Love, Not Paycheck, Motivates Best Physics Students

Rarely do I read an issue of Physics Today or other science journal and not find some handwringing 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 43): 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.