Physicists engage with the public to varying degrees at different stages of their careers. However, their public engagement covers many activities, events, and audiences, making their motivations and professional development needs not well understood. As part of ongoing efforts to build and support a community in the informal physics space, we conducted interviews with physicists with a range of different experiences in public engagement. We use personas methodology and self-determination theory to articulate their public engagement motivation, challenges, and needs. We present our set of three personas: the physicist who engages in informal physics for self-reflection, the physicist who wants to spark interest and understanding in physics, and the physicist who wants to provide diverse role models to younger students and inspire them to pursue a science, technology, engineering, and mathematics career. Needs covered a range of resources including science communication training, community building among informal physics practitioners, and mechanisms to recognize, elevate, and value informal physics. By bringing user-centered design methodology to a new topical area of physics education research, we expand our understanding of motivations and needs of practitioners in physics public engagement. Therefore, departments, organizations, and institutions could draw upon the personas developed to consider the ways to better support physicists in their respective environments.

中文翻译：

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非正式物理从业者的动机和需求

物理学家在其职业生涯的不同阶段与公众进行不同程度的接触。然而，他们的公众参与涵盖了许多活动、事件和受众，使得他们的动机和职业发展需求没有得到很好的理解。作为在非正式物理领域建立和支持社区的持续努力的一部分，我们采访了在公众参与方面拥有各种不同经验的物理学家。我们使用角色方法论和自我决定理论来阐明他们的公众参与动机、挑战和需求。我们展示了我们的三个角色：为了自我反思而从事非正式物理学的物理学家，想要激发对物理学的兴趣和理解的物理学家，以及想要为年轻学生提供多样化的榜样并激励他们追求物理学的物理学家科学、技术、工程和数学职业。需求涵盖一系列资源，包括科学传播培训、非正式物理学从业者之间的社区建设，以及认可、提升和重视非正式物理学的机制。通过将以用户为中心的设计方法引入物理教育研究的新主题领域，我们扩大了对物理公众参与从业者的动机和需求的理解。因此，部门、组织和机构可以利用所开发的角色来考虑如何更好地支持各自环境中的物理学家。