Part 3

The above outline is a general description of the typical situation; work conditions may vary greatly depending on the individual and his organization.

Engineering

Traditionally engineering has been somewhat different. Many engineers held responsible jobs after receiving only a bachelor’s degree. Some did earn a master’s degree, but few studied for a doctorate.

In the last ten years, however, this trend has changed with many more engineers receiving master’s and doctor’s degrees. Advanced study is especially important for a career in the nuclear field because the undergraduate years are filled mainly with basic engineering, and most nuclear courses must be taken at the graduate level. Moreover, the engineering sciences, as all other fields, are becoming increasingly complex. Thus graduate study through at least a master’s degree is advisable for the engineer.

The prospective engineering student should realize that a bachelor’s degree will take from four to five years to complete, a master’s degree will require an additional one to two years, and a doctor’s degree will involve still another two to four years.

Medicine

A career in medicine is still a different story.

After three to four years in college premedical study, four years in medical school, at least one year of internship, and possibly a year’s medical residency, a doctor can become a general practitioner. If he wishes to specialize, his internship may last for two years, and his residency period from three to four years. It is this latter, longer path that leads to a career in nuclear medicine and radiology, as well as to more familiar specialization, such as surgery, pathology, obstetrics, or pediatrics.

Veterinary Science

Also important in the field of nuclear medicine is the veterinary scientist.

A veterinarian spends from two to four years in undergraduate study and four years in veterinary school before receiving a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree that permits him to practice animal medicine. Then, if he wishes to enter nuclear veterinary medicine, veterinary pathology, or some other specialty, he undergoes additional training that is comparable to that of the physician who specializes.

Scientific Writing

Valuable in all areas of science and engineering is the technical writer.

Several years ago the typical technical writer or editor had a background of journalism or English grammar and some undergraduate study of one or more of the sciences. Editorial ability still depends largely on ability to handle the English language, but more and more frequently today the successful technical writer or editor has a bachelor’s degree in one of the sciences. Sometimes he has a master’s degree, and occasionally he holds a doctor’s degree.

Supporting Fields

No scientific organization can function if it is manned only by scientists. Supporting and assisting personnel are essential to the scientific team, and training is widely available for the nonscientist who wants to work in a scientific installation.

A nurse is a professional medical assistant. She can be certified as a registered nurse in three years, or she can earn both an RN and a bachelor’s degree in four to five years. Especially if she enters the field of nuclear medicine or if she is associated with a physician or organization engaged in the clinical use of radiation and radioisotopes, she will need a background in physics in addition to her study of chemistry and the life sciences.

Many colleges and universities offer two-year programs that lead to a certificate qualifying a student as a laboratory aide. The laboratory aide, or assistant, performs assigned duties under close supervision. He does not conduct actual research, but he supplies the scientist with an extra pair of hands.

Scientific organizations also need administrators, librarians, translators, personnel directors, glassblowers, instrument repairmen, accountants, and a host of other skilled individuals to keep the team running smoothly. Such positions may be filled by persons with very limited scientific backgrounds. But the advantage--for employment and for advancement--is on the side of the secretary, or purchasing agent, or bookkeeper who has made an effort to become familiar with basic scientific principles and terminology. Nonscientists with scientific background are sufficiently rare to make them unusually valuable assets to scientific organizations.

Work of the Atomic Scientist

After he completes his formal education, the scientist sets about to investigate the world, for that’s what science is all about. The methods he uses to carry out his investigations depend on his particular field. It is impossible to outline what an individual scientist does because he may do any of a thousand things in any of a thousand ways. He may be concerned with nuclear energy almost totally, or he may be concerned with it only slightly.

It is possible, however, to sketch examples of some of the activities undertaken by various members of the scientific community.

Most people are familiar with the broad academic breakdown of the sciences into physics, chemistry, biology, geology, engineering, and mathematics. It is therefore convenient to examine the activities of scientific personnel in each of these areas, as well as medicine, with emphasis on the nuclear energy aspects of each.

Physics

The physicist is dedicated to investigating the laws that govern the universe. He explores gravity, motion, mass, energy, and the myriad interrelated ways that the world is constructed to gain an understanding of his physical surroundings.

A nuclear physicist concentrates his investigations on the atom. The subject of his research is, of course, incredibly tiny, and therefore invisible to him, but he studies the atom by finding out how it behaves when certain things are done to it.

To accomplish this, the nuclear physicist centers his day-to-day activities around equipment such as particle accelerators and nuclear reactors, which he uses to shoot nuclear particles into materials. What happens in these and many other processes provides him with information on the nature and behavior of atomic energy.

Within the framework of his interest, the practicing nuclear physicist may conduct basic or theoretical research to add to the body of scientific knowledge. He may design equipment to carry out new types of research. He may apply the principles of his science to improving the standard of living, as he did by developing the nuclear-power plants. He may work to improve nuclear weapons, to aid space travel, or to devise nuclear medical instrumentation for use by physicians. He has a place in one of the countless efforts that involve nuclear reactions and radioactivity.