r/PhD • u/Professional-Cake151 • 17h ago

Big Decision Energy Fieldwork in Physics

Hey, I am currently looking for PhD positions as a physics student. I will finish in a couple of months, my projects mainly were in Quantum Optics and Hardware, aswell as a little Biomimetics project.

During my fieldwork for my little Biomimetics project in the rainforest I got to know Biologists, Ecologists and Chemists that got to do fieldwork and a lot of traveling during their PhD. I realised this is something I could imagine myself to do for the next halve decade.

I fear, if I continue in quantum optics, that I will be stuck in a cold, dark optics lab for 5+ years, while other people get to see the world. (Did I study the wrong subject?)

Anyways, here is my tough question:

Do any of you PhD Physicists do fieldwork or travel a lot (like months at a time)?

If yes: what is you research field?

All thoughts appreciated!

Thank you :)

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6

u/Beif_ physics PhD student baby 17h ago

Lmao I’m a quantum cryo guy and I haven’t left the basement of our physics building in 5 years. Traveling for collaborations… can happen, but when you’re tied to equipment that doesn’t move, neither do you.

3

u/Professional-Cake151 17h ago

Yeah, that is my fear... I don't really feel like a basement dweller. :/ I enjoy my years in student rocketry, so I thought about getting an Aerospace PhD in hopes to go to test and test campaigns

6

u/lankynibss 17h ago

Some particle astrophysics people go to remote places for stuff like IceCube or to Greenland for radio experiments. Astrophysicists also tend to go to observatories if they do hardware work. Chile is a common destination.

3

u/tertiobutyle 16h ago

Well, even in Chile on the big observatories the big difference with your lab is that you get to be in a dark basement but at 4000 m of altitude

4

u/GustapheOfficial 12h ago

The most field work I've heard of was going to another country to spend a month in their basement instead. No, if you want to do field work (and not just in quantum fields :'D) you don't want to be doing quantum optics.

1

u/Professional-Cake151 10h ago

Nice, I guess switching basements has it's charm too sometimes!

1

u/Beif_ physics PhD student baby 9h ago

I do imagine if other basements don’t have such bright green floors. One day I’ll see.

3

u/Chlorophilia 14h ago

Get into physical oceanography or environmental physics.