Career Profile: Physicist in a Government-Funded Laboratory

The scientist at a government funded laboratory career at a glance

A career at a government funded laboratory or a national lab (such as one of the Department of Energy National Laboratories) of a staff scientist or physicist often involves managing resources and people, in addition to doing research. Here's a quick overview of this career path:

• Education: PhD in physics or in a related field, or Master’s for some positions
• Additional Training: Prior research or postdoctoral appointment
• Salary: The PhD starting salary is $65,000 - $115,000 as a postdoctoral researcher. Starting salary as a staff scientist is $85,000 - $130,000 with Mid-career salaries at $105,000 - $200,000. These are highly dependent on the specific national lab and the location.
• Outlook: About 15% of PhDs find postdoctoral positions in national labs, and 25-60% of these postdocs will find more permanent roles at the lab, depending on the specific lab and hiring situation for that year.

What they do

Staff scientists (or physicists) working in national labs often find themselves managing resources and people, in addition to doing research. Activities of these physicists in national labs can include:

• Working to accomplish goals consistent with the laboratory's mission, often through developing a new simulation tool or component of a larger simulation effort, developing faster or more accurate numerical techniques, or developing improved diagnostic tools.
• Seeking clients and funding for research, either alone or with a team of other scientists. Clients are usually government agencies, (e.g. Dept. of Energy, Dept. of Defense).
• Researching issues of interest to clients. Research may be performed experimentally in a laboratory or through computer modeling and simulation. Research areas may be classified or sensitive.
• Traveling to test equipment at facilities which have better experimental capabilities than the home institution, or where the equipment can be developed more quickly, at less expense.
• Traveling to field sites to test equipment developed in a laboratory in an actual working environment.
• Interfacing with clients, laboratory staff, and management to report research progress and challenges.
• Developing designs with optimal program cost and schedule constraints.
• Performing personnel management (as principal investigator/lead scientist). Scientists often work with other professionals such as technicians and engineers to transition a laboratory prototype to field use.
• Representing the laboratory, client or project at conferences or other presentations (either public or client-sponsored meetings).

Education & background

A PhD in physics is required though there are occasional positions for those with a Master’s, depending on the field of study, both theoretical or experimental backgrounds are desirable. The subject of the thesis is less important than a demonstration of a thorough understanding of the subject. A willingness to work on completely different scientific topics is valued.

Additional training

For experimental scientists, some technical skills are a plus. Hands-on experience with tools and with assembling relevant experimental setups allows scientists to work more efficiently with engineers and technicians, or to perform the engineering or technical work themselves.

Strong computing skills are necessary to perform data analysis and data acquisition. For certain research areas, familiarity with computer programming is important, which can be gained through self-study, class work, or as part of the PhD training. Typically data is analyzed on local computers using a broad range of tools. Being able to run data analytics in at least one programming language is required, and it is desirable to be fluent in multiple programming languages. For theoretical/simulation based roles, experience of developing, improving, and/or running High-Performance Computing (HPC) scientific models is greatly desired.

The ability to interpret experimental and/or numerical results is essential at frequent internal meetings, at international conferences, and in peer-refereed journals. Publications are important for advancement and promotion especially from postdoc to staff level in the open science domain. Work that is classified or sensitive may be discussed in conferences with restricted attendance and in special journals with limited distribution.

Furthermore, having collaboration, communication, and leadership skills to work cooperatively with a team of project managers, experimentalists, theorists, applied mathematicians, and computer scientists is crucial.

Career path

Most people begin this career path as a staff scientist at a national laboratory or a federally funded research research and development center. Generally the first year of laboratory employment is considered a probationary period, but each lab’s policy can be different. There is no notion of tenure at the national laboratories, but most staff scientist positions are considered as the “career-indefinite” positions. Staff often start on post-doctoral contracts that then get converted to full time scientist positions.

To be successful, staff scientists would need to propose research projects and apply for either internal or external funding. Staff scientists attempt to bring in enough funding to cover the cost of their time, as well as the cost of several colleagues to assist them in completing the research, and any experimental equipment or technical support needed.

Scientific positions at the national laboratories offer an array of opportunities. The work can be very impactful as the National Laboratory system by design is to develop and maintain unique R&D capabilities and work on transformative ideas. Working in a classified environment can expose you to an array of cutting edge technologies. There are significant opportunities for travel and professional development, such as training in leadership skills.