Saturday, June 4, 2016

soft question - Is it possible to work on physics independently outside academia?



The traditional physics career is an academic job at some university, with the eventual goal of becoming a tenured professor. Is it possible for a mostly self-educated outsider working outside academia to come up with significant results in physics? Let's take significant to mean accepted in a high ranking peer review journal with a high citation count. Let's just say due to external life circumstances, the academic path is unfeasible.


Are there any examples of notable physics results coming from outsiders? e.g. a third class patent clerk coming up with light quanta, Brownian motion and relativity.





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