Profession: Physics graduate student (experimental atomic physics). ~15 people in our group, 5 in our lab. Workday: [07:30] Wake up [08:00] Swim, bike, run o

Profession: Physics graduate student (experimental atomic physics). ~15 people in our group, 5 in our lab. Workday: [07:30] Wake up [08:00] Swim, bike, run or climb for an hour [09:00] Bike to work, shower, read papers [10:00] Turn on experiment, align optics [01:00] Lunch with labmates and advisor [02:00] Back in the lab, more laser aligning, bug fixing, realizing nothing works. [07:00] Dinner at student center or Chipotle [08:00] Data taking starts (sometimes we're lucky and it starts earlier) [10:00 - 12:00] Data data data. If it's super late (4am), then I'll get up late tomorrow Meetings can last over 5 hours, especially if it involves writing papers. The schedule usually shifts to later hours as the week progresses. We barely wake up in time before the Friday 11am group seminars. 15 hour days are fairly routine.