A PHD or research in Physics in general is a chance to deepen an understanding of Physics.
So I think Physics in general as anyone who would have done an Undergraduate knows it, it
kind of gives us a chance to push our boundaries in understanding beyond our everyday experience
and you would have had a taste of that from an Undergraduate degree but doing further research
gives you a chance to go further in the subject. I would say it gives you a chance to study something
that you're interested in and it's quite a luxury really to have a few years to delve deep
into a topic and you'd really become the expert yourself at that topic. You very rapidly find that
you know you're the person that people will come to ask questions of and and it's a real privilege
I think to be able to do that so I think if anybody wanted to do research either in academia
or in an industry or even just had an interest in the subject, doing Postgraduate research either
for a PHD or an MSc, which is just a bit shorter lengthwise, is a great way to further that.
Anybody who is interested in Physics and there are lots of different areas within Physics in
Maynooth, we do a lot of Astrophysics based science, we also have groups doing Atmospheric
Physics, Atomic Physics, so if you're interested in Physics, I think you should take it further.
It would suit a type of person who enjoys problem- solving, who wants to get experience,
say with lots of skills networking, we tend to work in groups these days so if you like
explaining your work to others or trying to find out information from other people doing a PHD or
an MSc, would be really useful. If you want to go to any type of research in industry or academia,
I think PHD or an MSc is a great way to get started because you're effectively apprenticing
yourself to a professional researcher, so you learn all the skills from them while doing it
on a topic that you particularly like but those skills that you learn will transfer to lots of
of different areas and this is just a great way to gain those skills. So I think if you
if you enjoy problem-solving, if you're self-motivated, if you can handle long-term goals
and you know tackling disappointment, if something doesn't work out and just getting
on trying something else, if that doesn't bother you, I think a PHD or an MSc would be for you.
There are many different career paths. So one thing I would stress is that you're not
restricted to either an academic career or staying within the narrow topic that you would have
taken for your MSc or your PHD. So indeed if you do want an academic career, do that research
in University or a Lecturer maybe University or Technical University then you have to have a PHD
but if you want to do research in other areas now particularly at the minute Intel are taking on a
lot of our graduate students. So industries like the Software industry, the Electronics industry,
the Scientific Civil Service. So we've had people going to Met Éireann, broadcasting standards, so
any technical area really is suitable for someone who has done a PHD because Physics is a numeric
discipline, you will hone your Mathematical skills, you'd be working with Data, you will be
working with Computers, you will be writing up a large report. So you learn how to write, you
learn how to present your results, you learn how to network in large international teams typically
these days, so really that can transfer into lots of industries. So we have had people
mainly stay in Research, either in industry or academia but we do have people who've gone
into maybe the Financial industry because of their their skills and their numeracy
after they finished a PHD in Physics. So typically that's what our graduates would have gone on to.