Is there an appropriate balance between the number of solar and space physics PhDs and the jobs available?

摘要

As part of the National Research Council's (NRC) Space Studies Board (SSB) Solar and Space Physics (S&SP) Decadal Survey Process, a Working Group was formed to examine Education and Workforce issues and help assess the health of the S&SP field. As part of the Decadal Survey, the Working Group conducted a suite of five studies that looked into a wide range of characteristics of the field, including the first comprehensive demographic survey of the S&SP field, a qualitative study of graduate students’ pathways into S&SP graduate programs and their envisioned career goals. This article focuses on describing efforts to explore the balance between PhD production and job opportunities in solar and space physics. This is relevant not only in the academic research enterprise but also to applied fields in government and industry such as space weather forecasting, engineered system design, and space system operations.