Are you a scientist at heart? Are you interested in learning how things work and what they are made of? Do you find scientific experiments fascinating to watch? If so, you may be interested in learning more about chemistry and discovering what types of jobs are available to degreed chemists in academia and industry. This article contains only a few examples of chemist jobs that can be obtained by an individual with the proper training.
Materials Scientist. Regardless of what division of society you are in, materials scientists play a key role in determining what materials will be used for any particular application. Examples include the type of rubber used for the tires on your car, the type of plastic used to wrap your ground meat at the grocery store, the type of metals used to create circuits in your computer. The types of plastics used to create the molding on you high efficiency automobile. The list is quite extensive and many of these thing we take completely for granted.
Formulation Chemist. A formulation chemist’s responsibilities center around the proper formulation and mixing of different chemicals to create a batch of a certain type of fluid product. Formulation chemists work extensively behind the scenes to make sure that all of the products we use have the proper amounts of various additives so as to make the product we are using safe and effective. Formulation chemists are hard at work making sure that things such as the shampoo you use has the proper amount of surfactants added as well as the proper amount of fragrance, that the gasoline in your car has the proper amounts of additives so as to make it burn cleaner, that the paint you use has the necessary components so as to protect your house from weathering, that the natural gas being pumped into your home has enough energy to heat it while at the same time verifying that you are being charged a fair market price for the energy, high as it may be. Again, the list goes on and on.
Analytical Chemist. Analytical chemistry jobs are fundamental to every aspect of your life. Generally, analytical chemistry falls roughly into two categories, wet or solution-based chemistry or instrumental analysis. Analytical chemists perform extremely important roles behind the scenes and are responsible for things like making sure that your water is safe to drink, making sure that your soil is not contaminated, making sure that your food is safe to eat, making sure that the fertilizers used to fertilize the vegetables in your garden have the correct amounts of their primary components, making sure that the fuels used to run you car are free of smog producing elements such as sulfur. Once again, the list goes on and on.
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