While the supply of accelerator physicists in the United States has grown modestly over the last decade, it hasn’t been able to catch up with demand fueled by industry interest in medical particle accelerators and growing collaborations at the national labs.
About 15 PhDs in accelerator physics are granted by US universities each year. That’s up from around 12 per year, a rate that held relatively steady from 1985 to 2005. But accelerator physicists often come to the field without a specialized degree.
