Optical Physicist

As an optical physicist, you study how light works and use that knowledge to build new things. You work in labs with expensive equipment, testing and tweaking how light behaves. You might design a new kind of laser, improve a camera lens or find a way to send data down fibre optic cables faster.

Most of your time is spent doing experiments - changing things like brightness or the colour of light to see what happens - and analyzing what you find. You work with engineers and product designers to turn your discoveries into real things people can use. You need to be good at maths and physics, but also creative about solving problems. The job is a mix of careful lab work and computer modelling, and you're always learning something new.