Highlights From Physicists in Government:
A Report from the Sigma Pi Sigma Survey

by Donald Rosdil

• This report is based on a 1994 survey of Sigma Pi Sigma members who have physics degrees and are employed in government. They work in a wide variety of settings, including FFR&DCs, (federally funded research and development centers), the armed forces, civilian positions in defense agencies, NASA, other federal agencies with scientific missions, and state and local government.
  
  
• Government workers with a physics background are more than twice as likely to have PhDs as their colleagues in the private sector (43% vs. 18%), but less likely than those in the education sector (61%). Within the government sector, educational levels vary considerably; while over two-thirds of those in FFR&DCs have PhDs, a majority of active duty military personnel in our sample have a bachelor's degree and none of those has a PhD (Table 1).
  
  

  Table 1. Highest degree level of physics degree holders in government by institutional sector, 1994

  	FFR&DC %	Defense & Space %	Other federal, state & local %	Military %
  Bachelor's	9	23	34	63
  Master's	21	39	32	37
  PhD	70	38	26	-
  Professional	-	-	8	-

  
  
• Scientist is the most common occupation among government employees with physics degrees. Government workers are far more likely to work as scientists than those employed in the private sector or education. However, one-third of the state and local workers and those in non- scientific federal agencies are in such diverse occupations as air pollution specialist, chief information officer, compliance inspector, lawyer, Spanish interviewer, and tax examiner (Table 2).
  
  

  Table 2. Predominant occupations* of physics degree holders in government by institutional sector, 1994

  FFR&DC	Defense & space	Other federal, state & local	Military
  Scientist	Scientist	Scientist	Military Officer
  Engineer	Engineer	Manager
  Manager	Manager	Engineer
  		Computer Specialist / Statistician

  *The occupations listed account for 65 percent or more of the positions mentioned by respondents in each institutional sector.
  
  

• Government employees with a physics background emphasize planning and research as their most important work activities. Research activities dominate the work routines of those in FFR&DCs and the defense/space sector, but military personnel stress managerial functions such as planning, training and evaluating employees, and policy formulation (Table 3).
  
  

  Table 3. Predominant work activities* of physics degree holders in government by institutional sector, 1994

  FFR&DC	Defense & space	Other federal, state & local	Military
  Short-range research	Long-range research	Operational planning	Operational planning
  Basic research	Operational planning	Synthesizing information	Organizational planning
  Product design	Basic research	Writing	Training employees
  Long-range research	Modeling		Formulating policies

  * Respondents were asked to identify the three most important from a list of 37 work activities; the table lists the most frequently mentioned activities in rank order; each activity above was cited by at least 20 percent of respondents.
  
  

• Physicists within each institutional subcategory derive unique rewards from their current positions. While those working in FFR&DCs stress cognitive rewards, military personnel celebrate the interpersonal benefits of their current positions, and those in the civilian defense/space category identify both types of rewards as most significant.
  
  
• Government workers with physics degrees identify analytical skills, physics knowledge, and technical knowledge such as laboratory, computer, and mathematical modeling skills as the three most important aspects of their physics educations in shaping their subsequent careers. This finding is true of every institutional category within government except the nonscientific federal agencies and state and local government in which analytical skills and personal traits were mentioned most prominently (Table 4).

* Table entries are percentage of physics degree holders in government describing that aspect of their physics education as important; table column does not add to 100 percent because respondents could cite more than one aspect.

** More than 80 percent of government employees answered this question.

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