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Career Details

19-2031.00 - Chemists


Conduct qualitative and quantitative chemical analyses or experiments in laboratories for quality or process control or to develop new products or knowledge.


Key Facts
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Bright Outlook
Career Details
Green Job
Career Details
Current Employment
91,100
Estimate
Forecasted Employment
93,500
Estimate
Change in Employment
+2,400
Estimate
Change in Employment %
+2.6%
Estimate
Tasks
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Tasks
The tasks listed below can be performed to prepare you for a career in this field.
Core
  • Analyze organic or inorganic compounds to determine chemical or physical properties, composition, structure, relationships, or reactions, using chromatography, spectroscopy, or spectrophotometry techniques.
  • Develop, improve, or customize products, equipment, formulas, processes, or analytical methods.
  • Compile and analyze test information to determine process or equipment operating efficiency or to diagnose malfunctions.
  • Confer with scientists or engineers to conduct analyses of research projects, interpret test results, or develop nonstandard tests.
  • Direct, coordinate, or advise personnel in test procedures for analyzing components or physical properties of materials.
  • Induce changes in composition of substances by introducing heat, light, energy, or chemical catalysts for quantitative or qualitative analysis.
  • Write technical papers or reports or prepare standards and specifications for processes, facilities, products, or tests.
  • Prepare test solutions, compounds, or reagents for laboratory personnel to conduct tests.
  • Maintain laboratory instruments to ensure proper working order and troubleshoot malfunctions when needed.
  • Conduct quality control tests.
  • Evaluate laboratory safety procedures to ensure compliance with standards or to make improvements as needed.
  • Purchase laboratory supplies, such as chemicals, when supplies are low or near their expiration date.
Supplemental
  • Study effects of various methods of processing, preserving, or packaging on composition or properties of foods.
All data sourced from US Department of Labor, Employment & Training Administration O*Net Database.
Knowledge
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Knowledge

The items listed below are organized into sections that contain knowledge useful for pursuing a career in this field. Each section also contains a "Percentage of Importance" statistic that shows how relevant an item is to the occupation.
 Chemistry
  • 95%
    Knowledge of the chemical composition, structure, and properties of substances and of the chemical processes and transformations that they undergo. This includes uses of chemicals and their interactions, danger signs, production techniques, and disposal methods.
 Mathematics
  • 80%
    Knowledge of arithmetic, algebra, geometry, calculus, statistics, and their applications.
 Production and Processing
  • 72%
    Knowledge of raw materials, production processes, quality control, costs, and other techniques for maximizing the effective manufacture and distribution of goods.
 Computers and Electronics
  • 69%
    Knowledge of circuit boards, processors, chips, electronic equipment, and computer hardware and software, including applications and programming.
 English Language
  • 67%
    Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
 Customer and Personal Service
  • 65%
    Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
 Engineering and Technology
  • 63%
    Knowledge of the practical application of engineering science and technology. This includes applying principles, techniques, procedures, and equipment to the design and production of various goods and services.
 Education and Training
  • 57%
    Knowledge of principles and methods for curriculum and training design, teaching and instruction for individuals and groups, and the measurement of training effects.
 Clerical
  • 56%
    Knowledge of administrative and clerical procedures and systems such as word processing, managing files and records, stenography and transcription, designing forms, and other office procedures and terminology.
 Mechanical
  • 56%
    Knowledge of machines and tools, including their designs, uses, repair, and maintenance.
 Public Safety and Security
  • 52%
    Knowledge of relevant equipment, policies, procedures, and strategies to promote effective local, state, or national security operations for the protection of people, data, property, and institutions.
All data sourced from US Department of Labor, Employment & Training Administration O*Net Database.
Tools
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Tools
The tools listed below include machines, equipment, tools, and software that is useful for individuals who are interested in this career.
 Laboratory heating and drying equipment
  • Air dryers
  • Alcohol lamps
  • Bunsen burners
  • Deflagration spoons
  • Hot plates with magnetic stirrers
  • Thermal cyclers
 Laboratory decanting and distilling and evaporating and extracting equipment and supplies
  • Airfree/waterfree solvent purification systems
  • Centrifugal evaporator concentrators
  • Cold trap evaporators
  • Distillation ovens
  • Distilling units
  • Lab heat exchangers
  • Microdistillation ovens
  • Microwave digestion systems
  • Rotary evaporators
  • Speed-vac concentrators
 Weight measuring instruments
  • Analytical balances
  • Electronic toploading balances
  • Magnetic susceptibility balances
  • Micro electrobalances
  • Top-loading electronic balances
 Laboratory ovens and accessories
  • Annealing ovens
  • Solar simulators
  • Vacuum ovens
 Spectroscopic equipment
  • Atomic absorption AA spectrometers
  • Fourier transform infrared FTIR spectrometers
  • Gas chromatograph mass spectrometers GC-MS
  • Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometers ICP-MS
  • Infrared IR spectrometers
  • Luminescence spectrometers
  • Mass spectrometers
  • Microplate spectrophotometers
  • Nuclear magnetic resonance NMR spectrometers
  • Spectrofluorimeters
  • Spectrometers
  • Spectrophotometers
  • Ultraviolet-visible spectrometers
 Laboratory mixing and stirring and shaking equipment and supplies
  • Automatic peptide synthesizers
  • Mini synthesizers
  • Plasticorders
  • Tube magnetic mixers
 Electrochemical measuring instruments and accessories
  • Autotitrators
  • Conductance meters
  • Conductivity meters
  • Dissolved oxygen meters
  • Ion analyzers
  • Ion selective electrode ISE meters
  • Karl Fischer titrators
  • pH meters
  • Titrators
 General laboratory glassware and plasticware and supplies
  • Beakers
  • Burets
  • Cuvettes
  • Erlenmeyer flasks
  • Funnels
  • Graduated cylinders
  • Thistle tubes
 Pharmaceutical industry machinery and equipment and supplies
  • Benchtop lyophilizers
  • High-pressure high-temperature reactors
 Laboratory furnaces and accessories
  • Box furnace ovens
  • Split-hinge furnaces
  • Tubular furnaces
 Laboratory electrophoresis and blotting system and supplies
  • Capillary electrophoresis systems
  • Digital electrophoresis documentation and analysis systems
  • Digital gel analyzer systems
  • Fraction collectors
 Clinical and diagnostic analyzers and accessories and supplies
  • Carbon hydrogen nitrogen CHN elemental analyzers
  • Stripping analyzers
 Laboratory centrifuges and accessories
  • Chemical centrifuges
  • Floor centrifuges
  • High-speed centrifuges
  • Microcentrifuges
  • Refrigerated high-speed centrifuges
  • Tabletop centrifuges
  • Ultracentrifuges
 Laboratory cooling equipment
  • Closed cycle refrigerators
  • Cryogenic refrigerators
  • Cryostats
  • Refrigerated circulators
 Fluid mechanics equipment
  • Combustion furnaces
  • Densitometers
  • Flow injection analyzers
  • Liquid scintillation counters
 Gas analyzers and monitors
  • Conductivity detectors
  • Respirometers
 Computers
  • Desktop computers
  • Laptop computers
  • Mainframe computers
  • Personal computers
 Temperature and heat measuring instruments
  • Differential scanning calorimeters
  • Melting point apparatus
  • Oxygen bomb calorimeters
 Cameras
  • Digital cameras
 Light and wave generating and measuring equipment
  • Diode lasers
  • Dye lasers
  • Helium-cadmium lasers
  • Laser power meters
  • Neodymium-doped Yttrium Aluminum Garnet Nd:YAG lasers
  • Nitrogen lasers
  • Picosecond lasers
  • Polarimeters
  • Polarographic analyzers
 Chemical evaluation instruments and supplies
  • Electrochemical analyzers
  • Multiwell microplates
  • Thermal gravimetric analyzers
 Viewing and observing instruments and accessories
  • Fluorescence microscopes
  • Inverted microscopes
  • Mercury lamp photolysis systems
  • Monocular microscopes
  • Nanoscopes
  • Polarizing microscopes
  • Scanning electron microscopes SEM
  • Scanning tunneling microscopes STM
  • Stereo zoom microscopes
 Electrical measuring and testing equipment and accessories
  • Galvanostats
  • Oscilloscopes
  • Potentiostats
  • Signal average storage scopes
 Chromatographic measuring instruments and accessories
  • Gas chromatographs GC
  • High-performance liquid chromatographs
  • High-pressure liquid chromatography systems
  • Liquid chromatographs LC
  • Microinjectors
  • Photochemical reactors
 Indicating and recording instruments
  • Immersion probes
  • Pressure sensors
  • Strip chart recorders
 Laboratory pumps and tubing
  • Laboratory vacuum pumps
  • Reagent pumps
  • Syringe pumps
 Computer printers
  • Large-format plotters
  • Laser printers
 Pipettes and liquid handling equipment and supplies
  • Micropipettes
  • Pipettes
  • Pipetting stations
 Tissue culture and high throughput screening supplies
  • Petri dishes
  • Tissue culture plates
  • Well tissue culture plates
 Laboratory baths
  • Shaking waterbaths
  • Water baths
 Crystallography equipment
  • Single crystal x ray diffractometers
  • X ray diffraction equipment
 Histology equipment
  • Solvent recyclers
  • Sonicators
 Test Tubes
  • Test tubes
All data sourced from US Department of Labor, Employment & Training Administration O*Net Database.
Technology
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Technology
The technologies listed below include machines, equipment, tools, and software that is useful for individuals who are interested in this career.
 Industry specific software
  • Accelrys Cerius2
  • Accelrys DeCipher
  • Advanced Chemistry Development ACD/1D nuclear magnetic resonance NMR processor
  • Agilent ChemStation
  • Bruker BioSpin TopSpin
  • Chem2Pac
  • Chemical kinetics software
  • ChemInnovation Software Chem 4-DHOT
  • ChemSW Calibration Pro
  • ChemSW Mass Spec Tools
  • ChemSW Molecular Modeling ProHOT
  • ChemSW Uncertainty Pro
  • Conversion tools software
  • Crystallography software
  • CrystalMaker
  • Density functional theory DFT software
  • Gas chromatograph GS software
  • Gaussian software
  • Hypercube HyperChemHOT
  • Laboratory information management system LIMS
  • MinitabHOT
  • Modeling software
  • Molecular simulation software
  • MSI Insight/Discover
  • Multi-functional calculators
  • Network Science IR Mentor Pro
  • Organic synthesis planning software
  • Q-Chem
  • SAS JMP
  • SciQuest PE TurboChrom
  • Siemens SHELXTL
  • Statistical software
  • Surface modeling software
  • Synthematix StructureSearch
  • Vogel Scientific Software Group CALACO
  • Waters Empower Chromatography Data Software
  • Waters Millennium32
  • Wavefunction Spartan
 Business function specific software
  • Apple iWork
  • ChemSW Chemical Inventory System CIS
  • ItemTracker
  • Microsoft OfficeHOT
  • NeoOffice
  • UBI Biotracker
 Content authoring and editing software
  • Apple iWork Keynote
  • Apple iWork Numbers
  • Apple iWork Pages
  • Digital imaging software
  • Graphics software
  • Microsoft ExcelHOT
  • Microsoft PowerPointHOT
  • Microsoft VisioHOT
  • Microsoft WordHOT
  • MolDraw
  • Word processing software
 Development software
  • C
  • C++HOT
  • Extensible markup language XMLHOT
  • Hypertext markup language HTMLHOT
  • Microsoft Visual BasicHOT
  • National Instruments LabVIEWHOT
  • Oracle JavaHOT
 Data management and query software
  • CambridgeSoft ChemOffice Ultra
  • ChemSW Buffer Maker
  • JDA Arthur KnowledgeBase database
  • LabTrack Electronic Lab Notebook
  • Logger software
  • Microsoft AccessHOT
  • Molsearch Pro
  • Structured query language SQLHOT
 Content management software
  • ChemSW Laboratory Document Control System LDCS
 Network applications software
  • Internet browser software
All data sourced from US Department of Labor, Employment & Training Administration O*Net Database.
Certifications
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Certifications
The certifications listed below are useful to pursue if you are interested in a career in this field.
 Specialty
 Advanced
 Core
All data sourced from US Department of Labor, Employment & Training Administration O*Net Database.
Licensing
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Licensing
The licensing information below is organized into sections and is useful for pursuing if you are interested in a career in this field.
No specific licensing information is listed for this occupation in the area you have selected.
All data sourced from US Department of Labor, Employment & Training Administration O*Net Database.
Related Programs
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Online Programs related to this career, offered by participating institution(s), are listed below.

Clicking on the Degree programs in the list below will take you away from the Careers page.
INSTITUTION
PROGRAMS
J Sargeant Reynolds Community College
Mountain Gateway Community College
Northern Virginia Community College
Virginia Peninsula Community College
Wytheville Community College