MEDIAN SALARY (in Thousands of Dollars) Median salaries for physicists in industry by degree level and years from degree, 1996.  (Reproduced, with permission, from the AIP Web site).

    The American Institute of Physics (AIP) estimates that about one third of all physics majors enter the labor force with their physics bachelors degrees and do not pursue any advanced degree.  Over a third go on to earn a master's degree, about one quarter go on to do a Ph.D.  Another 6-8% earn professional degrees, mostly in medicine, some in law and a few in dentistry and other professional occupations.

    While the majority of those who earn Ph.D.s do so in physics, many go into engineering, mathematics, chemistry and the geo-sciences.  However, at the master's level, fewer than half (about 40%) stay in physics.  The other large fields are engineering, business, computer science, mathematics, and education.  Still others enter such fields as philosophy, social work and religious studies.  In short, physics graduates pursue educational routes in virtually every field, and it would be a serious error to believe that undergraduate training in physics exists principally to lay the groundwork for graduate training in physics.  That route is not the norm; it is the exception.  The AIP estimates that only about 15% of physics bachelors ever earn a Ph.D. in physics.

(Reprinted, with permission, from the AIP's Career Opportunities leaflet, Vol. 3, No. 3, April 1997, published by their Education and Employment Statistics Division.  More current information is obtainable from them by contacting them at 301-209-3070, or on the World Wide Web at http://ww.aip.org/statistics/trends.htm.)

    In fact, many companies, especially in high technology, recognize that physicists possess valuable skills and actively recruit them.

Thirty-five years ago, I founded Lutron Electronics Company to design and manufacture lighting control products and systems.  As a physicist myself, I know how my physics education helped me in solving the complex problems of designing Lutron's high quality products to meet the broad market needs of our customers ... Physics graduates are particularly well suited to Lutron as they are adept at modeling and investigating a phenomenon and then using creative problem solving skills to find innovative solutions.  Physics majors bring to their teams a strong understanding spanning many disciplines and a broad outlook which results in innovative, out of the box thinking.
Joel Spira, February 25, 1997
chairman of Lutron Electronics Company, Inc.
(reprtinted with permission, from a letter to Physics Department Chair Stephen Wallace)

Randy Holmes, a physics alumnus, taught physics at High Point High School, Beltsville, MD.  He initiated an Advanced Placement (AP) physics course from which his first two graduates went on to UM (one in physics, one in engineering).  He has continued his relationship with the UM Physics Department through his assistance with the Physics Is Phun and Physics Olympics programs.  Randy Holmes, UM Physics graduate. Photograph: John E. (Jack) Horne

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