Physicist

A physicist is a scientist who deals with topics from physics.

Career field

Physicists are active in various professional fields: edit tasks in basic and industrial research, development, production, consulting, organization and management, marketing, public service and in teaching at schools and universities. They use methods of theoretical, experimental and applied physics. Indispensable tool is mathematics.

Part of the physicist remains after his studies and doctorate in university research and teaching. In general, they are then oriented on a specialty, such as nuclear physics and elementary particle physics, nuclear, high energy physics and molecular physics, cluster physics, solid state physics, hydrodynamics, aerodynamics, thermodynamics, optics and laser physics, acoustics, electrodynamics, plasma physics and low temperature physics, astrophysics, Extraterrestrial physics, biophysics, atmospheric physics, oceanography.

Many physicists, however, are in research and development departments of companies in virtually every sector operates, for example, in machine or vehicle, the radio, and communication equipment, medical, measurement, and control technology, power generation and distribution, or chemical industry. Physicists who have studied to become a teacher, usually work as a teacher in schools. Approximately 25 % of the approximately 6,500 German patent attorneys have originally - studied physics - before a legal additional training.

According to a study published in February 2010 study by the German Physical Society ( DPG), conducted by the Institute of the German Economy in Cologne, the situation for physicists in the labor market is worse than in the other academics. On the basis of data collected from the micro-census of the Federal Statistical Office, can the unemployment rate for those of working age calculate to 65 years who have been trained as a physicist, ie who have completed a physics degree at a university or technical college ( vocational training physicist ). This rate was in 2007 at 4.5 percent, which was slightly higher than the average unemployment among academics ( 3.9 percent ), but lower than the unemployment rate for the total population ( 8.6 percent ). The values ​​can be only partially comparable to the unemployment figures from the Federal Employment Agency, which indicates a 2007 unemployment rate for physicists and mathematicians of 6.6 % ( 2009 5.9%) (based on the social insurance contributions ), since the job seekers there are not covered by the education profession, but according to the desired target profession. From these statistics, so all physicists fall out looking for a job in another profession, such as in the IT sector. From the DPG labor market study it is clear that the Federal Employment Agency, only about a quarter of the people recorded with a physics degree.

Furthermore, estimates quoted above DPG study that a minimum annual requirement of 2,500 newly set consists physicists.

Characteristics

Physicists working often in professional fields that are foreign to the actual physics studies (see, for example, this list of known physicists in other professional fields ). Many physicists working in public companies, such as banks or insurance companies. Many physicists, especially from geophysics and meteorology, are employed in computer science with programming models of complex systems.

Physicists learn in studying the process of mathematical modeling and its verifiability. Although this capability is used primarily in the study of physical problems to applications are found also in other areas of science and technology.

Training

The job of a graduate physicist presupposes a degree at a university whose degree is the first professional degree. The graduate degree programs through the new international Bachelor / Master study programs are replaced present at many German and Swiss universities.

Physics can be studied at universities or colleges and in the context of teacher training courses and graduate programs within the framework of engineering courses. However, physics can be chosen as the one with a target completion Magister at almost all universities.

The standard period of study for the Diploma program 10 semester, however, the actual duration of study was in 2013 at a median of 12.1 semesters later. The standard period of study of a Bachelor degree program is 6 semesters, a master's degree program will take at least four semesters. For both courses the normal period was in 2013 only slightly exceeded 6.6 semesters or 4.4 semesters.