Physicists generally recognize that we are, at the school-leaving stage itself, losing bright students to other vocations. While it is very important to change this scenario (and efforts like KVPY should bear fruit), I pose here the following questions. If we encourage physics research as an avocation, would bright young persons be willing to do physics research in their spare time? If the answer is yes, how can we support an 'avocational' research physicist (ARP)? This discussion is initiated in the belief that bright youngsters would be keen to do research as a hobby for the same reasons for which many of us do it as a vocation, viz. for creative pleasure, and in the hope that some work of ours will leave a lasting impact. Even to a 'vocational' research physicist (VRP), archival citations are more satisfying than quick citations. And an entry in a standard textbook would make it all worthwhile! Since only a small fraction of our papers are cited ten-to-fifteen years after they are published, an ARP who publishes less can have the same lasting impact as a VRP. There are, of course, well-known examples of outstanding physicists who had started as part-time researchers. It would probably not be difficult to motivate bright students to become ARPs.
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