Re: HP Job Market

["Dale E. Boyce" <dale@radpro.uchicago.edu>]

As a former Nuclear Chemist who bailed out of a career path into
Health Physics before that market went flat I just wanted toexpand
on Mike's list of related job types.  Nuclear chemistry and
radiochemistry are a catch all terms for several different professions.

1. Hard core Nuclear, Nuclear chemistry where the interest is in
the nuclear physics (I used to be hard core)

2. Radioanalytic chemistry where chemistry and nuclear techniques are
combined to do qualitative/quantitative chemical analysis

3. Power industrial radioanalytic chemistry a sub-specialty of 2

4. Hot atom chemistry where the interest is in chemical reactions
induced by radiation/radioactivty

5. Environmental radiochemistry, soil migration, fallout, rad waste disposal

6. Programmatic nuclear chemistry (making bomb parts)

7. Fuel cycle chemistry which splits into sub specialties of fuel
fabrication, rad waste processing, fuel reprocessing etc

I remember as a graduate student seeing job projections of growth
of several fold.  The Nuclear Chemistry section of the American
Chemical society had about 1000 members if I remember correctly.
There were only a handful of schools with nuclear chemistry programs,
and maybe a dozen graduates a year.

What evolved was that the jobs didn't materialize.  Moreover
nuclear chemistry faculty began seeing their research grants
disappear, and at least one school stopped even having it in their
curriculum.  Where?  The University of Chicago home of the first
reactor, the Metallurgical Laboratory (Manhattan project), and
where reportedly the term "Health Physicist" was coined.

Getting back to the original topic of health physic job market.
It may improve, I certainly hope that it does.  The question
still begs as to whether we should encourage new students at
a time when so many graduates are having trouble finding work
in field.

Moreover, should we encourage the schools that have health physics
curricula to emphasize the need for a broad based education
including management course work.  Others have posted and I agree
that running university radiation safety programs is only
occassionally health physics.  More often it is management and people
skills.  Communications is important.  Budgets and accounting
are important.

In times where jobs are in tight demand, costs of education rising
and driving students away from college, and colleges and universities
are competing for students, the schools that will win are those that
get people jobs.  For those of you that made it this far the 
Philadelphia Enquirer is running a series this week on this subject.
It is on the net, but I haven't found the URL yet.  I will
post it when I find it.

Dale Boyce
dale@radpro.uchicago.edu