Career Paths

Physics graduates from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater have achieved success in many fields.  Many of our graduates work in industry in both technical and management positions.  Teaching continues to be a good career choice, with a stable demand for physics teachers. Military service, including the Navy's nuclear program, is another possible career option. A physics degree is also excellent preparation for further study in many areas.  Recent UW-Whitewater graduates are pursuing graduate study in physics as well as in related areas such as astronomy, engineering, computer science, data science and medicine. Other UW-W graduates are conducting research in diverse fields, including oceanography at the Naval Oceanographic Office, aerostructural test engineering at NASA-Johnson Space Center in Houston, and the Human Genome Project at UW-Madison.

Recent UW-Whitewater physics graduates' employers range from large corporations such as Johnson Controls, Wisconsin Energy, and Motorola, to smaller high-technology companies such as Bell Industries and Fedco Electronics.  Many recent graduates are also teaching in middle and high schools.  Essentially all of our graduates who seek employment in a technical field are able to find it.  Starting salaries for physics graduates are good; according to a recent survey by the American Institute of Physics, the median salary of 2018 physics degree recipients working in a STEM field was about $50,000 to $70,000.