This year will be another busy year for us. In this newsletter, we have highlighted two of our interactive tools. These are the direct results of our ongoing surveys. We will use these surveys to help us track changes in the physics and astronomy landscape.

Tracking changes is an important part of our contribution to AIP’s 2026 Research Agenda. We will examine how changes in federal funding for research and in immigration and visa policy are affecting the physical sciences. It is likely these changes will be felt for years. We are already seeing a decline in the number of first-year graduate students in physics and astronomy.

As part of the 2025 Research Agenda, we conducted interviews with early-career leaders in AIP Member Societies. A second part of this study is a survey of physics and astronomy PhD recipients three to seven years after they earned their doctorates. This study complements on ongoing survey of degree recipients one year after graduation. Look for the results later this year.

Interactive Resources

We introduced our new interactive tool examining the size of physics and astronomy departments and highlighted the recent update to our interactive Who’s Hiring Physics Bachelors previously in this newsletter. We have several other popular interactive resources. Please check them out. US OPM has just updated the data for our Federal Employees interactive; we will incorporate it soon. We welcome your feedback. What other tools might be useful for you?

Who’s Hiring Physics PhDs

Federal Employees in the Physical Sciences and Engineering

Degrees Earned in the Physical Sciences and Engineering Fields

If you have any questions or comments, please reply to this message or write to Susan White, Director of Statistical Research, at swhite@aip.org.

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