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Throughout the ages of time, physicists have come and gone. Very few of them get recognized in their lifetime. Names such as Satyendra Nath Bose, Julius Robert Mayer, and Emilie du Châtelet. The chances of these names getting mentioned in conservation about science are slim beyond compare. But in retrospect, these physicists have, or had, made significant impacts in the realm of physics. The realm of physics is not an easy career to make a huge sum of money, and certainly not a field to be recognized for. In a society like ours, people judge a high life satisfaction level as having a successful career.
In preparation for this topic, I interviewed California State University, Fullerton physics professor Dr. Loverude. In the interview, we discussed Dr. Loverude’s past and current career choices in order to understand the benefits and challenges of being a physics professor and their effects on a person’s life satisfaction level.
To start, I will determine the origin of my interest in science, specifically in physics. When I was an eighth grader, my science teacher would bring science to life every day, whether it was combining francium with water, creating a balloon-powered car, or creating a marble roller coaster. It was then that I knew I wanted to pursue science for the rest of my life. But it was not until after four painful years of high school that I would realize physics was the science for me. Each year brought its own ups and downs. During the interview, Dr. Loverude enlightened my understanding of my years in high school with advice from his own past experiences.
In my freshmen year, I was ecstatic to begin my journey through the different sciences, starting with biology which taught me to unleash my inner child-like curiosity. But biology was little more than memorizing flashcards, so I decided to move on to the next science. Chemistry, my sophomore year science class, taught me to demonstrate the scientific method and group collaboration. This is also where I learned to write a thorough lab report. Chemistry had great amazing experiments, however, it also had a literal table of elements that I needed to memorize. So again, I continued my journey to the next science, physics. My junior year was an interesting experience, to say the least, I had decided to take Advanced Placement Physics. Throughout the year, despite having a strict teacher, physics taught me how really think critically about analyzing problems using creativity. My experience with physics was tainted by a bad teacher, so with a little persuasion from a friend, I decided to take the next Advanced Placement Physics with a different teacher. And in the end, I received a letter of acceptance from California State University of Fullerton to study physics.
In Dr. Loverude’s own words, “This is the job that I am meant to do”. And in the last three years at the California State University of Fullerton, my list of questions about the universe only grows as my academics progress. If asked what happened my senior year, I just state that I fell in love. In love with the endless puzzle that is physics.
In a similar manner, Dr. Loverude tells his own story. His journey begins at the start of college, he knew he wanted to pursue either math or physics at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota. After a couple of his lower-division courses in math and physics, he found that his physics courses were much more intriguing than math. And he received a bachelor's degree in physics, he went on to earn a master's degree and a doctorate in physics from the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington. His research was on the topic of how students learn certain subjects within physics, so with that, he became a professor at California State University of Fullerton. Where he has been teaching upper and lower-division physics courses for twenty years.
After asking about motivation towards what gets him out of bed every morning, Dr. Loverude told me that his family came first. But in his college experience, he was mostly self-motivated. As he explained, I also asked about what excited him, and his answer was elegant. He was passionate and excited to get to work with amazingly talented under and upper-graduate students. With that in mind, we drove deeper into the conservation of life satisfaction between his career and his personal life. In 'The Sources of Happiness' by His Holiness the Dalai Lama states that “happiness is determined more by one’s state of mind than by external events”. Dr. Loverude’s response in reference to His Holiness and his life satisfaction was: “This career lends itself to a kind of blur between the lines of at work or not at work”. At first, his answer did not seem to correlate with His Holiness, however, with some thought and reflection, it became clear. As the son of an elementary teacher and adjunct professor, I realized that even though my parents always came home with endless grading and lessons to prep, they always had time for what made them happy, me (and my siblings).
As we continue, we must understand the stereotypes about physicists that may affect their thought processes. For example, it may seem that physics is in some ways the opposite of art and that physicists must sacrifice their artistic intelligence to make way for cold rationality and logic. But after interviewing Dr. Loverude, we have found that this is simply not true. Each year, more research is done to create a better understanding of the universe, which could not have been apprehended without a huge amount of intuition and creativity.
Ultimately, physics remains a practical discipline. The process of developing magnificent theories is, more often than, not enough by itself. This means that every new theory must stand on its own compared to scientific observations of how the universe and everything in it works.
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