A physicist out of academia A physicist out of academia James T. Dakin Citation: Physics Today 73, 5, 12 (2020); doi: 10.1063/PT.3.4466 View online: https://doi.org/10.1063/PT.3.4466 View Table of Contents: https://physicstoday.scitation.org/toc/pto/73/5 Published by the American Institute of Physics ARTICLES YOU MAY BE INTERESTED IN An atomic physics perspective on the kilogram’s new definition Physics Today 73, 32 (2020); https://doi.org/10.1063/PT.3.4472 Murray Gell-Mann Physics Today 73, 63 (2020); https://doi.org/10.1063/PT.3.4480 Friend raising for physics Physics Today 73, 8 (2020); https://doi.org/10.1063/PT.3.4462 Tying celestial mechanics to Earth’s ice ages Physics Today 73, 48 (2020); https://doi.org/10.1063/PT.3.4474 Neckties or not, and a quick fix Physics Today 73, 12 (2020); https://doi.org/10.1063/PT.3.4465 NSF and postwar US science Physics Today 73, 40 (2020); https://doi.org/10.1063/PT.3.4473 https://physicstoday.scitation.org/action/clickThrough?utm_medium=Article Download&utm_campaign=MCL_JAD_0620&loc=pt/pdf&pubId=40000052&placeholderId=101032&productId=101078&id=101460&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.madcitylabs.com%3Futm_source%3DAIP%20Physics%20Today https://physicstoday.scitation.org/author/Dakin%2C+James+T /loi/pto https://doi.org/10.1063/PT.3.4466 https://physicstoday.scitation.org/toc/pto/73/5 https://physicstoday.scitation.org/publisher/ https://physicstoday.scitation.org/doi/10.1063/PT.3.4472 https://doi.org/10.1063/PT.3.4472 https://physicstoday.scitation.org/doi/10.1063/PT.3.4480 https://doi.org/10.1063/PT.3.4480 https://physicstoday.scitation.org/doi/10.1063/PT.3.4462 https://doi.org/10.1063/PT.3.4462 https://physicstoday.scitation.org/doi/10.1063/PT.3.4474 https://doi.org/10.1063/PT.3.4474 https://physicstoday.scitation.org/doi/10.1063/PT.3.4465 https://doi.org/10.1063/PT.3.4465 https://physicstoday.scitation.org/doi/10.1063/PT.3.4473 https://doi.org/10.1063/PT.3.4473 12 PHYSICS TODAY | MAY 2020 READERS’ FORUM physics department, encapsulates the essence of the scientific method. I know such an ideal is infeasible on so many lev- els, but I believe that the world would be a much better place if everyone, not just every physicist, were to read the book as part of an undergraduate education. We might want to revisit Bevington as an exemplar not just of scientific- method education but of meta-instruc- tion in effective pedagogy in general. Phil Bevington seems to have struck the perfect balance of detail, rigor, practical- ity, and clarity. Tom Marshall (thomas_marshall@msn.com) New York City Neckties or not, and a quick fix I appreciate Brian Kraus’s review of my book Real Scientists Don’t Wear Ties: When Science Meets Culture (PHYSICS TODAY, March 2020, page 52). The photo spread of diverse physicists mostly not wearing ties underlines a point I made in the book: More than ever, we physi- cists look different from each other and dress the way we want to. However, I must correct an error Kraus made when he wrote that I retired from academia in 1990. As I stated in my book’s introduc- tion (page xi), I continued academic re- search and teaching until 2011, when I retired as Charles Howard Candler Emeritus Professor of Physics after 42 years at Emory University. Sidney Perkowitz (physp@emory.edu) Emory University Atlanta, Georgia A physicist out of academia T he commentary from Elizabeth Frank (PHYSICS TODAY, October 2019, page 10) about her career move from acade- mia to industry resonated with me in many ways . I largely agree with Frank’s statement that “you don’t have to justify your motivations to anyone but yourself,” but I also point out that career changes can deeply affect one’s family. As Frank mentions, physics professors often have limited awareness of opportu- nities outside academia; therefore, input from someone with a career like mine is important. My path is significantly differ- ent from Frank’s, and I speak from later in life. Furthermore, the variety of careers available to physicists is much greater outside academia than within. My experiences in academic physics began when I was a precocious elementary school student and grew through wonder- ful experiences at Harvard, Princeton, and Stanford Universities to a tenure-track as- sistant professor position at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. At Harvard, I had strong physics courses and valuable interaction with renowned physicists, in- cluding my adviser Norman Ramsey. At Princeton, I completed a PhD in experi- mental high-energy physics in less than four years. During my postdoc at Stanford in the early 1970s, I had the good fortune to work at SLAC on two experiments that led to Nobel Prizes—one for Burton Richter and one for Martin Perl. I then took a tenure- track assistant professorship at UMass, where I continued the work at SLAC while helping a local UMass team start an experiment at Brookhaven National Lab- oratory. All was going well. Nonetheless, at age 30 I had a midlife crisis and decided to move from academia to industry. To Frank’s point, the switch was deeply personal. At least three factors contributed to my malaise. First, I felt locked into my high-energy-physics spe- cialty and was concerned about its future. The significant projects were getting much bigger, taking much longer, based in more distant laboratories, and produc- ing increasingly arcane results. It seemed harder all the time for me to continue to derive personal satisfaction from the field. A second factor was that as an exper- imenter, I felt that I should understand the theories pertaining to my experi- ments, but they had reached a level of ab- straction beyond my comprehension. Third, I was concerned about the 1970s energy crisis associated with the Arab oil embargo, and I wanted to help address it. I landed a job at the GE Research and Development Center in Schenectady, New York. My wife was shocked but supportive: Our two children were young and portable, and her career actu- ally benefited from the move. My experiences in industry during 37 years with GE were also wonderful, but in different ways from my time in aca- demic high-energy physics. My work at GE was mostly in lighting technology. After a decade I moved to the headquar- ters campus of GE Lighting in Cleveland, Ohio. I have done research that has been published in refereed journals. It has al- ways been on problems with near-term, real-world significance. I have also worked on developing and producing new energy-saving lighting products. Every few years my role morphed as the business changed and new needs arose. Those changes were invigorating as I gained new insights. I often started new assignments with little of the requi- site technical know-how, but I was a quick learner with a background in basic physics and wonderful, talented, and technically diverse coworkers. The busi- ness funded the work, with no external grant proposals needed. I have had plenty of opportunity to teach, and I have enjoyed it. Toward the end of my career at GE, I was involved in the LED technology revolution. Since retiring, I have developed a successful consulting business that draws heavily on technical knowledge of light sources. I look back to my decision at age 30 as the most important one of my career. On the one hand, academia might have pro- vided better opportunity for long-term career focus and development of deep expertise. On the other hand, industry did provide stimulating work with near- term, beneficial, real-world significance. It also offered invigorating career and as- signment changes. I have never regretted my decision, but I will never know where the path not taken might have led. James T. Dakin (jim_dakin@yahoo.com) Shaker Heights, Ohio PT Letters and commentary are encouraged and should be sent by email to ptletters@aip.org (using your surname as the Subject line), or by standard mail to Letters, PHYSICS TODAY, American Center for Physics, One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740-3842. Please include your name, work affiliation, mailing address, email address, and daytime phone number on your letter and attachments. You can also contact us online at https://contact.physicstoday.org. We reserve the right to edit submissions. CONTACT PHYSICS TODAY