The study of matter, energy, space, and time, from the tiniest particles to the whole universe, plus the many jobs that use physics thinking.
Top pay: highest pay, longest training
Research Physicist: Asks how the universe works at its most basic level and designs experiments or theories to find out. Typical pay $172k.
Theoretical Physicist: Uses math and computer models to predict how nature works, from black holes to the inside of atoms. Typical pay $140k.
Computational Physicist: Writes huge computer simulations of things too big, small, fast, or dangerous to experiment on directly. Typical pay $150k.
Gravitational-Wave Physicist: Detects ripples in space itself caused by colliding black holes and neutron stars. Typical pay $135k.
Soft Matter Physicist: Studies squishy stuff like gels, foams, sand, paint, and living tissue. Typical pay $135k.
Complex Systems Scientist: Uses physics-style math to understand systems with many moving parts, like traffic, ecosystems, the economy, or the internet. Typical pay $130k.
Industrial Applied Physicist: Turns physics into products at companies making chips, medical devices, sensors, batteries, and aircraft. Typical pay $135k.
Game Physics Programmer: Writes the code that makes objects in video games fall, crash, bounce, and splash realistically. Typical pay $125k.
Semiconductor Device Physicist: Uses solid-state physics to understand and improve the tiny transistors inside computer chips. Typical pay $160k.
Hypervelocity Impact Physicist: Fires tiny projectiles at up to 7 kilometers per second with giant gas guns to learn how space debris, meteorites and armor behave. Typical pay $130k.
Mid pay: solid pay, degree or apprenticeship
Biophysicist: Uses physics to understand how living things work, from how proteins fold to how nerves send signals. Typical pay $107k.
VFX Simulation Artist: Simulates water, fire, smoke, and explosions for movies and TV using physics-based software. Typical pay $98k.
Physics Professor: Teaches physics courses at a college or university and runs a research lab, mentoring grad students and writing grants to fund experiments. Typical pay $100k.
High School Physics Teacher: Teaches teenagers how the physical world works through labs, demos, and problem-solving. Typical pay $66k.
Field Applications Scientist: Travels to labs to install, demo, and troubleshoot advanced scientific instruments like electron microscopes and lasers. Typical pay $105k.
Physics Postdoctoral Researcher: A recent physics PhD who spends a few years doing full-time research before landing a permanent job. Typical pay $68k.
High-Speed Imaging Specialist: Films explosions, crash tests and rocket launches at up to a million frames per second so engineers can see what happened in a blink. Typical pay $75k.
Starter: fastest way in
Physics Lab Coordinator: Builds and runs the experiments and dramatic demos used in college physics classes. Typical pay $54k.
Physics & Math Tutor: Helps students understand physics and math one-on-one or in small groups. Typical pay $40k.
Physics Lecture Demonstration Specialist: Builds and runs the dramatic live physics demos used in university lectures, from Tesla coils to bed-of-nails tricks. Typical pay $54k.
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.