Although the number of American physicists has increased during the last twenty years, the demand for them has increased even more so. The field of atomic physics alone has consumed a major portion of the physicists this last decade. The nation needs all the physicists it can produce, and the critical problem is how to induce students to enter this highly specialized field. In attacking the problem it would be well to consider the physicists we now have and how they entered a career in physics. Who are the physicists? What backgrounds, what training, and what experiences do they have and how have these influenced their decisions to become physicists?