Science

...Engineering.

He came to me in high school and told me that's what he wanted to be, a Materials Scientist, because it would combine physics, chemistry and math. I had only a vague understanding of it as an independent discipline. (I'm a chemist; mostly focused on bioorganic chemistry.)

I have a far greater appreciation of Materials Science now.

From what I can tell, Materials Science Engineering programs are still very small at most Universities, which is a good thing for students in the discipline, but they need to be far bigger to get humanity through the crisis in which it finds itself, particularly with respect to the environment.

Trust me, if you go beyond electrons and their orbitals, and add neutrons and recoiling nuclei to the equation, the discipline is very profound. One can, I'm sure, spend a lifetime and not scratch the surface.

I'll be giving a lecture this month that basically is about the complex metallurgy of actinide metals (where f orbitals play a role in bonding). It's not my specialty by any stretch of the imagination, but in putting the lecture together, I've developed a far deeper understanding of what my son is working through. I hope he enjoys and approves of the lecture.