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Applied Physics Benchmark Specialist
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About the Role
We are seeking expert physicists to author and review high-quality academic assessment content for an AI research initiative. You will write and verify rigorous multiple-choice questions across core physics domains, evaluate solution quality, and help establish gold-standard benchmarks used to advance AI capabilities.
What You'll Do
- Question Authoring — Create original, challenging multiple-choice questions in your area of physics expertise, rate their difficulty, and submit them for review.
- Question Verification — Review pre-written questions for accuracy, clarity, and rigor. Edit where needed, rate difficulty, and document any changes made.
- Author original physics questions that test deep conceptual understanding, not surface-level recall
- Ensure questions are unambiguous, self-contained, and precisely defined — all necessary information must be in the problem statement
- Rate each question's difficulty: Medium (intro undergraduate), Hard (advanced undergraduate), or Expert (post-graduate and above)
- Provide 1 correct answer and 9 plausible but subtly incorrect alternatives that challenge expert-level solvers
- Write step-by-step Chain-of-Thought solutions with clear, concise intermediate steps in markdown format
- Supply 1–5 academic references per question from reputable sources (peer-reviewed journals, university repositories)
You're a Good Fit If You
- PhD or doctoral candidate in Physics, Applied Physics, Astrophysics, or a closely related field
- Master's degree considered for candidates with exceptional depth in a specific subdomain
- Strong command of graduate-level physics concepts and mathematical formalism
- Experience with rigorous academic problem design or physics olympiad writing is a strong plus
- Excellent written English and ability to express complex ideas clearly and concisely
Role Highlights
Pay & Payout
Independent contractor engagement. Apply via the link below - Mercor handles onboarding and pays weekly via Stripe or Wise.
Common Questions
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About Mercor for this role
We track 354 open Mercor roles on AI Work Expert. Across 479 hourly listings, the typical Mercor rate runs from $64 to $90 an hour; this role lists $61-$77/h. Our reliability rating for Mercor is very reliable, with an onboarding time of 1-3 weeks (interview + assessment + trial).
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