How Physics Prepares You for Anything

What did your career trajectory look like?

I am a physicist by training, and I’m a physicist by heart.

I have a master’s degree in applied physics and a PhD in solid-state physics. I took a postdoc in the Laboratory for Surface Modifications at Rutgers University and then became a research professor there. We worked closely with AT&T Bell Laboratories and IBM’s T.J. Watson Research Center. IBM offered me a job, and that was my bridge from academia to industry.

At IBM I worked on solid-state problems in microelectronics and transistors. In field-effect transistors, a very thin insulator layer, known as the gate dielectric, separates the semiconductor from the gate. As devices become smaller, the thickness of the gate dielectrics becomes thinner—we’re talking atomic dimensions. Eventually, quantum mechanical tunneling kicks in, and power consumption increases exponentially. We developed high-K dielectric materials to address this problem.

The scale of devices today wouldn’t be possible without the breakthroughs we made back in the early 2000s. It gives me great professional satisfaction that almost every person on this planet carries a phone that has at its heart an innovation my team and I developed.

In 2005 I moved to my current company, Qualcomm. I’ve worked on many projects there: electromechanical devices, optical devices, and human interface devices. Lately, I’ve been working on artificial intelligence and machine learning. Power efficiency, scalability, and sustainability are big topics of our research.

My heart is in physics, my soul is in technology and innovation, and my passion is making positive impacts by bringing technology to the world. It all started in high school, when I was a kid falling in love with physics.

Was there a particular topic that got you hooked on physics in high school?

We had a small telescope at school that I used to borrow. I don’t think it was technically allowed, but I had a great teacher and she trusted me. I remember being on the roof, watching the planets. The telescope was good enough to see some of Jupiter’s rings and satellites. Physics was a lens that allowed me to look at what was happening around me at a deeper level and understand how the world was interconnected.

You’ve said, “A physics degree prepares you for anything.” What do you mean by that?

Physics is the foundation of modern technologies. Degrees in materials, electrical engineering, and computer science tend to be more applied, but a physics degree provides deep depths of knowledge. Physics also gives you the ability to connect the dots in the world, to see how things are linked by physical laws. That helps you learn quickly. And finally, the ability to think critically is really important.

Physicists are trained to solve complex problems, often of an interdisciplinary nature. This skill is becoming increasingly important in today’s fast-changing world, especially with the emergence of machine intelligence. I believe that physics and physicists will play important roles in advancing AI, and AI tools will greatly enhance the scientific discovery process.

How can physics students and midcareer physicists prepare for jobs outside of academia?

At the macro level, people see barriers between fields. They might see a job in computer science and think it’s not for them, a physicist. Yes, the fields are separate, but they’re not infinitely separate. They are connected, and people can move between them.

If you’d like to move into data science or machine learning, you already have 90 percent of the skills. You just need to diversify a little and learn some skills specific to that field. First, review job ads and identify what you need to learn. Then bridge that gap through online classes, internships, tutorials, or other resources. Tackle that 10 percent to grow your confidence, diversify your resume, and develop the required skills.

If you’re in academia or a government laboratory, collaborate with industry as early and frequently as possible. Find its pulse and identify the problems that need solving. Collaborating will also help you establish contacts that can help with a career change.

Humans often don’t make big changes due to insecurities or fear of the unknown. I’m here to say that there are barriers, but it’s very possible to cross them, especially if you believe in yourself and your skills.