Science Careers — More Flexible Than You Might Think

Some people think that a career in science will lock them away in a dull laboratory for years. But that is a mistaken impression. When I started in college, I was not sure what I wanted to do. Astronomy and space fascinated me, so I took a physics class to learn about astronomy. The science and math classes were very tough but it was interesting, so I got a degree in Physics. Fortunately, I could go many directions with that degree.

The first direction was the Air Force, where my degree qualified me for one of the most technical career fields – space operations as an Orbital Analyst. I used the astronomy and mechanics courses from school to help me understand the orbits of satellites. There, we tracked satellites with a world wide network of radar stations, and my physics classes helped me understand how the system worked. I was never in a sterile laboratory!

After tracking satellites for three years, I went off to a radar site in Alaska. There my physics classes helped me understand what the radar was telling us.

My career took another turn in my next Air Force assignment. With my Physics degree I qualified to go to the Air Force Institute of Technology in Ohio and earn a Master’s degree in Space Operations. I studied the electric and magnetic fields of the Earth, this was technically Geophysics. I did a thesis study of the Earth’s electric and magnetic fields, and how they created the Auroral displays. The aurora are the “Northern Lights” that are seen both over the north and south pole of the Earth. I did spend many boring hours at the Air Force Geophysics Laboratory in Massachusetts, but often it was fascinating. I used data taken by a sensor on a series of satellites, when they passed over the northern and southern polar areas.

After completing my Masters degree in Space Operations I moved to Houston, Texas to work on Space Shuttle payloads. Later, I even got the chance to go and teach beginning Physics to college students at the local junior college. It was great.

I have never had the title of “Physicist” and have always worked around the edges of science, but my degrees have often come in handy, even though I did not see the need for the classes at the time.


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