>>11577065These people are part of something bigger. A single physicist's life work might not be much, but he is part of a department, along with other physicists, and this department, over the years, achieves impressive feats. And so do other departments of other universities.
Most of his research won't be ground-breaking or widely cited, if any. But those few dozen of people that somehow benefited from his work will also support others, and so on.
