Technical Seminar with Cas Milner

Abstract: Physicists are well-prepared for careers outside of academia and can find meaningful work in a variety of fields including quantitative finance, business consulting, AI development, and volunteering. I will discuss my personal journeys at DOE research laboratories, on Wall Street, managing hedge funds on Y'all Street (Dallas), leading business consulting teams, and semi-retirement volunteering as a mentor at the largest startup accelerator in Texas. The seminar will include advice on finding a job outside of universities.

Bio: Dr. Milner earned a PhD in experimental physics from UT-Austin in 1985. As a postdoc and staff scientist at Los Alamos NL, he proposed, built, performed and analyzed particle physics experiments at LANL, BNL, and FermiLab under Herb Anderson. From 1990-94 he was a senior scientist at the Superconducting Super Collider, where he managed muon detector development for the planned gamma-electron-muon (GEM) experiment. After the SSC cancellation, he became a "Quant" on Wall Street, where he helped to manage the largest stock portfolio in the US., then consulted for IBM, Deloitte, Chevron, Pricewater Coopers (PwC), and others. Currently, he is a volunteer mentor at Capital Factory in Austin, and since 2023, a faculty member in the SMU Physics Department.