Why the Prosperous Physicist Exists
I believe that people with advanced education in the physical sciences have enormous potential. That potential should be fully realized, for your benefit and mine. I believe that the majority of physicists who will find their careers in industry have an even better chance to fulfill their potential than the few who become professors. The key is developing the right career skills.
Over the years, I have mentored many young physicists formally and informally on career issues. The more graduate students and early career physicists I worked with, the more convinced I became that there is an enormous unmet need for independent career guidance in our field. The Prosperous Physicist is my effort to help meet that need by writing down my answers to the questions I am frequently asked and sharing them broadly. I hope you find it useful.
What You Will Find Here
The Prosperous Physics focuses on non-academic career guidance for physicists. Most of the material is applicable to the other physical science disciplines as well. Graduate students and PhDs in their early and mid-career years are the target audience, although undergraduate physics majors may also find it useful. The content represents both my personal experience, research, and opinions, and the experience of other scientist I interview, both of which are offered in the spirit of helping others. There are no warranties express or implied and every reader should decide the truth of what is written here for themselves.
About the Founder
Matthew Thompson is Director of Systems Engineering at Zap Energy Inc. He is also a past Chair of the American Physical Society’s (APS) Committee on Careers and Professional Development and current Chair of the APS Forum on Industrial and Applied Physics. He has personally mentored dozens of STEM students on professional issues, made career-oriented speaking appearances at places like Stanford University, co-founded a major mentoring program called IMPact (impact.aps.org), and written about career issues for physical scientists for over seven years on this website.
Dr. Thompson completed a bachelor’s degree with honors in physics from Stanford University and both an MS and a PhD in experimental plasma physics from the University of California, Los Angeles. After graduating, he made a difficult transition off the academic career path, first to Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and then to private industry. These experiences inspired him to help others on similar journeys. Dr. Thompson transitioned to private industry 14 years ago with his first Senior Scientist position at Tri Alpha Energy, working on energy conversion and magnetic sensor technologies. He rose through the ranks to become Director of Physics at TAE Technologies, Inc., a diversified company working on nuclear fusion, related power handling and particle accelerator technologies, and new medical devices for cancer treatment. He led the 50 scientists and technical personnel of TAE’s Physics Division in their work on experimental operations, pulsed power systems, high-power neutral beams, plasma diagnostics, data acquisition, analysis, and data science. Dr. Thompson left TAE Technologies in 2019 for a two year stint in the defense industry as a senior Technology Development Manager in the advanced R&D division of BAE Systems, Inc. In 2021, he returned to private fusion development as the Director of Systems Engineering for Zap Energy Inc. near Seattle.
View Matthew Thompson’s profile
Copyright Information
Textual content of The Prosperous Physicist is protected by US and International Copyright Laws, and may not be copied, reprinted, published, translated, hosted, or otherwise distributed by any means without explicit permission. Images are in the public domain unless explicitly labeled otherwise.