Also called: Radiation Safety Physicist, Certified Health Physicist
Protects workers, patients, and the public from radiation at hospitals, power plants, labs, and government agencies.
You review how a hospital stores radioactive materials, calculate workers' doses, investigate a spill, or help plan emergency response for a nuclear accident. Health physicists are retiring faster than they're being trained.
Approximate: anchored on Bureau of Labor Statistics data for a broader job group.
Master's degree, about 6 years after high school. Bachelor's or master's in health physics, physics, or nuclear engineering; certification (CHP) for senior roles.
Ways in: 4-year college, Graduate school, Certification. Training cost: $60k – $150k.
Majors to look at: Health Physics, Physics, Nuclear Engineering, Environmental Science.
Growing about average. BLS does not project this specialty separately; rating estimated from related occupations.
Low risk for 10 years. AI helps with dose calculations, but site inspections, spills and emergency planning need people, and experts are retiring.
Classes: AP Physics, AP Chemistry, AP Calculus.
Official data: O*NET occupation 19-2099.
Career Universe is an early version. Pay, training and AI-risk figures are estimates to start your own research, not verified facts. The research was written with AI research assistants, checked by validation scripts and spot-checked by hand. Check anything important with schools, employers and official sources. How the numbers work.