Biologist

You'd study living things, such as plants, animals and the world around them, to increase our knowledge and understanding of them, the environment and genetics.

You would:

• design and carry out experiments

• make observations

• write reports and publish scientific papers based on your research

You could work in variety of areas.

You might help to develop new methods to diagnose, monitor and treat illness or disease.

You could help to tackle environmental problems, such as finding ways to clean up polluted rivers so that fish can thrive and to conserve plants and animals in their natural environment.

In agriculture and industry, for example, you might work on ways to:

• improve productivity of livestock or crops,

• prevent contamination of food

• safely get rid of waste

You could also specialise in related fields such as:

• ecology

• marine biology

• biotechnology

• immunology

• molecular biology

• microbiology

You'd often work in a team with other scientists and technicians, and you may supervise support staff and carry out administration work.

To help your research it would be useful to have an understanding of statistics and relevant computer packages. You’d also need to keep up to date with advances in your field.

If you were based at a university or teaching hospital, you'd teach and mentor students.

Green job 

In this job you'll be doing work to help the environment. Find out more about green jobs.

• Science Career Pathways - Introduction to science careers from Cogent, the skills body for science industries

• Royal Society of Biology - Careers and professional development

• GreenJobs - Find biology job vacancies