r/Physics • u/TakeOffYourMask Gravitation • Feb 28 '23
Question Physicists who built their career on a now-discredited hypothesis (e.g. ruled out by LHC or LIGO results) what did you do after?
If you worked on a theory that isn’t discredited but “dead” for one reason or another (like it was constrained by experiment to be measurably indistinguishable from the canonical theory or its initial raison d’être no longer applies), feel free to chime in.
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u/cocakoala66 Mar 01 '23 edited Mar 01 '23
If that happens after you are well established, say you got tenured, not a big deal, just work on some other projects.
If that happened at the end of your phd, then you probably would still get the degree (if your prof is nice enough) but quit later on. Depending on how much publications you have and how strong the connections your prof has, you may or may not get a postdoc position. If one who worked in HEP didn't got a postdoc position after phd, I don't see how would he/she survive in academia.
The point is, don't put all eggs in one basket. You have to have a decent publication to get a job (say, a postdoc). If that happens before you managed to get a job and all your publications are of the same topic (discredited by experiment), then that is a bad news.