Career Details :: Biologists
Description
Research or study basic principles of plant and animal life, such as origin, relationship, development, anatomy, and functions.
Experience
Extensive skill, knowledge, and experience are needed for these occupations. Many require more than five years of experience. For example, surgeons must complete four years of college and an additional five to seven years of specialized medical training to be able to do their job.
Education
A bachelor's degree is the minimum formal education required for these occupations. However, many also require graduate school. For example, they may require a master's degree, and some require a Ph.D., M.D., or J.D. (law degree).
Training
Employees may need some on-the-job training, but most of these occupations assume that the person will already have the required skills, knowledge, work-related experience, and/or training.
Tasks
- Prepares environmental impact reports for industry, government, or publication.
- Communicates test results to state and federal representatives and general public.
- Investigates and develops pest-management and -control measures.
- Develops methods and apparatus for securing representative plant, animal, aquatic, or soil samples.
- Studies aquatic plants and animals and environmental conditions affecting them, such as radioactivity or pollution.
- Collects and analyzes biological data about relationship among and between organisms and their environment.
- Studies reactions of plants, animals, and marine species to parasites.
- Identifies, classifies, and studies structure, behavior, ecology, physiology, nutrition, culture, and distribution of plant and animal species.
- Studies basic principles of plant and animal life, such as origin, relationship, development, anatomy, and functions.
- Studies and manages wild animal populations.
- Measures salinity, acidity, light, oxygen content, and other physical conditions of water to determine their relationship to aquatic life.
- Develops methods of extracting drugs from aquatic plants and animals.
- Researches environmental effects of present and potential uses of land and water areas and determines methods of improving environment or crop yields.
- Plans and administers biological research programs for government, research firms, medical industries, or manufacturing firms.
- Cultivates, breeds, and grows aquatic life, such as lobsters, clams, or fish farming.
Related Careers
- Biochemists
- Biophysicists
- Environmental Scientists and Specialists, Including Health
- Microbiologists
- Soil Scientists
- Zoologists and Wildlife Biologists
Important Abilities
- Written Comprehension
- Inductive Reasoning
- Written Expression
- Deductive Reasoning
- Information Ordering
General Work Activities
- Getting Information Needed to Do the Job
- Identifying Objects, Actions, and Events
- Analyzing Data or Information
- Processing Information
- Communicating With Persons Outside Organization
Important Skills
Frequent Work Context
- Consequence of Error
- Importance of Being Exact or Accurate
- Importance of Being Sure All Is Done
- Indoors
- Objective or Subjective Information
Related Majors
| Major | Add to XapPack |
|---|---|
| Animal Behavior |  [ add ] |
| Animal Bioscience | [ add ] |
| Aquatic Science | [ add ] |
| Biological Sciences/Marine Biology/Ecology | [ add ] |
| Biomedical Science | [ add ] |
| Biomedical Sciences | [ add ] |
| Family Medicine | [ add ] |
| Marine Biology | [ add ] |
| Marine Conservation Biology | [ add ] |
| Marine Policy | [ add ] |
| Marine Sciences | [ add ] |
| Marine Studies | [ add ] |
| Marine/Aquatic Biology | [ add ] |
| Medical Informatics | [ add ] |
| Medical Sciences | [ add ] |
| Medical Scientist Training | [ add ] |
| Medicine | [ add ] |
| Zoology | [ add ] |
Institutions Offering Related Majors
No institutions found.