Career: Environmental Scientists
NOAA/Department of Commerce
Environmental scientists use their expertise to protect natural resources. If you're interested in chemistry, you might examine how certain chemicals affect plants, animals, and people. If you're interested in ecology, you might research the way rainfall, temperature, pollutants, and human activity affect an area.
As our population grows, we will need environmental scientists to preserve water, give advice on land-use and building projects, study and design sites for waste disposal, control pollution, and repair damaged natural areas. Whatever your focus, you'll work to solve some of the most serious problems facing the world today.
Environmental scientists use ideas from the life and physical sciences to protect natural resources, such as forests and water.
Did You Know?
- Environmental scientists use computers to study data and create maps.
Are You Ready To...?
- Conduct research outdoors at remote locations
- Work in an office or lab
- Collect, study, and report information on air, soil, and water
- Use tools and deal with severe weather or terrain when gathering data
- Work with a team
It Helps to Be...
A nature lover in good physical shape who enjoys working outdoors. You need to be a problem solver who can combine ideas from different fields to come up with original solutions. You should enjoy the sciences, math, and computers. You must also have strong spoken and written communication skills.
Make High School Count
- Get a good grounding in the life sciences, such as biology and ecology, and the physical sciences, such as chemistry.
- Make the most of all your writing assignments. As an environmental scientist, you’ll need to write proposals to get funding for your projects as well as technical reports once they’re underway.
- Build computer skills.
- Join the environmental club at your school or volunteer for a related government agency like the National Park Service or nonprofit group like The Sierra Club.
Did You Know?
- Environmental scientists who understand both the science and engineering aspects of cleaning up toxic waste are in demand.
Outlook
Government economists expect job growth for environmental scientists, compared with job growth in other careers, to be much faster than the average through 2016. These scientists will be needed to study the effects of population growth, which will place higher demands on the environment. Also, businesses and other organizations will need help following environmental laws and preventing environmental problems as they begin new projects. What's more, there's growing interest in preserving and restoring natural areas.
You can find opportunities in government, in universities, and especially in private consulting companies.
Compensation
The U.S. Department of Labor reported that the average salary for environmental scientists in 2008 was $65,280.
