And Hoare says, "Most important is having aninquisitive mind and having very good socialskills."
Individuals such as Bhansali and Hoare see theglut in the physics job market as being cyclicaland advise students to pursue lines of study thatinterest them, not just those that they think willset them up in terms of a career.
"I think it would be a terrible tragedy ifpeople decided not to go into physics because thejob market is bad," says Hoare. He added, "There'sstill going to be positions and still a lot ofwork to be done."
Peter L. Galison, Mallinckrodt professorof the history of science and of physics, providesanother perspective to interdisciplinary studies."Often times these interdisciplinary areas growinto areas in their own right," says Galison, whois also chair of the department of History ofScience.
Such seems to be the case with AssistantProfessor of Psychiatry Dr. Jeffrey P. Sutton.Sutton is a physician who has combined bothclinical neuroscience and theoretical physics tostudy the human brain.
Sutton, who did his residency at the MedicalSchool, received an M.A. in neuroscience, a Ph.Din theoretical physics and a M.D. from theUniversity of Toronto.
"Jeffrey is a singular individual in being thephysicist and the psychiatrist," says Dr. JosephT. Coyle, Draper professor of psychiatry andneuroscience. "There are very few people inpsychiatry that bring background that is groundedin rigorous physics and informed by clinicalpsychiatric expertise," says Coyle, who is chairof the Medical School's department of psychiatry.
"He and people like him are changing the way wethink of psychiatrists and the way psychiatryoperates," says Assistant Professor of PsychiatryJon Rady. "Jeff's nontraditional route from mathto physics to medicine to psychiatry is not goingto be uncommon in the future."
Dr. Sutton says that the opportunity tointegrate both fields is extremely rewarding forhim.
"Sometimes an interdisciplinary approach canlead to new ways of solving problems, can be verygratifying and doesn't have to be an either/or,"says Sutton.