Materials and characterization

Physicists have an important role to play in the development of new materials and structures, as well as the tools used to characterize them. You'll typically be working in a multidisciplinary team, which can be extremely stimulating if you like to explore new ideas and invent new ways to solve problems. To operate effectively you'll need to be able to communicate your work clearly, and also be open to ideas from colleagues who may have very different knowledge and experience.

Careers in materials development beckon in both industry and academia. If you enjoy experimentation, you could harness your talents to develop new and improved analysis tools that can lead to whole new areas of study. In 1986 Gerd Binnig and Heinrich Rohrer won the Nobel Prize for Physics for their design of the scanning tunnelling microscope, which for the first time allowed materials to be imaged and manipulated on the nanoscale.

Case study: Sensing a challenge
The opportunity to carry out academic research backed up with the resources of industry attracted James Endicott to electronics company e2v.