What You'll Do

  • Develop and maintain liaisons and effective working relations with groups and individuals, agencies, and the public to encourage cooperative management strategies or to develop information and interpret findings.
  • Program and use computers to store, process, and analyze data.
  • Collect and analyze biological data about relationships among and between organisms and their environment.
  • Study aquatic plants and animals and environmental conditions affecting them, such as radioactivity or pollution.
  • Communicate test results to state and federal representatives and general public.
  • Identify, classify, and study structure, behavior, ecology, physiology, nutrition, culture, and distribution of plant and animal species.
  • Represent employer in a technical capacity at conferences.
  • Plan and administer biological research programs for government, research firms, medical industries, or manufacturing firms.
  • Research environmental effects of present and potential uses of land and water areas, determining methods of improving environmental conditions or such outputs as crop yields.
  • Measure salinity, acidity, light, oxygen content, and other physical conditions of water to determine their relationship to aquatic life.

Essential Skills

Science 4.62/5
Reading Comprehension 4.12/5
Writing 4.12/5
Active Listening 4.0/5
Speaking 4.0/5
Critical Thinking 4.0/5
Mathematics 3.88/5
Active Learning 3.88/5
Complex Problem Solving 3.75/5
Judgment and Decision Making 3.75/5
Learning Strategies 3.12/5
Monitoring 3.0/5

Career Fit Overview

Use this summary to sense whether the day to day rhythm and focus of this path line up with what energizes you.

Top passions

  • Analyst: Investigating problems and finding patterns keeps you engaged.
  • Organizer: Bringing order to data and processes satisfies you.
  • Maker: Building and fixing energizes you. You like tangible results and practical tools.

Common styles

Integrity, Dependability, Attention to Detail, Persistence, Analytical Thinking

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Key Abilities

This career demands strong capabilities in the following areas:

Oral Comprehension 4.12/5
Written Comprehension 4.12/5
Written Expression 4.12/5
Inductive Reasoning 4.12/5
Oral Expression 4.0/5
Information Ordering 4.0/5
Category Flexibility 4.0/5
Near Vision 4.0/5

Technologies & Tools

Adobe Photoshop Agilent Technologies GeneSpring GX Basic Local Alignment Search Tool BLAST BioKin PlateKi BLAT Blue Tractor Software DNADynamo C++ CUBIC Deoxyribonucleic acid DNA sequence analysis software EMBOSS EnzymeX ESRI ArcGIS software Excavator FASTA FoldX Gene Codes Sequencher Geographic information system GIS software IBM SPSS Statistics Ingenuity Systems Ingenuity Pathways Analysis JaMBW

Work Environment & Style

Common Styles for This Career

  • Integrity (High importance: 4.78/5)
  • Dependability (High importance: 4.36/5)
  • Attention to Detail (High importance: 4.35/5)
  • Persistence (High importance: 4.17/5)
  • Analytical Thinking (High importance: 4.16/5)

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How to Become One

This career requires extensive preparation, typically including a graduate degree (Master's or Doctoral) and several years of experience. Most professionals in this field have invested significant time in education and training.

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Also Known As

This career is known by many different job titles across industries. Here are all the variations:

Aquatic Biologist Aquatic Scientist Bioanalytical Scientist Biological Operations Scientist (Biological Ops Scientist) Biological Scientist Biologist Biology Scientist Botanist Cell Biologist Cell Culture Scientist Clinical Laboratory Scientist (Clinical Lab Scientist) Clinical Researcher Computational Biologist Dolphin Researcher Endangered Species Specialist Entomologist Field Biologist Fisheries and Wildlife Biologist Fisheries Biologist Forest Botanist Marine Biologist Marine Scientist Molecular Biology Scientist Molecular Research Biologist Mycologist Nematologist Neurobiologist Neurophysiologist Ocean Biologist Physiologist Rare Species Specialist Research Biologist Research Fishery Biologist Research Scientist Scientist