sage
发表文章数: 1125
武功等级: 天山六阳掌
(第六重)
内力值: 535/535
Being a Physicist in the US
Applied to my field only: theoretical High energy physics, or particle physics.
1) Graduate school. You pretty much do whatever you are told to do. it is crucial to have a famous and active boss. Doing postdoc is required. IF you have a famous boss, the first postdoc won't be a problem. Since you are working out your boss' idea, you probably won't get that much credit for it except the recommendation letter of your boss.
2) Postdoc. There is no possibilty of staying in the same place. you must be doing postdodc somewhere else. You are supposed to be somewhat independent and produce significany results. The number of papers does not matter that much, except people do expect about 4 papers from you each year. Whether or where the paper is published also does not matter that much, people see it on the arXiv before any publication anyway.
The most important thing is the impact of the paper. this could be judged from citations, follow up works, and so on. Solid , top-cited, well-known, correct, paper on timely and important subjects are definitely required. It is also crucial to give good presentations, go to important conferences, and so on.
The connection to people could also be pretty important.
you cannot be a postdoc forever.
3) Assistent Professor. This is a major milestone of the career. being there means you are doing it for 'real'. It is generically impossible to be a professor at the place you have been to (graduate school, postdoc). you have to find a position somewhere else.
As an assistent professor, you are in transition to being a big boss yourself. you are supposed to be an international leading force of some direction now. the key word is agian work, real good work. Review from your colleagues around the world will be asked before your promotion. they will not judge you on the number of papers. If one of them say 'never heard of this guy', then your future will not be good.
You will also at least spend a lot of time of the year worrying about applying for funding. it is crucial that you can support students and postdocs.
4) later. Depending on your work, you can be very active, important, powerful, or you can be irrelevant.
Again. it is work that is the key factor of determining everything. you must be known to everybody. you must have your own field which you are the real acknowledged expert, you must be invited to give a lot of talks...
| 发表时间：2005-10-06, 20:38:48 |
 作者资料
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sage
发表文章数: 1125
武功等级: 天山六阳掌
(第六重)
内力值: 535/535
Being a Physicist in the US II: money
Money wise, it is not very rewarding to be a physicist here. With the same amount of work, going to wall street or other industry makes a lot more money.
Typical postdoc salary is about $35,00-45,000 per year, which will be about $25,000-32,000 after tex. To put it into context, the rent of apartment is usually $700-$1000, if you have family. If you are buying a car, which is necessary in many places, this will be about $500 monthly payment. It's not hard to spend $500 on everyday stuff either. there are also utilities, and so on. It is generally impossble to buy a house from a postdoc salary.
the beginning level faculty is usually $60000 to $70000. Barey enough to starting thinking about buying a house, which will be about $1000 or above monthly payment, as well as more tax.
then later in your career, if you are really good, last ten years before your retirement you could probably double your salary, which is about the amount a young PhD makes in wallstreet jobs.
| 发表时间：2005-10-06, 20:50:07 |
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宁宁
发表文章数: 134
武功等级: 逍遥拳
(第六重)
内力值: 315/315
Re: Being a Physicist in the US
比在国内还是好多了，国内老板不教学生，不闻不问，只剥削学生
以平常心对待一切
| 发表时间：2005-10-07, 04:57:21 |
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追忆
发表文章数: 693
武功等级: 般若掌
(第八重)
内力值: 463/463
Re: Being a Physicist in the US
Genarally speaking ,the level of life of a phisicist in the US is much better than those professors' in china ...
But these do not made me very surprised ,i think the mainly reason is that the level of research of those professors working in the same field in china is very bad. Even some professors do ONLY regards to get money ,have NEVER been regarding to teach and research. Once a year passed ,it dare not be concieved that how much money would be wasted by them .and these is no paper valueb for teaching and researching coming out .....
青山隐隐水迢迢，秋尽江南草木凋；
二十四桥明月夜，玉人何处教吹萧？
| 发表时间：2005-10-07, 22:30:06 |
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