| StoreTags: personal update
Author: flies on October 15 2007 Viewed 3465 times. 21 people liked this blog. You can rate it below if you haven't already.
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Hey all,
I started grad school this fall. I'm gonna get my PhD in physics from Rutgers, hopefully in 6 years. I will be 31 when i graduate if i do it 6 years. yowza.
It is much much work. I am not the type to pull all-nighters, but i spend at least a few days a week at school from 9-11:30 doing homework and going to class.
I just had my first midterm and while i'm not sure i aced it i think i did pretty well. I'm taking 3 courses: quantum mechanics, classical mechanics, and electrodynamics. The first is an upper-level undergrad course, and therefore quantum mechanics is my easy course, which i find pretty hilarious. That was the test i just had so i better have done well if i expect to maintain the required B average through all my courses.
Before september i was working from home as a technical writer, which is to say i was wasting all my time on the internet every day. now i don't have time to make myself dinner. Another change is that i'm no longer living with my fiance, she's in the upper-west side now (getting an MS in Journalism from columbia - she's even busier than i am, i shudder to even imagine it). this is a drag, although the two of us may have been a bit joined at the hip there for a while so it's not all bad. plus she's only about 1.5 hrs away by train so i see her most weekends (a little more than half).
I'm thinking of doing biophysics, which is basically using physics methods to study problems in molecular biology. I actually don't know that much about it, but i'm not sure i want to teach (may or may not, we'll see) and biophysics research has good funding prospects within academia and good job prospects without.
If i want to study something in school that i might directly use in industry, then that pretty much means ''Condensed Matter" physics, which means the physics of matter that isn't flying apart (high energy) or undergoing fusion (astrophysics) or some such. For instance, LCD monitors, computer hard-drives, and LED's are the fruit of condensed matter research, not to mention transistors and micro-electronics (which involved collaboration with EE, naturally). While condensed matter has the most practical relevance to most people's lives, it is also a rather dull subject a lot of the time, with topics such as "spin dynamics in semi-organic glasses", which are hard to visualize and don't quite qualify as fundamental physics or applied research. There are some subjects within traditional condensed matter that interest me, such as organic semi-conductors and the practical side of quantum computing (meaning creating functional q-bits and systems thereof).
however biophysics studies problems that seem much more relevant and therefore more interesting. i can study problems such as how prion diseases work link or the specific mechanisms that allow cells within multicellular organisms to specialize and remain specialized. This shit seems much more interesting to me. And apparently i don't even have to know biology to study it ;)
I'm writing this in a little lab. Rather than TA'ing i'm wokring as a research assistant. What i'm supposed to be doing right now is creating a computer program that controls a servo and then starts DAQ, finishes DAQ and then moves the servo to the next spot. (i am stuck b/c i have to send the servo contoller the 'ESC' button, which is apparently rather tricky). This work is something like physics. It has nothing particular to do with biophysics, it's actually support for a neutrino physics experiment, link . Pics are some 40 year old electronics modules that do god knows what, a PMT (converts light signals into electrical signals), the corner of the lab that includes the computer i'm writing on and the PMT (note the 'light tight box' which is light-tighted by covering it with tin-foil. hi-tec.), and a snapshot of the quantum physics test.
do you live in central jersey, make weird music and want to jam? if so emmail me. | |
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10/15/07
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flies
also, i'm going to buy myself a modular synth after i pass my qualifying exam.
10/15/07
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Roshi
Good luck!
I am applying this year for a PhD in Computational Biology.
10/15/07
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Psyingo
thats some sexy test gear.
goodluck.
oh and what kind of modular?
10/15/07
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flies
i konw that i want to get the paia 9700 package link at some point. I think their midi-CV converter is the best for my purposes (and by far the cheapest), plus that setup seems to have all the basics, so it seem slike a good place to start. From there i intend to add doepfer stuff.... they'll be compatible, right? (i mean, different racks/psu obviously, but cv and audiolevels are close enough?)
10/15/07
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delete
quantum mechanics is easy to grasp once you get a solid basis. if you haven't studied QM before i recommend the classic Serway/Moses/Moyer book "Modern Physics", it's an easy read. Also, regarding condensed matter, thinks are getting "wild" (i know, me -> geek) lately with all the left-handed materials n shit. i'm studying material physics & mechanics btw, i went through all the condensed matter crap you mention, it really blows most of the time but as you said there's a good chance you'll find a decent job. however, it can be interesting as well sometimes.
10/15/07
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Roshi
Biophysics, especially with applications to proteomics, is a very useful degree to pursue.
10/15/07
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delete
and biomechanics, if it doesn't creep you out.
10/15/07
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flies
i have studied qm before, like i said it's my easy class  Copenhagen and me we're like blood brothers....
yea anyway we're using Griffiths, which is an excellent text IMO. I wish we were using his book for E&M, Jackson is the worst. blechh.
I think the materials science part of CM physics is really cool, particularly the search for new materials with specific qualities (formerly known as intelligently designed materials, heh).
but yeah biophysics seems to tickle my fancy these days.
10/15/07
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delete
right on. em/physics geeks around the world unite!
10/15/07
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Roshi
Hey, griffiths was one of my teachers!
Such a smart guy (and a good explainer)
10/15/07
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jarvis
stop touching yourself, kent.
10/15/07
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Jim
Biophysics is pretty interesting, plus the industry may have more growth potential than condensed matter physics. I'm pretty much talking out of my ass, but it seems like biomedical research is only going to expand in the future, and so job prospects are probably good. I don't know, what do you think about that Roshi?
10/15/07
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minisystem
yeah man. molecular biologists need more physics/maths people getting into the field. physicists and chemists were the original molecular biologists. now we're just a bunch of pussies that don't know shit about shit. well, i don't know anything about physics. i know a lot about cells. i guess i'm more of a cell biologist.
anyway. biophysics! sounds awesome. hopefully you won't suffer the disillusionment that often accompanies academic research. i certainly went through my phase, almost as soon as i finished my phd. back on track now, but am now in the 5th year of my postdoctoral research with no end in sight...
after a while your you start to see your friends, who went into medicine/engineering/law/business/management/sales etc, buying big houses and fancy cars and going on exotic vacations. it smarts a little then. you have to really, really, really, really love what you do. like knowledge for its own sake, increasing the the dignity of humankind kind of love. then you can be almost happy. ;)
10/15/07
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jdg
well those friends of yours saw *someone* buying big synth collections and fancy keyboards...
10/16/07
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mynameismud
WOE is me, flies. i USED to live in central nj, middlesex county even! and make weird music. now i live in brooklyn and i'm at Rutgers- Newark for my masters. HOWEVER, new brunswick has a pretty vibrant music scene...
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