Being at UCLA has provided me with the opportunity to take part in multiple thesis/study projects from departments other than Physics and Astronomy. The process typically includes filling out a survey and occasionally taking part in an interview. Some of these include sociology studies and I am not able to highlight them specifically because their respondents are supposed to remain anonymous. Now, however, the plasma group at UCLA is taking part in an ethnographic study in which the researcher is going to observe us for approximately one year. This is a study in which our individual responses and behaviors will remain anonymous as usual, but there is no hiding the fact that the observation is occurring.

Dr. Helena Pettersson from Umeå University (English website) is studying “Research Migration”. Her site is the best reference for this topic, but I can provide a summary here.

The idea is that some people have a career for which there are a limited number of places to work. Fusion physicists (though I have to clarify and say, magnetically confined fusion physicists because of the following tokamak references) have a handful of experimental devices worldwide. Some of the fusion devices in the United States are Alcator C-Mod (MIT in Massachusetts), NSTX (PPPL in New Jersey), and DIII-D (General Atomics in California), which demonstrate that these are not the kinds of laboratories one finds in every neighborhood†. Research migration is the moving of people in order to pursue their career goals. Humanity has come a long way if we are career nomads instead of hungry nomads.

Below is a photograph of the Electric Tokamak at UCLA that demonstrates the nature of this physically large type of research laboratory. Notice that there are many people standing on top of the machine. This applies to plasma physics in general because most experimental efforts involve significant resources. Laboratory plasmas might utilize large devices due to the needs of vacuum chambers and lots of power. Space plasma research might require a rocket launching facility in order to deploy measurement satellites.

One of the smaller tokamak labs, the Electric Tokamak at UCLA still takes up a lot of space and is not easily duplicated elsewhere.

The study appears to be reviewing the following types of questions: What happens when a fusion physicist finishes graduate school and needs to find a job? If this graduate already has a family, then how does that affect the decision? A further point of this study concentrates on the decision making process for such families. Previous work, for which I do not have references, has shown that people in advanced education careers (i.e., those with PhDs) typically find partners/spouses who also have advanced degrees. Now the situation may have become more complex because the family might have two people with limited options for employment.

Dr. Pettersson will also be looking into international issues such as migration in the face of immigration policies and social interaction. The largest of the tokamaks, ITER, is being built in France and will employ physicists from around the world. It's one thing to consider moving from Los Angeles to either San Diego (DIII-D) or the eastern United States (every other tokamak), but imagine trying to determine whether France would be a good fit for your family.

It is an over-simplification to say that people who want to study fusion have to find a tokamak lab. I just wanted to provide a basic explanation of this ethnographic research. I'll try to post a link to any final results or publications.

Tags: ethnology, research migration, plasma physicists, tokamaks