'What do you want to do with physics?' | How To Find Research Specialties

If you're just starting out in physics, it can be pretty overwhelming figuring out what you might want to research and what your interests could be. Today I show you how to find out what physicists are researching by doing an example of looking at research groups at Old Dominion University.

[pipertripp]

Does anyone ever say "1D kinematics" in response to this question ?

[ariusmaximilian]

ur the first physicist on youtube who brings up this I was waiting for this material for a long time. Thx Andrew!

[pipertripp]

Holy crap, that Web page is a 1994 vintage.

[pugazharasuad]

This should be played as a part of an Intellectual Humility course that should be mandated for physics majors

[peeweeman]

Just wanted to say I am not a physics undergraduate major, but I am a chemistry major with a great interest in physics and have joined a research lab geared towards combining the two. You’ve helped me strive to find what I enjoy in this kind of work and I appreciate you keeping this channel so down to earth and informative.

[SomeGod]

Andrew, brodog, this was actually really helpful. I find so many aspects of physics intriguing that I never know where to start. Maybe now I can finally have a good start as to what I want to do

[sotpau]

This channel is a goldmine when it comes to physics and although I’ll probably be going with mathematics, you’ve made the decision a lot harder and I’m thankful for that.

[leyawonder]

This is beyond helpful. As a student planning on studying physics, I've always wondered what researchers do, thank you!

thanks for sharing what bookmarks u have on you chrome, I find it amusing as well as insightful to see what people have on their laptops or what they are browsing, it sort of fill patches of holes on my finding what more and where to learn, just as I would enjoy going to random people's houses and look at what they have in their homes, although i never got the chance

[theflaggeddragon]

This is such great advice Andrew. I'm going into second year as a math major, and saying things like "I want to work on the Langlands program" or "I want to prove the Riemann hypothesis" (which are the mathematical equivalents of "I want to study String Theory/Quantum Gravity") is sort of disrespectful to the people who know and understand and developed these fields. I'm reasonably far in my studies as I'm starting graduate courses next year, but I know that I'm not even close to scratching the surface of the Langlands program because of the IMMENSE prerequisites which I'm years away from.

I loved how you said that you can freely admit that you were inspired by great science communicators and even though you don't understand it, you want to devote yourself to that understanding; I'll take this to heart! <3

[oscarobioha]

Thank u so much Andrew.
Ur actually converting my vector direction to a unit vector

[wankmaster]

This video is a reality of every physics bachelor student

[TobioEdolvesMark]

Some dude at my Biology class asked the professor if he was going to talk about 'strings' during a chapter presentation on How Plants Get Their Energy Through Photosynthesis.

[davidcherelin]

OMG, absolutely your best video ever (for us). Our son is a senior in HS and one the last few letters come in, we will need to be able to do final evaluations on the schools. This will definitely help him zero in. I think he knows the full college experience is lie important, but the dept research opportunities could break a tie.

[mosab_faozi]

Dude, where were you 3 years ago! Great video. I am a senior physics major, and I can relate to what you said.

[rohithnarra]

Actually, I did exactly what you prescribed in this video the summer after my freshman year of high school when I worked in a biology laboratory at my local university. I am glad to know it works the exact same way during undergrad.

[maddymc]

exact same for chemistry... you have no idea what chemists really do until you are in your last 2-3 semesters. laughed out loud when you said "i want to do ___" *insert buzzword I heard* because that was me. i thought i wanted to do nuclear engineering 🤦🏼‍♀️

[dannychenski]

You literally the realest physics youtuber I know

[subhashreej]

Thank You so much brother. I was really in search of such a video. It really gave me clarity in my thoughts.🙏🏻🙏🏻

[YC-iwre]

Ye love ur vids as always can’t wait to learn more about physics from ur vids 👍🏾