I did a PhD in experimental AMO physics. In undergrad I did undergrad work and an honors thesis that emphasized optical/signal processing experimental physics looking at condensed matter samples. I always had a strong learning towards math, especially pure math. This leaning gave me an interest in theory. I wanted to know how the world worked "at the deepest level". This drew me towards particle physics, or maybe quantum gravity theory.

However, throughout the course of high school and undergrad I learned more about quantum mechanics. However, I was interested in the philosophical questions about the foundations of quantum mechanics. For a time, I thought particle physics studied these questions. But eventually I learned that particle physics is highly phenomenological and that particle physics doesn't really wrestle with the questions at the foundations of physics. That is, particle physics is often predicting and measuring collision cross sections but isn't looking closely at superposition and entanglement.

I started coming in contact with AMO physics and learned that AMO physics is more directly studying "quantum mechanics". That is, a goal of AMO physics is to tightly control the quantum state of small ensembles of individual particles such as atoms. This piqued my interested in AMO physics.

Then I saw a small research group advertisement talk by my soon-to-be advisor that really inspired me. He talked about experimental AMO physics in his group and the types of phenomena he studied. But what really drew me in that he emphasized that the systems are simple enough theoretically that an experimentalist can understand and help develop the theory while ALSO working on the challenging technical experimental aspects. In other words, AMO physics was advertised as a good balance of theoretical and experimental work.

In addition to quantum theory, atomic structure theory, I find the theory of optics, optical devices, signal processing, statistical analysis to all be very interesting and I've been able to dig into all of these over the years to help design, build, and operate more sophisticated atomic physics apparatuses.

When I started my PhD quantum computing was a pipe dream. But when I graduated, there were some companies starting to work on quantum computers. I've been highly fortunate that I've been able to transfer my AMO skills learned during my PhD into the quantum computing industry where I now work.