PREPARATION FOR CAREERS IN APPLIED PHYSICS

American industry has been noted for the high level of its technology. The complex problems faced in adapting industrial practice to environmental needs and in solving the problems associated with declining resources require the best skills of both technologists and applied scientists. So do many of the problems associated with the decline in the United States' ability to compete in the international market place. While most of industry's needs for technological manpower can be met best by specialists with training in particular areas of engineering, there also is need for many generalists who can draw on a broad background in the physical sciences. Here the well-trained and experienced experimental physicist has superior qualifications.

Students interested in careers in applied physics are advised strongly to include in their undergraduate programs a maximum amount of laboratory work, both in physics and in related sciences and engineering.

In addition to the required work in electronics (Physics 334,335), students concentrating in applied physics should take the optics laboratory (Physics 331). They also are encouraged particularly to include in their program more work in physics research laboratories than the minimum requirement. (Opportunities for independent study are described on page 45.)

Physics 427 Applications of Physics is offered from time to time. Usually the topics are particularly appropriate for students planning applied physics careers. Physics 441 Quantum Physics (3) and other courses offered in connection with the evening M. S. Program, which emphasize applications of physics, also may be of interest. So may be Physics 341 Energy: Consumption, Fossil Fuels, and Conservation, Physics 342 Energy: Nuclear and Solar Power, and Physics 343 Environmental Radioactivity.

A program which illustrates the kind of applied physics emphasis described here is given in Sample Program 5: A Program Emphasizing Applied Physics.

Additional laboratory courses that are of particular interest are:

• Physics 231 Introduction to Experimental Physics (3)
    (Does not satisfy the "Advanced Laboratory" graduation requirement)
• Phys 232 Introduction to Computational Physics (3)
• Physics 431 Modern Physics Laboratory (3) (Condensed Matter Physics)
• Physics 432 Modern Physics Laboratory (3) Atomic, Molecular Physics)
• Physics 433 Modern Physics Laboratory (3) (Nuclear Physics)
• Physics 434 Applications of Computers to Physical Measurements (3)

There also are several courses toward instrumentation offered in other departments. These, too, may be worth considering as part of an emphasis in applied physics.

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