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Physicists

It's a bright outlook for

This career will grow rapidly in the next few years.

Learn more about what they do.

Conduct research into physical phenomena, develop theories on the basis of observation and experiments, and devise methods to apply physical laws and theories.

Related: Astronomers Biochemists & Biophysicists Data Scientists Mathematicians Physics Teachers, Postsecondary

Industries: Professional, Science, & Technical Education Government Health & Counseling

Summary
Details

Perform complex calculations as part of the analysis and evaluation of data, using computers.
Describe and express observations and conclusions in mathematical terms.
Observe the structure and properties of matter, and the transformation and propagation of energy, using equipment such as masers, lasers, and telescopes, to explore and identify the basic principles governing these phenomena.
Design computer simulations to model physical data so that it can be better understood.
Analyze data from research conducted to detect and measure physical phenomena.
Report experimental results by writing papers for scientific journals or by presenting information at scientific conferences.
Teach physics to students.
Collaborate with other scientists in the design, development, and testing of experimental, industrial, or medical equipment, instrumentation, and procedures.
Write research proposals to receive funding.
Develop theories and laws on the basis of observation and experiments, and apply these theories and laws to problems in areas such as nuclear energy, optics, and aerospace technology.

Speaking
- Talking to others.
Monitoring
- Keeping track of how well people and/or groups are doing in order to make improvements.
Troubleshooting
- Figuring out what is causing equipment, machines, wiring, or computer programs to not work.
Mathematics
- Using math to solve problems.
Repairing
- Repairing machines or systems using the right tools.
Management of Financial Resources
- Making spending decisions and keeping track of what is spent.
Equipment Maintenance
- Planning and doing the basic maintenance on equipment.
Quality Control Analysis
- Testing how well a product or service works.
Management of Material Resources
- Managing equipment and materials.
Reading Comprehension
- Reading work-related information.
Critical Thinking
- Thinking about the pros and cons of different ways to solve a problem.
Programming
- Writing computer programs.
Management of Personnel Resources
- Selecting and managing the best workers for a job.
Instructing
- Teaching people how to do something.
Science
- Using scientific rules and strategies to solve problems.
Learning Strategies
- Using the best training or teaching strategies for learning new things.
Service Orientation
- Looking for ways to help people.
Complex Problem Solving
- Noticing a problem and figuring out the best way to solve it.
Operations Monitoring
- Watching gauges, dials, or display screens to make sure a machine is working.
Time Management
- Managing your time and the time of other people.
Judgment and Decision Making
- Thinking about the pros and cons of different options and picking the best one.
Systems Evaluation
- Measuring how well a system is working and how to improve it.
Operation and Control
- Using equipment or systems.
Systems Analysis
- Figuring out how a system should work and how changes in the future will affect it.
Active Learning
- Figuring out how to use new ideas or things.
Negotiation
- Bringing people together to solve differences.
Writing
- Writing things for co-workers or customers.
Coordination
- Changing what is done based on other people's actions.
Persuasion
- Talking people into changing their minds or their behavior.
Active Listening
- Listening to others, not interrupting, and asking good questions.
Operations Analysis
- Figuring out what a product or service needs to be able to do.
Equipment Selection
- Deciding what kind of tools and equipment are needed to do a job.
Installation
- Installing equipment, machines, wiring, or computer programs.
Social Perceptiveness
- Understanding people's reactions.
Technology Design
- Making equipment and technology useful for customers.

Perceptual Speed
- Quickly comparing groups of letters, numbers, pictures, or other things.
Response Orientation
- Quickly deciding if you should move your hand, foot, or other body part.
Explosive Strength
- Jumping, sprinting, or throwing something.
Dynamic Strength
- Exercising for a long time without your muscles getting tired.
Dynamic Flexibility
- Quickly and repeatedly bending, stretching, twisting, or reaching out with your body, arms, and/or legs.
Extent Flexibility
- Bending, stretching, twisting, or reaching with your body, arms, and/or legs.
Speech Recognition
- Recognizing spoken words.
Category Flexibility
- Grouping things in different ways.
Oral Comprehension
- Listening and understanding what people say.
Inductive Reasoning
- Making general rules or coming up with answers from lots of detailed information.
Night Vision
- Seeing at night or under low light.
Hearing Sensitivity
- Telling the difference between sounds.
Rate Control
- Changing when and how fast you move based on how something else is moving.
Originality
- Creating new and original ideas.
Fluency of Ideas
- Coming up with lots of ideas.
Information Ordering
- Ordering or arranging things.
Gross Body Coordination
- Moving your arms, legs, and mid-section together while your whole body is moving.
Depth Perception
- Deciding which thing is closer or farther away from you, or deciding how far away it is from you.
Trunk Strength
- Using your lower back and stomach.
Selective Attention
- Paying attention to something without being distracted.
Control Precision
- Quickly changing the controls of a machine, car, truck or boat.
Flexibility of Closure
- Seeing hidden patterns.
Speed of Limb Movement
- Quickly moving your arms and legs.
Time Sharing
- Doing two or more things at the same time.
Reaction Time
- Quickly moving your hand, finger, or foot based on a sound, light, picture or other command.
Oral Expression
- Communicating by speaking.
Visual Color Discrimination
- Noticing the difference between colors, including shades and brightness.
Number Facility
- Adding, subtracting, multiplying, or dividing.
Sound Localization
- Noticing the direction that a sound came from.
Written Comprehension
- Reading and understanding what is written.
Visualization
- Imagining how something will look after it is moved around or changed.
Stamina
- Exercising for a long time without getting out of breath.
Finger Dexterity
- Putting together small parts with your fingers.
Static Strength
- Lifting, pushing, pulling, or carrying.
Memorization
- Remembering words, numbers, pictures, or steps.
Gross Body Equilibrium
- Keeping your balance or staying upright.
Near Vision
- Seeing details up close.
Auditory Attention
- Paying attention to one sound while there are other distracting sounds.
Spatial Orientation
- Knowing where things are around you.
Arm-Hand Steadiness
- Keeping your arm or hand steady.
Manual Dexterity
- Holding or moving items with your hands.
Speed of Closure
- Quickly knowing what you are looking at.
Multilimb Coordination
- Using your arms and/or legs together while sitting, standing, or lying down.
Wrist-Finger Speed
- Making fast, simple, repeated movements of your fingers, hands, and wrists.
Speech Clarity
- Speaking clearly.
Problem Sensitivity
- Noticing when problems happen.
Written Expression
- Communicating by writing.
Mathematical Reasoning
- Choosing the right type of math to solve a problem.
Deductive Reasoning
- Using rules to solve problems.
Far Vision
- Seeing details that are far away.
Glare Sensitivity
- Seeing something even if there is a glare or very bright light.
Peripheral Vision
- Seeing something to your side when your are looking ahead.

Food Production
- Knowledge of techniques and equipment for planting, growing, and harvesting food products (both plant and animal) for consumption, including storage/handling techniques.
Customer and Personal Service
- Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
Administration and Management
- Knowledge of business and management principles involved in strategic planning, resource allocation, human resources modeling, leadership technique, production methods, and coordination of people and resources.
Communications and Media
- Knowledge of media production, communication, and dissemination techniques and methods. This includes alternative ways to inform and entertain via written, oral, and visual media.
Medicine and Dentistry
- Knowledge of the information and techniques needed to diagnose and treat human injuries, diseases, and deformities. This includes symptoms, treatment alternatives, drug properties and interactions, and preventive health-care measures.
History and Archeology
- Knowledge of historical events and their causes, indicators, and effects on civilizations and cultures.
Transportation
- Knowledge of principles and methods for moving people or goods by air, rail, sea, or road, including the relative costs and benefits.
Economics and Accounting
- Knowledge of economic and accounting principles and practices, the financial markets, banking, and the analysis and reporting of financial data.
Engineering and Technology
- Knowledge of the practical application of engineering science and technology. This includes applying principles, techniques, procedures, and equipment to the design and production of various goods and services.
Mechanical
- Knowledge of machines and tools, including their designs, uses, repair, and maintenance.
Physics
- Knowledge and prediction of physical principles, laws, their interrelationships, and applications to understanding fluid, material, and atmospheric dynamics, and mechanical, electrical, atomic and sub-atomic structures and processes.
Law and Government
- Knowledge of laws, legal codes, court procedures, precedents, government regulations, executive orders, agency rules, and the democratic political process.
Education and Training
- Knowledge of principles and methods for curriculum and training design, teaching and instruction for individuals and groups, and the measurement of training effects.
Sociology and Anthropology
- Knowledge of group behavior and dynamics, societal trends and influences, human migrations, ethnicity, cultures, and their history and origins.
Foreign Language
- Knowledge of the structure and content of a foreign (non-English) language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition and grammar, and pronunciation.
Telecommunications
- Knowledge of transmission, broadcasting, switching, control, and operation of telecommunications systems.
Production and Processing
- Knowledge of raw materials, production processes, quality control, costs, and other techniques for maximizing the effective manufacture and distribution of goods.
Sales and Marketing
- Knowledge of principles and methods for showing, promoting, and selling products or services. This includes marketing strategy and tactics, product demonstration, sales techniques, and sales control systems.
Administrative
- Knowledge of administrative and office procedures and systems such as word processing, managing files and records, stenography and transcription, designing forms, and workplace terminology.
Design
- Knowledge of design techniques, tools, and principles involved in production of precision technical plans, blueprints, drawings, and models.
Geography
- Knowledge of principles and methods for describing the features of land, sea, and air masses, including their physical characteristics, locations, interrelationships, and distribution of plant, animal, and human life.
Fine Arts
- Knowledge of the theory and techniques required to compose, produce, and perform works of music, dance, visual arts, drama, and sculpture.
Building and Construction
- Knowledge of materials, methods, and the tools involved in the construction or repair of houses, buildings, or other structures such as highways and roads.
Mathematics
- Knowledge of arithmetic, algebra, geometry, calculus, statistics, and their applications.
Chemistry
- Knowledge of the chemical composition, structure, and properties of substances and of the chemical processes and transformations that they undergo. This includes uses of chemicals and their interactions, danger signs, production techniques, and disposal methods.
Biology
- Knowledge of plant and animal organisms, their tissues, cells, functions, interdependencies, and interactions with each other and the environment.
English Language
- Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, and rules of composition and grammar.
Therapy and Counseling
- Knowledge of principles, methods, and procedures for diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation of physical and mental dysfunctions, and for career counseling and guidance.
Personnel and Human Resources
- Knowledge of principles and procedures for personnel recruitment, selection, training, compensation and benefits, labor relations and negotiation, and personnel information systems.
Psychology
- Knowledge of human behavior and performance; individual differences in ability, personality, and interests; learning and motivation; psychological research methods; and the assessment and treatment of behavioral and affective disorders.
Philosophy and Theology
- Knowledge of different philosophical systems and religions. This includes their basic principles, values, ethics, ways of thinking, customs, practices, and their impact on human culture.
Computers and Electronics
- Knowledge of circuit boards, processors, chips, electronic equipment, and computer hardware and software, including applications and programming.
Public Safety and Security
- Knowledge of relevant equipment, policies, procedures, and strategies to promote effective local, state, or national security operations for the protection of people, data, property, and institutions.

Education

Doctoral or professional degree

Work Experience

No work experience

Training

No on-the-job training

Education and Training Opportunities

Washington Annual Salary

120080/yr

Washington Hourly Wage

57.73/hr

Currently Employed

1,050

Yearly Projected Openings

100

Investigative: People interested in this work like activities that include ideas, thinking, and figuring things out. They do well at jobs that need:

Innovation
Achievement/Effort
Analytical Thinking
Initiative
Attention to Detail
Integrity

Accelerometers
Amplifiers
Analytical balances
Atomic absorption AA spectrometers
Autosamplers
Binocular light compound microscopes
Capacitance meters
Chromatographic detectors
Cryogenic or liquid nitrogen freezers
Cryostats
Desktop computers
Digital camcorders or video cameras
Electromagnets
Electron microscopes
Electronic counters
Force or torque sensors
Frequency analyzers
Frequency calibrator or simulator
Frequency counters or timer or dividers
Galvanometers
Gas chromatographs
Geiger counters
Goggles
High vacuum equipment
Infrared spectrometers
Injectors
Interferometers
Ionization chambers
Laboratory balances
Laboratory box furnaces
Laboratory centrifugal pumps
Laboratory safety furnaces
Laboratory vacuum pumps
Laboratory vibrators
Laser beam analyzers
Laser filters
Lasers
Leak testing equipment
Light scattering equipment
Magnetometer geophysical instruments
Magnetometers
Mass spectrometers
Medical computed tomography CT or CAT scanners or tubes
Medical magnetic resonance imaging MRI scanners
Medical radiation films or badges
Mobile or transportable medical linear accelerators
Monochromators
Multimeters
Network analyzers
Notebook computers
Nuclear magnetic resonance NMR spectrometers
Optical beamsplitters
Optical breadboards
Optical choppers
Oscilloscopes
Personal computers
Photo attachments for microscopes
Photometer
Photosensitive diodes
Plotter printers
Pneumatic vacuum equipment
Polarizers
Pull spring balances
Radiation detectors
Roughness measuring instruments
Scanning electron microscopes
Scanning probe microscopes
Semiconductor testers
Signal conditioners
Signal generators
Single gas monitors
Sound measuring apparatus or decibel meter
Spectrometers
Spectrophotometers
Telescopes
Transmission electron microscopes
Tube furnaces
Tweezers
Ultraviolet UV lamps
Visual filters
Voltage or current meters
X ray diffraction equipment

Analytical or scientific software
Cloud-based management software
Clustering software
Computer aided design CAD software
Configuration management software
Data base management system software
Data base user interface and query software
Desktop publishing software
Development environment software
Enterprise application integration software
Enterprise resource planning ERP software
Expert system software
File versioning software
Graphics or photo imaging software
Music or sound editing software
Object or component oriented development software
Office suite software
Operating system software
Presentation software
Spreadsheet software
Video creation and editing software
Web platform development software
Word processing software

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

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