Career Opportunties

A common misconception amongst the community is that there are no jobs in science, or that jobs in science are low paid and have no future. Photonics is one area where skilled people are in very high demand because there is a global shortage of people with the necessary skills.

The global photonics components market was worth £100 million per annum in 1995. By 2004 the global photonics market had grown to over £125 billion. It is expected to grow over US$1 trillion by 2015(source-OITDA). To maintain the share of the photonics market in the UK, we will require tens of thousands of additional skilled people by 2010. And that's just for components! It doesn't include installing systems and applications.

Physics as a Career

So you enjoy physics, but don't know where studying physics will lead you? You really enjoy thinking about problems and you ask lots of questions, but you don't know how this can be useful in the real world?

Despite popular belief, physics graduates are actually highly sought after employees (and some of the highest paid in the country!) A physics education emphasizes problem solving and abstract thinking and this training makes physics graduates very desirable emplyees in a wide variety of areas including education, finance, and journalism. These fundamental skills as well as training in practical subjects such as optics, lasers, computer interfacing, image processing and electronics also make them very desirable employees in cutting-edge, high-tech companies.

Physicists study questions facing today's science and technology and are at the forefront of solutions for instrumentation, measurement techniques, and model development in many areas including:

• lasers and optics (telecommunications, optometry, holography, etc.)
• environmental science (weather, oceanography, pollution control, etc.)
• medicine (medical imaging, radiation treatment, lasers)
• space science (mission specialists, satellite design, etc.)
• acoustics (speaker research, hall design, etc.)
• electricity and magnetism (power management, antenna design, instrumentation, etc.)
• nuclear science (reactor design, waste management, etc.)
• materials science (semiconductor devices, magnetic thin films, superconductivity, computer technologies, biomaterials etc.)

There are a wide range of challenging careers open to people who study physics, particularly for those who study physics with photonics.