Career opportunities that awaits physicists: "Health physics" is the profession devoted to protecting people and their environment

from potential radiation hazards, while making it possible to enjoy the benefits of the peaceful use of the atom. Radiation control incorporates an understanding of many disciplines. It has common scientific interests with many areas of specialization: physics, biology, biophysics, engineering (nuclear, civil, mechanical, or electrical), chemistry, genetics, ecology, environmental sciences, metallurgy, medicine, physiology, and toxicology. The wide spectrum of knowledge required of the health physicist makes this profession both challenging and rewarding. Medical health physicist The responsibilities of a medical health physicist are broad and ever challenging. These individuals work wherever radiation sources are used to diagnose and treat human diseases. Hospitals, clinics, and major medical centers use radiation sources, including x-ray machines, particle accelerators, and many types of radioactive materials. Medical health physicists are needed to ensure proper and safe working conditions for both patients and medical staff. Medical health physicists find a variety of professional challenges as more applications in medicine develop each year. Radiology, nuclear medicine, and radiation therapy departments are found in almost every modern hospital today. Each of these departments utilizes radiation sources, and medical health physicists are employed to assure their safe use. A medical health physicist often serves as the designated radiation safety officer (RSO) for a medical facility. The RSO is responsible for performing radiation safety surveys of all radiation sources used within the facility; monitoring radiation exposure of workers, patients, and visitors to the facility; establishing and monitoring radiation safety procedures; and assuring the medical facility is in compliance with state and federal radiation safety regulations. Occasionally, the medical health physicist evaluates and makes recommendations regarding the potential hazards of nonionizing radiation such as microwaves and laser beams. The medical health physicist contributes professionally by teaching courses in radiation physics and biology and by reviewing research projects involving radiation work of various scientific disciplines. Through personal supervision of radiation installations in hospitals and clinics, the health physicist seeks to obtain the maximum benefits with minimum risks of radiation exposure. Educational requirements for medical physicists range from an associate's degree to a PhD in health physics or a closely

related field. Individuals working in a medical radiation safety office may need an associate's or baccalaureate degree. The RSO for such a facility most likely has a master's degree or PhD. Special course work also may be required, depending on the individual's job responsibilities. Nuclear weapons health physicists are responsible for radiation safety at defense sites that store and assemble nuclear weapons. Their responsibilities include measuring and characterizing radiation dose rates from nuclear weapons, identifying appropriate personal protective equipment (e.g., lead aprons, lead-lined gloves, etc.) for weapons technicians, ensuring that sufficient shielding is provided in the workplace for technicians when handling radioactive material, briefing technicians on the radiation safety aspects of the nuclear weapons they work on, and preparing and approving safety and work procedures that provide adequate radiation protection during facility operations.

Health Physicists in Regulatory Enforcement and Occupational Safety

Whether it be nuclear power, medical uses, industry, environmental restoration, waste management, or educational uses of radioactive materials, there are rules and regulations that guide and provide a margin of safety. There are many occupational opportunities for health physicists in regulatory and occupational safety sectors. Health physicists working in these areas establish the future rules and regulations regarding the manufacture, use, and disposal of radioactive material. They also ensure current safety requirements are properly implemented. Occupational safety aspects include work with power companies, manufacturers, colleges, universities, and many other private-sector employers. Depending on the responsibilities, educational requirements range from an associate's degree to a PhD in health physics or a closely related field. Future employment opportunities in regulatory and occupational safety are numerous nationwide.

Health Physicists in Education

If you are looking for a career in education, health physics offers a variety of opportunities. Upon completing a master's degree or PhD in health physics (or related fields, such as physics, industrial hygiene, environmental science, etc.), teaching opportunities exist within many programs in the United States. These programs offer health physics degrees at the associate's, baccalaureate, master's, and PhD levels. Educators develop course work appropriate for the specific goals of their students. Health physicists in education may be found in both college and university classrooms

and laboratories, as well as at off-campus training sites where they supervise student instruction. Educators typically conduct their own health physics research projects, often with the assistance of their students. Research findings are typically published in professional journals.

Environmental Health Physicists

The environmental health physicist is the professional most closely associated with protecting the public and environment from unnecessary exposure to man-made and technologically enhanced natural radioactivity. One important aspect is the environmental surveillance for radioactivity, which involves many types of instrumentation and field-sampling technologies. Many environmental health physicists are employed in lowlevel, radioanalytical laboratories. Instrument design, radiochemical technique development, and quality assurance are skills needed as increasingly lower levels of detection are demanded. Another responsibility is assessing the environmental impact of released radionuclides using environmental transport models. These calculations involve the use of atmospheric dispersion models, biological uptake and transfer coefficients, and dose-conversion factors. Decontamination and decommissioning (D&D) is an area demanding environmental health physicists. Those working in this area must have expertise in radiation surveys, pathway analyses, and laboratory analyses. They must also make critical decisions regarding decontamination levels necessary for the unrestricted release of radionuclides in former military and research facilities. Natural radioactivity can sometimes become hazardous to workers and the public. Concentration of radium scales in the petrochemical and phosphate (fertilizer) industries are examples. Some groundwater sources contain high levels of radon and radium, which require protection of the public from higher radiation exposures. And radon, of course, is the most well-publicized of the natural radioactive hazards. Radon in homes has created work in the areas of instrumentation, testing protocols, analysis, radioepidemiology, mitigation, preconstruction evaluations, and regulation/guideline development.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/17472518/list-of-some-filipinoforeign-physicist

Filipino Physicists:Gregorio Zara - he discovered thephysical Law of Electrical KineticR e s i s t a n c e . I t s t a t e s that "allc o n t a c t s , turning or sliding,between metals, or b e t w e e n carbon and metals, or b e t w e e n m e t a l s a n d m e r c u r y , o r b e t w e e n conductors, produce a resistance tot h e passage of electric currentw h i c h m a y b e k i n e t i c a n d / o r p e r m a n e n t e l e c t r i c a l r e s i s t a n c e . This is observed at currents of veryl o w a m p e r a g e . K i n e t i c e l e c t r i c a l resistance is the resistance to thep a s s a g e o f e l e c t r i c c u r r e n t w h e n contacts are in motion. Permanente l e c t r i c a l r e s i s t a n c e m a n i f e s t s itself when contacts are at rest. J u l i a n B a n z o n researchedmethods of producing alternativefuels. Alcaraz, Arturo: w a s a l e a d i n g member of a team that used steamp r o d u c e d f r o m t h e h e a t o f a volcano to produce electric powerin 1967. Banatao, Diosdado: introducedor developed accelerator chips thatimproved computer performance.He also helped make the internetp o s s i b l e by contributing to t h e d e v e l o p m e n t o f t h e E t h e r n e t controller chip, created the localb u s c o n c e p t f o r p e r s o n a l computers. Campos, Paulo: w r o t e m a n y p a p e r s i n t h e f i e l d o f n u c l e a r medicine and was instrumental inbuilding the first radioisotope lab inthe Philippines. Comiso, Josefino: t h e f i r s t person to discover a recurring areao f o p e n w a t e r i n s e a i c e i n t h e C o s m o n a u t S e a . C o m i s o w a s studying global w a r m i n g a t t h e NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. Maramba, Felix: d e v e l o p e d a profitable biogas system, building apower generator fuelled by coconutoil. Foreign Physicists:AlessandroVolta w a s a n I t a l i a n physicist invented the first chemicalbattery in 1800. A l e x a n d e r G r a h a m B e l l -C o n t r i b u t i n g t o t h e i n v e n t i o n a n d spread of the telephone-Founding the Bell Telephone Company Robert Boyle - F o r m u l a t i n g B o y l e ' s law, which states that the volume of agas is directly related to the pressureto which it is subjected- H e l p i n g t o f o u n d m o d e r n c h e m i s t r y by introducing experimental methodsa n d t h e i d e a t h a t e l e m e n t s a r e t h e basic building blocks of matter Marie Curie Pioneering the study of r a d i o a c t i v i t y and discovering t h e r a d i o a c t i v e e l e m e n t s r a d i u m a n d polonium- W i n n i n g t h e

1 9 0 3 N o b e l P r i z e i n physics with her husband, Pierre Curie,and Antoine Henri Becquerel- W i n n i n g t h e 1 9 1 1 N o b e l P r i z e i n c h e m i s t r y , a n d b e c o m i n g t h e f i r s t scientist to receive the award in two different scientific categories Thomas Edison -Inventing numerousu s e f u l d e v i c e s , i n c l u d i n g a p r a c t i c a l electric light bulb and the phonograph- D i s c o v e r e d that incandescentm a t e r i a l s e m i t e l e c t r o n s . T h i s phenomenon is known as the Edison effect or thermionic emission Albert Einstein -Proposing the theoryo f r e l a t i v i t y , a p h y s i c a l t h e o r y o f gravity, space, and time- E x p l a i n i n g t h e p h o t o e l e c t r i c e f f e c t and Brownian motion Enrico Fermi - I n i t i a t i n g t h e f i r s t controlled nuclear chain reaction-The element fermium, discovered in1 9 5 2 , w a s n a m e d i n h o n o r o f E n r i c o Fermi. Benjamin Franklin -Experimentingwith electricity and developinginventions- F r a n k l i n invented b i f o c a l s a n d t h e lightning rod, and charted the course of the Gulf Stream. Galileo -Proposing that falling bodiesw o u l d all fall at the same r a t e , regardless of mass, if there were no airresistance-Galileo helped develop the scientificmethod by using experimentation tot e s t p h y s i c a l t h e o r i e s . G a l i l e o constructed the first thermometer. Stephen William Hawking -Makingadvances in the field of cosmologyDiscovering several new properties of b l a c k h o l e s E x p l a i n i n g t h e o r e t i c a l physics to the public through books,films, and lectures- H a w k i n g ' s p r e s e n t o b j e c t i v e i s a unified field theory that, if successful,will combine quantum mechanics withrelativity. Isaac Newton -Inventing, in part, thebranch of mathematics now known ascalculus-Formulating the three laws of motionwhich describe classical mechanics- P r o p o s i n g t h e t h e o r y o f u n i v e r s a l g r a v i t a t i o n , w h i c h e x p l a i n s t h a t a l l bodies are affected by the force calledgravity Blaise Pascal -Deriving Pascal's law,w h i c h s t a t e s t h a t p r e s s u r e e x e r t e d upon a liquid is transmitted equally inall directions- P r o v i n g experimentally that theheight of the mercury column in ab a r o m e t e r d e p e n d s o n t h e surrounding air pressure-Formulating the mathematical theoryo f p r o b a b i l i t y w i t h F r e n c h mathematician Pierre de Fermat-Inventing the first mechanical addingmachine Johannes Diderik Van der Waals -Van der Waals was interested primarilyi n t h e r m o d y n a m i c s ; h e d e v e l o p e d a theory of corresponding states on thec o n t i n u i t y o f t h e l i q u i d a n d g a s e o u s states of matter expressed in the vand e r W a a l s e q u a t i o n . F o r

t h e s e discoveries he was awarded the 1910Nobel Prize in physics. He also studiedthe attractive forces holding the atomso f m o l e c u l e s t o g e t h e r . T h e s e a r e c a l l e d v a n d e r W a a l s f o r c e s , i n h i s honor. Amadeo Avogadro - fundamentallaw of chemistry stating that underidentical conditions o f t e m p e r a t u r e and pressure, equal volumes of gasescontain an equal number of molecules. Jacques Charles - h e d i s c o v e r e d t h e r e l a t i o n s h i p b e t w e e n t h e v o l u m e o f gas and temperature, known variouslyas Gay-Lussac's law or Charles's law. W i l l i a m T h o m s o n , 1 s t B a r o n Kelvin -, the absolute or Kelvin scalei s m o s t w i d e l y u s e d w h e r e i n i n t h i s s c a l e , absolute zero is at -273.15C,w h i c h i s z e r o K , a n d t h e d e g r e e i n t e r v a l s a r e i d e n t i c a l t o t h o s e measured on the Celsius scale. Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac -Frenchchemist and physicist, known for his studies on the physical properties of gases John Dalton - t h e l a w o f p a r t i a l p r e s s u r e w h e r e i n t h e t o t a l p r e s s u r e exerted by a mixture of gases is equalto the sum of the separate pressuresthat each of the gases would exert if italone occupied the whole volume Maxwell, James Clerk -Discoveringthat light is an electromagnetic wave- P r o v i d i n g a m a t h e m a t i c a l b a s i s f o r t h e k i n e t i c t h e o r y o f g a s e s , t h i s explains that gases behave as they dob e c a u s e t h e y a r e c o m p o s e d o f particles in constant motion-Explaining that the human eye seescolor by detecting combinations of theprimary colors red, blue, and green Andr Marie Ampre - H e w a s t h e f i r s t t o s h o w t h a t t w o p a r a l l e l conductors carrying currents travelingi n t h e s a m e d i r e c t i o n a t t r a c t e a c h o t h e r a n d , i f t r a v e l i n g i n o p p o s i t e directions, repel each other. Daniel Bernoulli - K n o w n a s t h e discoverer of the Bernoulli principle,which applies the law of conservationof energy to fluids. Louis de Broglie -French physicistand Nobel laureate, who made majorcontributions to the theory of quantumm e c h a n i c s w i t h h i s s t u d i e s o f electromagnetic radiation. .