PHYS21: Preparing Physics Students for 21st Century Careers

Laurie McNeil, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Paula Heron, University of Washington

If you are a physics professor, you probably followed the traditional path to get where you are: undergraduate and graduate degrees in physics, one or more postdoctoral positions, and then a faculty position. Perhaps you think that most of the physics majors you now teach will follow in your footsteps, and that you will best serve them by preparing them to become physics professors like you. If so, you are mistaken. According to data from the American Institute of Physics’ (AIP) Statistical Research Center, about 5% of U.S. physics bachelor’s graduates end up employed as physics professors (though some may pursue academic careers in other fields, such as engineering). The overwhelming majority of people who receive a bachelor’s degree in physics are employed outside academia for all or part of their careers, and are engaged in a wide variety of work, about half of which is in the private sector. (See the article by Susan White and Patrick Mulvey later in this issue.) This is equally true for recipients of Ph.D. degrees in physics, almost half of whom occupy positions outside academia one year after receiving their degrees, and more of whom move to private-sector or government positions after completing a postdoc. Physics graduates working in the private sector report that they regularly need to use skills that go beyond their knowledge of physics, such as working in teams, technical writing, programming, applying physics to solve interdisciplinary problems, designing and developing products, managing complex projects, and working with clients. Yet for most physicists the development of the skills necessary to succeed at these tasks formed a small part of what they experienced in their undergraduate (and graduate) programs, if it was addressed at all. While physics graduates are largely remarkably successful in the career paths they choose, if these skills were more explicitly emphasized in undergraduate physics programs, we could better prepare physics graduates for all of the career paths available to them.

The Joint Task Force on Undergraduate Physics Programs (J-TUPP) was convened by the American Physical Society (APS) and the American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT) in 2014 to answer this question: What skills and knowledge should the next generation of undergraduate physics degree holders possess to be well prepared for a diverse set of careers? The report of the Task Force, entitled Phys21: Preparing Physics Students for 21st Century Careers, is available for download at http://www.compadre.org/JTUPP. Through our study of a wide range of reports and interviews we developed a clear picture of the knowledge and skills that ideally a physics graduate should have in order to be successful in a wide range of careers. We also commissioned a set of case studies of departments that have modified their programs to enhance graduates’ career readiness, to find examples of strategies that other departments could adopt. (See the article by Paul Cottle later in this issue to learn about Florida State University.)

We concluded that physics graduates are prepared to pursue a wide range of careers, and are sought for their flexibility, problem solving skills, and exposure to a wide range of technologies. However, graduates would benefit from a wider and deeper knowledge of computational analysis tools, particularly industry-standard packages, and a broader set of experiences that engage them with industry-type work, such as internships and applied research projects. Graduates would also be more successful in the workplace if opportunities to develop professional skills such as teamwork, communications, and basic business understanding were added to the undergraduate physics program. (See the article by Walter Buell later in this issue for a view from industry.) We formulated our findings into a set of learning goals to assist physics faculty in identifying explicitly what specific knowledge and skills they want to help students acquire and in developing ways to verify that their program is providing the necessary opportunities. We organized these goals into four categories: physics-specific knowledge, scientific and technical skills, communication skills, and professional and workplace skills.

When a physics graduate enters the workplace (or, for that matter, when she undertakes a dissertation project), she is likely to face the challenge of solving complex, ambiguous problems in real-world contexts. She will need to define and formulate the problem, perform literature studies (print and online) to determine what is known about the problem and its context and manage scientific and engineering information so that it is actionable. Based on that information, she will need to identify appropriate approaches, such as performing an experiment, performing a simulation, or developing an analytical model; and develop one or more strategies to solve the problem and iteratively refine the approach. To carry out the strategy she will need to identify resource needs and make decisions or recommendations for beginning or continuing a project based on the balance between opportunity cost and progress made, determine follow-on investigations, and place the results in a larger perspective. It is likely that she will have had little or no experience in most of these actions unless her undergraduate program has provided her with specific opportunities to develop such skills.

Beyond this wide range of skills and knowledge that are often not explicitly fostered, most physics programs short-change their students in another way: they rarely help their students learn about career opportunities in physics, how to find a job (e.g., by developing résumé writing and interview skills), and how to assess one’s skill set and its relevance to a job. This can make physics graduates’ transitions to the workforce more challenging than is necessary. The fact that many physics faculty members are only vaguely aware of careers outside academia makes this doubly challenging.

This long list of skills and knowledge that physics graduates need may seem daunting to both students and faculty members. How can a program provide a student with all that career preparation and still make sure she can solve Schrödinger’s equation? Fortunately most of the learning goals can be pursued through more than one channel, and there are examples of different kinds of institutions that have found creative and effective ways to address the challenges. Depending on the local conditions, the resources available, the size and aspirations of the student body, industries in the region, and other factors, departments can choose different strategies. They may be ready to redesign their programs entirely, or choose to infuse the development of new skills into their current course offerings or rely primarily on enhanced co-curricular activities. In our report we provide many examples of different approaches that have been adopted by physics departments.

We urge all physics faculty members to read the Phys21 report and discuss ways of implementing its recommendations in their own programs. We further urge physicists outside academia to find ways to assist physics departments as they seek to prepare 21st-century graduates as effectively as possible for the diverse careers that they can be expected to have. If enough physicists make this choice, we are confident that our discipline will continue in robust health through this century and beyond.

Laurie McNeil and Paula Heron are the co-Chairs of the APS/AAPT Joint Task Force on Undergraduate Physics Programs

Disclaimer – The articles and opinion pieces found in this issue of the APS Forum on Education Newsletter are not peer refereed and represent solely the views of the authors and not necessarily the views of the APS.