Plan B

What would I have done if I'd not been a high energy phycsist?

There was a year where I really wasn't sure what I was giong to do and even started to take steps out of the field.

My father is a phycisist, so I've been exposed to science all my life -- and he also does big science, working in large collaborations, so I was even exposed to that life style from a young age. In High School, due to my inability to spell, I never really made it into the advanced classes until my senior year. At University of Texas, Austin (voted best party school by Playboy the year before I got there) I was a physics major, and then I went to grad school.

I had my first real doubts at the end of graduate school. Writing a 150 page thesis can do that to you. I was also in the middle of a big nad important analysis and things moved very quickly -- sometimes more quickly than I could keep up. But getting the Ph.D. and then getting a job with real $$ removed any doubts.

About 2 years into my Brown post-doc I started to wonder if perhaps I'd be better suited working in the computer industry (this was during the dot-com boom). For one thing, friends my age in that area were making about x3 more than I was! The other thing was I found I really really liked the interface between hardware and software -- low level programming.

The job I had allowed me to concentrate on this programming -- which I did for about a year. I did little or no physics in that time. By the end of the year I knew I wanted to remain in physics. I still love the interface between software and hardware and try to do it when I can, but I need the purpose and fun of physics as well to keep me happy.

I've been pretty darn lucky. My job is my hobby. Sure, I work long hours, travel a lot, but I don't think I'd trade it for anything.