They may not be called physicists, but a quick check under that hard or soft hat could surprise you. It's not obvious at first glance, but scratch the surface and you will often discover the mind and know-how of a physicist. It's amazing just how many physic graduates there are working in all types of jobs. Physics graduates work in very diverse disciplines. They work in telecommunications, engineering, manufacturing, information technology and astrology. Their field of endeavour is vast and diverse.
Physicists work in hospitals, manufacturing plants, merchant banks and fibre-optic communications organisations. Professor Tom Glynn, of NUI Galway, explains that "problem-solving skills are developed in training and these skills are valued in any career".
Physicists develop "an ability to recognise and model problems reliably". This ability to take a problem from one discipline and "to see its equivalent to a problem in physics", Glynn explains. Physicists find themselves in "so many different jobs", he says, for example, jobs such as "any kind of instrumentation activity", research, at the interface of biology and physics, meteorology and electronics. Physicists are employed in such a wide range of jobs today that the narrow scientific "egg-head" label is no longer applicable.
The range of disciplines that physics is aligned to is ever-expanding. One of NUI Galway's newest course, a degree course in physics and astrology, took on 10 students this year. For students in Leaving Certificate classes who are weighing up their options, another piece of news that may be of interest is that a new four-year add-on degree in physics and instrumentation with an initial intake of 12 students will start this year in the Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology. The degree has been at the preparation stage for two years and is an extension of the existing three-year diploma in physics and instrumentation.
But, the number of students at second level who take up physics is disappointingly low, says Dr Patrick Goodman of DIT's school of physics. And yet, with a degree in physics "you are equipped for quite a wide variety of jobs", he says. One perception abroad is that there are more females than males doing physics. A Government initiative is currently working to increase the appeal of and the availability of physics (along with other science subjects) as an option in second-level schools.
"Physics underpins a lot of our economy and we would like to see more students doing the sciences at second-level," he says.
