Advice for Physicists

Advice for physics majors wanting to work in climate

If you are majoring in physics and thinking about applying your talents to the problem of climate change, the list of ideas below is designed for you. Please note that the list I give here is necessarily incomplete: as a physicist, you have the potential to work on the climate problem from nearly any angle. What I mention below are just a few of the directions you might take, informed by my journey from a PhD in string theory to my current understanding of the climate problem. If you are interested in joining our group at UC Berkeley, two such options are given at the end.

There are a number of climate-relevant technologies that would benefit from your efforts to make them better and cheaper. You could:

Not all of the options available to you are equally worthy of your time and effort, and some are best avoided. I recommend that you:

Finally, there are two options that physics majors can pursue in our group at UC Berkeley: