Bulgaria Young Scientists: And the Golden Melon Goes to Stanishev!

"I graduated nuclear physics in Bordeaux, France, and returned to Bulgaria to live and work here. Believe me, it is not working!"

When you graduate nuclear physics in Bordeaux, you have to be very lucky to find a job, especially as a foreigner, because there are few openings for people with such a dyploma. the guy can become a physics teacher in a bg school or start a phd anywhere in the world or take some additional qualification to become marketable. but he is certainly not a scientist in a first place.

imo the definition of "young scientist" in bg is somewhat distorted. young scientist is someone who is pursuing or has recently obtained a PhD degree, which is an obligatory step for starting a scientific career and is under 35 or so.

yes, money are needed. two key issues are free access to up to date information in the field and modern equipment.

but i think these money have to be also related to the quality and the quantity of the scientific output. for a phd who has just got the degree for example, if you dont have at least 2 papers published or accepted for publication in international journals with impact factor of at least 1, you are certainly not made for scientific career.

Is there such a thing as undergraduate nuclear physics degree in Europe? It seems a very strange thing to specialize in at that level. In the states, you don't really specialize in the different branches until grad school. I can imagine a module in particle or nuclear physics as an advanced topic, but I can't imagine an entire curriculum, except at the most superficial level. But then again, I'm just a physics refugee who bailed with an M.S.

Rich

"Is there such a thing as undergraduate nuclear physics degree in Europe?"

Sure Rich. I think in BG there is because of the soviet-style curriculum and in france there must be too because the french like high theory since Descartes - e.g. in their "grandes Г©coles", which are considered superior to their universities, students in science and technology play a lot with tensor calculus since the 2nd year while in germany such things are completely ommited whenever possible.

the result is that the french graduates are very well prepared in theory but this doesnt serve them much in their work while the germans are very well prepared in doing practical things but that doesnt help them much with theoretical problems;)