An Industrial Physicist’s Journey from Particle Accelerators to Cirrus Clouds

Bonnie Valant-Weiss has been interested in the sciences for as long as she can remember, but, as she says, “physics is the one that stuck.” A particle physics internship the summer after high school got her started down the research road, and after graduating with a physics bachelor’s degree from Santa Clara University, she set off for graduate school at Cornell University.

At Cornell, Valant-Weiss pursued a PhD in experimental particle physics. She had initially imagined a future in academia, but that changed during graduate school. When she considered the complicated reality of navigating postdoc positions and securing an academic job in the same location as her working spouse, she realized that wasn’t the life she wanted. “So, I decided to go into industry,” she says.

While living in Houston after graduation, Valant-Weiss found a job in the oil industry. As crews drill through rock looking for oil and gas, they use instruments—some based on nuclear sources—to study the subsurface and identify potential reserves. Valant-Weiss helped improve those nuclear readings using simulations and correction algorithms. Although the oil industry might sound far removed from particle physics, the position had a lot of overlap, she says. Simply put, both were based on particle detection.

When a family move took her to Atlanta several years later, Valant-Weiss wasn’t sure of her next step, only that she’d have to look outside of the oil industry. She took stock of her skills and landed a job modeling atmospheric physics for a small company. Among other efforts, she studied the impact of atmospheric effects on GPS users, teaching herself what she needed to know about the atmosphere along the way.

After her next move, this time to Los Angeles, Valant-Weiss spent several years as an engineering specialist at a large aerospace company. The job involved some atmospheric physics, but many new things too, such as learning the nuts and bolts of satellite design and construction.

Today, Valant-Weiss spends most of her workdays thinking about clouds. She is a staff optical analysis engineer at Northrop Grumman, a multinational aerospace and defense company. There, she dives deep into numerical weather modeling, working on projects like modeling aircraft contrails that turn into cirrus clouds and impact the climate. She also does some satellite design and simulation support.

As she reflects on her career path, Valant-Weiss notes two keys to her diverse career transitions. First, knowing how to apply the skills she developed as a physicist to new fields. And second, the ability to teach herself new things. That’s something she really enjoys.

“The biggest misconception [students have] about coming into industry from the outside is feeling like you need to already have the skills and knowledge that they’re looking for when you apply,” she says. “That’s absolutely not true.”

Industry hiring managers don’t expect you to know all the specifics of the field; they want someone who understands the basics and can build on them, according to Valant-Weiss. She encourages students to search broadly for positions. Browse all of the science and engineering listings, and check out the skillsets and backgrounds companies are looking for. You might find a great fit somewhere you didn’t expect. //