# Occupations



## Selina (Apr 8, 2018)

I'm writing a story set in the near future, but I can't figure out what education one would need to be smart enough to build a machine that would remove pollutants from water or create an alternative energy source? A physicist? And engineer? If so what disciplines ?


----------



## Ralph Rotten (Apr 8, 2018)

Electro mechanical engineer.
Physicists typically are idea people, and their theories are tested by engineers (who actually fabricate the device to test the theory.) You may consider a team for the task. Two characters would also give you much more clever character interactions.


----------



## Blackstone (Apr 9, 2018)

Selina said:


> I'm writing a story set in the near future, but I can't figure out what education one would need to be smart enough to build a machine that would remove pollutants from water or create an alternative energy source? A physicist? And engineer? If so what disciplines ?



Along the lines of what Ralph says, I think this would likely be a team effort. We aren't in the Industrial Revolution anymore where a single inventor like James Watt could conceive of the technology and build the model. 

A physicist (or team of them) would come up with the technology, probably at a University research laboratory or perhaps a government agency like DARPA. A corporation or perhaps another government agency or another department at the University made up of engineers would actually apply this technology to the real-world problem. There are many ways this could come about but it would NOT be a single person going from conception to execution and suggesting otherwise may possibly (but not definitely*) hurt the realism of the novel, assuming that's important to you. Otherwise you have a Doc Brown's Time Traveling Delorean kind of problem. 

*This does not, of course, take into account a shift in how the tech industries work. It's absolutely possible that with the advent of things like 3D printers and smart-design technology that in the not-so-distant future a single user could design and build and entire hovercraft in their garage.


----------



## Jack of all trades (Apr 10, 2018)

Selina said:


> I'm writing a story set in the near future, but I can't figure out what education one would need to be smart enough to build a machine that would remove pollutants from water or create an alternative energy source? A physicist? And engineer? If so what disciplines ?



One wouldn't need anything in particular to be smart enough.

Spend time looking at inventions, and you'll see many are created by hobbyists.

What's needed is interest in the field. Even if one has a job that's completely different.


----------

