Fall 2017 Physics Careers Series Continues on Oct. 27 with Alumnus Dr. Gary Johnson, Exponent Failure Assoc.

The Fall 2017 Physics Careers seminar series continues on Friday, Oct. 27, 2017 with alumnus Dr. Gary Johnson from Exponent Failure Associates:

Time: 3:30 pm on Friday, October 27, 2017 (note special time!)

Location: 204 Loomis Laboratory (Interaction Room)

Title: Life after Grad School: Technical Consulting

Speaker: Dr. Gary Johnson, Senior Managing Scientist, Exponent Failure Associates

Abstract: You’ve run out of degrees. You’ll soon have to leave the safe haven of Grad School. …..So what now?  Dr. Gary Johnson will speak on what it means to be a “Technical Consultant” and how he went from a small-farm kid to doing research on high energy plasmas in grad school, characterizing the electrical environment of power lines at General Electric, and then to investigating burnt circuit boards, modeling arcing bird droppings, and wind turbine rappelling at Exponent.  If you have wondered what skills are needed to be a "Technical Consultant", how those skills are developed, and what the career path for a "Technical Consultant" might be, here is your chance to find out.  Some of the investigations that technical consultants at Exponent have performed, such as Tom Brady’s deflated balls or why the Twin Towers collapsed, will be discussed.

Bio: Dr. Johnson is an alumnus of the University of Illinois Physics Department having received his BS and MS degrees in Physics.  His PhD is on “Ion Bunching at High Energies” from the Electrical Engineering Department of the University of Illinois.  Dr. Johnson started his career with GE at the High Voltage Transmission Research Center in 1980 and is now a Senior Managing Scientist at Exponent.

You can see the rest of the Fall 2017 Physics Careers Seminar series here: http://physics.illinois.edu/calendar/careers/