jaffe, and Williams.

The cover borrows elements from the article illustrations—such as arrows, which represent the temporary nature of rotator positions at NSF; satellites, which evoke Jaffe’s field of astrophysics; and kilogram masses, which allude to the standards at NIST. In a nod to the Beatles’ iconic Abbey Road album cover, the image shows a diverse group of scientists heading on a pathway through their acquired scientific knowledge and into a future career. The arrows point the way forward on each person’s varied and multistage path. Padian also had the first person in line make eye contact to draw in the viewer.