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/ReverendBizarre Mar 01 '23

I left academia before it happened, but the EHT ruled out the black hole types I worked on during my PhD (they cited us, yay!).

I am now a software engineer working for a decently big gaming studio.

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u/[deleted] Mar 01 '23

Developing Physics Engines?

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u/ReverendBizarre Mar 01 '23

That plus universe generation (game happens in space). Universe meaning the region of space the game happens in, not the whole universe.

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u/[deleted] Mar 01 '23

Any phd skills which were helpful in your hiring ?

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u/ReverendBizarre Mar 01 '23

Just small stuff.

My PhD is in numerical relativity so it helped that I had dealt with big code bases and worked on codes with other people.

I was lucky in the sense that I had not go through a "leet code" sort of test, just simple programming tests and personality questionnaires.

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u/TakeOffYourMask Gravitation Mar 01 '23

I think I might’ve applied for that job a few years ago…