Bulletin of the American Physical Society
2005 APS March Meeting
Monday–Friday, March 21–25, 2005; Los Angeles, CA
Session P7: Oh the Places You'll Go, Career Paths in Physics |
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Sponsoring Units: FGSA Chair: Lindley Winslow, University of California-Berkeley Room: LACC 408B |
Wednesday, March 23, 2005 11:15AM - 11:51AM |
P7.00001: A Physicist as President of the University Invited Speaker: My wife, physicist Frances Hellman, is fond of referring to me as a ``restless soul,'' and I do not dispute her. In the 40 years since graduating from the University of Western Ontario with a bachelor's degree in mathematics and physics, I went on to earn master's and doctorate degrees in physics and an honorary doctor of science degree from McMaster University. In 22 years working at AT{\&}T Bell Laboratories, I held five positions, was department head in two departments, and director of one laboratory. At the University of California, San Diego, I was a Professor of Physics, chair of the Department of Physics, senior vice chancellor and then chancellor. Currently, in addition to being a professor of Physics, I am president of the University of California. The ``restless'' trajectory of my career from physics undergraduate to university president follows the nature of physics itself. In physics, you are constantly seeking challenges, experimenting, creating hypotheses, looking for and finding solutions. I recall having a structured view of the world as a boy, a sense that there was a guiding ``master plan'' to most things and that wise, educated, benevolent people were there to implement the plan. ``They'' would do the right thing. Along the way, I realized, ``there is no `they' there; there is only us.'' Acknowledging the laws of thermodynamics-- ``you can't win, you can't break even, and you can't get out of the game'' --I nonetheless believe that if you have a restless mind, an open heart, and intellectual honesty without giving into wishful thinking, physicists can do anything. . [Preview Abstract] |
Wednesday, March 23, 2005 11:51AM - 12:27PM |
P7.00002: Becoming a Physicist at a National Laboratory Invited Speaker: In this talk I will describe my experiences during 17 years of employment at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, a nuclear weapons laboratory. The stories will include how I came to work there, some of the projects on which I worked, and how my career evolved during the end of the Cold War. Recently, I have moved from Lawrence Livermore to Lawrence Berkeley Lab, another (but non-nuclear) Department of Energy Laboratory. I will reflect on the scientific challenges currently facing both laboratories and talk about the advantages of working in each environment and the advantages and disadvantages of the DOE laboratories vs. an academic environment. [Preview Abstract] |
Wednesday, March 23, 2005 12:27PM - 1:03PM |
P7.00003: Between Industry and Academia: A Physicist's Experiences at The Aerospace Corporation Invited Speaker: The Aerospace Corporation is a nonprofit company whose purposes are exclusively scientific: to provide research, development, and advisory services for space programs that serve the national interest, primarily the Air Force's Space and Missile Systems Center and the National Reconnaissance Office. The corporation's laboratory has a staff of about 150 scientists who conduct research in fields ranging from Space Sciences to Material Sciences and from Analytical Chemistry to Atomic Physics. As a consequence, Aerospace stands midway between an industrial research laboratory, focused on product development, and academic/national laboratories focused on basic science. Drawing from Dr. Camparo's personal experiences, the presentation will discuss advantages and disadvantages of a career at Aerospace, including the role of publishing in peer-reviewed journals and the impact of work on family life. Additionally, the presentation will consider the balance between basic physics, applied physics, and engineering in the work at Aerospace. Since joining Aerospace in 1981, Dr. Camparo has worked as an atomic physicist specializing in the area of atomic clocks, and has had the opportunity to experiment and publish on a broad range of research topics including: the stochastic-field/atom interaction, radiation effects on semiconductor materials, and stellar scintillation. [Preview Abstract] |
Wednesday, March 23, 2005 1:03PM - 1:39PM |
P7.00004: A Physicist and a Lawyer Invited Speaker: |
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