Profile and Career

The Niels Bohr Institute at the University of Copenhagen is part of an exciting and international research environment where scientific breakthroughs are shaped. Your path through the physics programme can include theoretical instruction, experiments in the laboratory, project work, and field work.

As a graduate student in physics you can specialise in one of numerous sub-fields e.g., particle physics, climate physics, astrophysics, atomic physics, solid-state physics, nuclear physics, complex systems, and quantum information technology. You will be able to break down problems and find solution to the benefit of society as well as individuals. You can also participate in modern research and the communication of results.

There is a high degree of freedom to choose specialisations and courses.

Competence Description

  • You will learn the basic physical principles governing a physical system.
  • You work with mathematical and numerical models to describe physical reality.
  • You learn to work with experimental setups and become familiar with the latest technologies.
  • You work with the processing, production, and interpretation of experimental and numerical data.
  • You will become familiar with current research literature and be capable of contributing to the research.

Career Opportunities

Physicists have skills that are quite useful, and therefore most find employment very quickly. They work in many different places e.g., private and public sector research, finance, programming in the IT industry or in private enterprises developing new materials, equipment or methods of analysing. Furthermore, it is possible for all physicists to qualify for teaching at high school level.

Astrophysicists find employment as teachers, researchers, or disseminators at universities or at observatories all over the world. Their excellent data analysis and modelling skills also make them well suited for work as data scientists in many other fields.

There are job opportunities for bio- and medical physicists at hospitals or in the pharmaceutical industry, biotech companies, or research.

Geophysicists may work in the private and public sector, e.g. with environment-related problems, energy production, or engineering.

Quantum physicists have a wide range of skills, in either experimental work, theory and analysis or computer modelling. All these skills and competences are useful for work in e.g. hi-tech companies, data analysis or cutting-edge research.

The private sector also employs physicists in a more business-oriented context. For example, some physicists work in finance with prediction of market fluctuations. Other physicists are employed as programmers or developers in the IT sector as they often have strong programming backgrounds.

Many different companies work with complex data analysis through modelling or machine learning, and for this type of work, a background in physics is very useful.

Many physicists choose to begin their career as a PhD student. Read here about the PhD programme at the Nils Bohr Institute >>

Job Examples

Here are some examples of job titles for physics graduates from University of Copenhagen within the last years:

  • PhD student at universities, research centers etc. all over the world
  • Physicist at national institute for radiation treatment
  • Senior consultant within AI and Data
  • High school teacher in physics and another subject
  • Engineer at tech consultancy company
  • Researcher and weather model developer at national meteorological institute
  • Risk manager at bank
  • Hospital physicist
  • Model developer at wind energy company
  • Analyst at finance company
  • Teacher at technical high school (HTX)
  • Examiner at patent and trademark office
  • Web designer in own company
  • Consultant at institute for science didactics
  • Optical engineer in photonics company
  • Analyst at national statistics authority
  • Astrophysicist and disseminator at planetarium
  • Systems analyst at energy company
  • Climate scientist
  • Data Scientist at large company
  • Expert in science consultancy company