eager55

I am currently a high school student at a very engineering focused school and, for the past few years, I have taken a keen interest in advanced physical sciences (e.g. string theory, supersymmetry). I have read multitudes of books, journal articles, and papers by accomplished physicists (including yourself) and I hope to continue these studies as a physics major when I graduate high school.

My question is: Have you ever thought about or regretted your decision to study physics (or specifically cosmology) as a career? Would you, if given the opportunity, want to pick a different field of science to go into?

And one for my parents: Was there ever a time, prior to your employment at NASA, that you couldn't find work or employment associated with your field of study?

Thanks

P.S. I got out of class to send this.

I'm figuring that, as methods of manipulating quantum level particles are being discovered, that after college I might go into nanotechnology. There's also a field that hasn't quite been expanded yet, quantum engineering, that should be a significant market in the near future. If we are able to access the abilities of the particles that are purely theoretical as of today (such as the one atom transistor) it will provide huge opportunities for the engineering field.

I agree with you, however, that theoretical physics has been nearly extended to its limits at this point in time. It has been calculated that unless we are able to construct a hadron collider the size of our solar system, we won't be making any significant advancements in areas like Unified Field Theory anytime soon.