Number 34 (Story #5), May 15, 1991 by Phillip F. Schewe and Ben Stein THE PHYSICS FACULTY IS AGING . The 1990 Faculty Workshop Survey, the latest in a biennial series of reports on physics faculties, shows that the median age for physics professors in 1987 (the most recent year for which data are available) is 50.0 In 1973 the median was 40.7. For the 1987 pool, the median age of assistant professors was 35.9, for associate professors 44.5, and for full professors 53.1. Only 12% of the professors were under the age of 40. (June 1991 Bulletin of the American Physical Society.)