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How to become Microbiologist in 2024

Microbiologist Investigate the growth, structure, development, and other characteristics of microscopic organisms, such as bacteria, algae, or fungi. Includes medical microbiologists who study the relationship between organisms and disease or the effects of antibiotics on microorganisms.

Microbiologist is Also Know as

In different settings, Microbiologist is titled as

  • Bacteriologist
  • Clinical Laboratory Scientist
  • Clinical Microbiologist
  • Microbiological Analyst
  • Microbiologist
  • Quality Control Microbiologist (QC Microbiologist)

Education and Training of Microbiologist

Microbiologist is categorized in Job Zone Five: Extensive Preparation Needed

Experience Required for Microbiologist

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 Required for Microbiologist

Most of these occupations 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).

Degrees Related to Microbiologist

Training Required for Microbiologist

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.

Related Ocuupations

Some Ocuupations related to Microbiologist in different industries are

What Do Microbiologist do?

  • Examine physiological, morphological, and cultural characteristics, using microscope, to identify and classify microorganisms in human, water, and food specimens.
  • Provide laboratory services for health departments, community environmental health programs, and physicians needing information for diagnosis and treatment.
  • Observe action of microorganisms upon living tissues of plants, higher animals, and other microorganisms, and on dead organic matter.
  • Investigate the relationship between organisms and disease, including the control of epidemics and the effects of antibiotics on microorganisms.
  • Supervise biological technologists and technicians and other scientists.
  • Study growth, structure, development, and general characteristics of bacteria and other microorganisms to understand their relationship to human, plant, and animal health.
  • Prepare technical reports and recommendations, based upon research outcomes.
  • Study the structure and function of human, animal, and plant tissues, cells, pathogens, and toxins.
  • Use a variety of specialized equipment, such as electron microscopes, gas and high-pressure liquid chromatographs, electrophoresis units, thermocyclers, fluorescence-activated cell sorters, and phosphorimagers.
  • Conduct chemical analyses of substances such as acids, alcohols, and enzymes.
  • Research use of bacteria and microorganisms to develop vitamins, antibiotics, amino acids, grain alcohol, sugars, and polymers.
  • Isolate and maintain cultures of bacteria or other microorganisms in prescribed or developed media, controlling moisture, aeration, temperature, and nutrition.
  • Monitor and perform tests on water, food, and the environment to detect harmful microorganisms or to obtain information about sources of pollution, contamination, or infection.
  • Develop new products and procedures for sterilization, food and pharmaceutical supply preservation, or microbial contamination detection.

Qualities of Good Microbiologist

  • Written Comprehension: The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
  • Inductive Reasoning: The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
  • Written Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
  • Oral Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
  • Problem Sensitivity: The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing that there is a problem.
  • Deductive Reasoning: The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
  • Information Ordering: The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
  • Category Flexibility: The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
  • Oral Comprehension: The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
  • Fluency of Ideas: The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).
  • Near Vision: The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
  • Flexibility of Closure: The ability to identify or detect a known pattern (a figure, object, word, or sound) that is hidden in other distracting material.
  • Speech Recognition: The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
  • Selective Attention: The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted.
  • Originality: The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
  • Speech Clarity: The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
  • Mathematical Reasoning: The ability to choose the right mathematical methods or formulas to solve a problem.
  • Visualization: The ability to imagine how something will look after it is moved around or when its parts are moved or rearranged.
  • Finger Dexterity: The ability to make precisely coordinated movements of the fingers of one or both hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble very small objects.
  • Number Facility: The ability to add, subtract, multiply, or divide quickly and correctly.
  • Visual Color Discrimination: The ability to match or detect differences between colors, including shades of color and brightness.
  • Perceptual Speed: The ability to quickly and accurately compare similarities and differences among sets of letters, numbers, objects, pictures, or patterns. The things to be compared may be presented at the same time or one after the other. This ability also includes comparing a presented object with a remembered object.
  • Speed of Closure: The ability to quickly make sense of, combine, and organize information into meaningful patterns.
  • Arm-Hand Steadiness: The ability to keep your hand and arm steady while moving your arm or while holding your arm and hand in one position.
  • Control Precision: The ability to quickly and repeatedly adjust the controls of a machine or a vehicle to exact positions.
  • Far Vision: The ability to see details at a distance.
  • Manual Dexterity: The ability to quickly move your hand, your hand together with your arm, or your two hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble objects.
  • Time Sharing: The ability to shift back and forth between two or more activities or sources of information (such as speech, sounds, touch, or other sources).
  • Memorization: The ability to remember information such as words, numbers, pictures, and procedures.
  • Multilimb Coordination: The ability to coordinate two or more limbs (for example, two arms, two legs, or one leg and one arm) while sitting, standing, or lying down. It does not involve performing the activities while the whole body is in motion.
  • Trunk Strength: The ability to use your abdominal and lower back muscles to support part of the body repeatedly or continuously over time without "giving out" or fatiguing.
  • Depth Perception: The ability to judge which of several objects is closer or farther away from you, or to judge the distance between you and an object.
  • Static Strength: The ability to exert maximum muscle force to lift, push, pull, or carry objects.
  • Auditory Attention: The ability to focus on a single source of sound in the presence of other distracting sounds.
  • Hearing Sensitivity: The ability to detect or tell the differences between sounds that vary in pitch and loudness.
  • Rate Control: The ability to time your movements or the movement of a piece of equipment in anticipation of changes in the speed and/or direction of a moving object or scene.
  • Reaction Time: The ability to quickly respond (with the hand, finger, or foot) to a signal (sound, light, picture) when it appears.
  • Wrist-Finger Speed: The ability to make fast, simple, repeated movements of the fingers, hands, and wrists.
  • Response Orientation: The ability to choose quickly between two or more movements in response to two or more different signals (lights, sounds, pictures). It includes the speed with which the correct response is started with the hand, foot, or other body part.
  • Extent Flexibility: The ability to bend, stretch, twist, or reach with your body, arms, and/or legs.
  • Explosive Strength: The ability to use short bursts of muscle force to propel oneself (as in jumping or sprinting), or to throw an object.
  • Dynamic Strength: The ability to exert muscle force repeatedly or continuously over time. This involves muscular endurance and resistance to muscle fatigue.
  • Stamina: The ability to exert yourself physically over long periods of time without getting winded or out of breath.
  • Gross Body Equilibrium: The ability to keep or regain your body balance or stay upright when in an unstable position.
  • Gross Body Coordination: The ability to coordinate the movement of your arms, legs, and torso together when the whole body is in motion.
  • Night Vision: The ability to see under low-light conditions.
  • Peripheral Vision: The ability to see objects or movement of objects to one's side when the eyes are looking ahead.
  • Dynamic Flexibility: The ability to quickly and repeatedly bend, stretch, twist, or reach out with your body, arms, and/or legs.
  • Glare Sensitivity: The ability to see objects in the presence of a glare or bright lighting.
  • Speed of Limb Movement: The ability to quickly move the arms and legs.
  • Sound Localization: The ability to tell the direction from which a sound originated.
  • Spatial Orientation: The ability to know your location in relation to the environment or to know where other objects are in relation to you.

Tools Used by Microbiologist

  • 8-channel electronic pipettes
  • Alcohol lamps
  • Anaerobic growth chambers
  • Analytical balances
  • Argon lasers
  • Autoclaves
  • Automated gram stainers
  • Automated microbial identification systems
  • Automatic cell sorters
  • Automatic coverslipper
  • Automatic pipetters
  • Bacteriological incubators
  • Bacticinerators
  • Bioaerosol impactors
  • Biological safety hoods
  • Bioreactors
  • Bright field light microscopes
  • Bubble counters
  • Charge coupled device CCD color digital cameras
  • Chemical safety showers
  • Colony counters
  • Compound binocular light microscopes
  • Conductivity meters
  • Coplin jars
  • Culture bottles
  • Culture tubes
  • Darkroom developing tanks
  • Deionized DI water systems
  • Deoxyribonucleic acid DNA sequencers
  • Desktop centrifuges
  • Desktop computers
  • Dichotomous particulate matter samplers
  • Direct heat dry wall carbon dioxide CO2 incubators
  • Dissecting microscopes
  • Dissolved oxygen meters
  • Dropping pipettes
  • Dry bath incubators
  • Drying ovens
  • Electronic sterilizers
  • Electronic toploading balances
  • Electroporators
  • Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay ELISA plate readers
  • Erlenmeyer flask clamps
  • Erlenmeyer flasks
  • Eyewash fountains
  • Fecal coliform water baths
  • Fire extinguishers
  • Floor shakers
  • Flow cytometers
  • Fluorescence activated cell sorters
  • Fluorescent microscopes
  • Fourier transform infrared FTIR spectrometers
  • Freeze dryers
  • French presses
  • Gas chromatographs GC
  • Gas-powered generators
  • Gel documentation systems
  • Gel electrophoresis boxes
  • Gel support frames
  • Gel transfer apparatus
  • Graduated glass laboratory cylinders
  • Hardy Diagnostics HUGO
  • Heat blocks
  • Heating stirplates
  • Helium-neon lasers
  • HEPA filtered biosafety cabinets
  • High pressure liquid chromatographs HPLC
  • High-speed centrifuges
  • Hybridization ovens
  • Impedance meters
  • Infrared gas analyzers
  • Infrared IR spectrometers
  • Inoculating loops
  • Inverted microscopes
  • Laboratory beakers
  • Laboratory funnels
  • Laboratory gas burners
  • Laboratory glassware washers
  • Laboratory heat exchange condensing devices
  • Laboratory membrane filtering devices
  • Laboratory refrigerators
  • Laboratory test tubes
  • Laboratory vacuum pumps
  • Laminar flow cabinets
  • Laser printers
  • Liquid chromatograph devices
  • Liquid impingers
  • Liquid nitrogen storage equipment
  • Magnetic laboratory stirrers
  • Mass spectrometers
  • Membrane filtration systems
  • Micro balances
  • Microcalorimeters
  • Microcentrifuges
  • Micromanipulators
  • Micropipettes
  • Microscope slides
  • Mid-infrared spectrometers
  • Multiplate readers
  • Multistage agar impactors
  • Multiwell trays
  • Notebook computers
  • Oil-immersion microscope lenses
  • Orbital shaking incubators
  • Orbital shaking water baths
  • Osmometers
  • Peristaltic pumps
  • Personal computers
  • Petri dishes
  • pH meters
  • Phase contrast microscopes
  • Photomicroscopes
  • Pipette pumps
  • Precision pan balances
  • Prepared agar plates
  • Protective gloves
  • Protective laboratory coats
  • Raman spectrometers
  • Rechargeable electronic pipette fillers
  • Recording thermometers
  • Refrigerated benchtop centrifuges
  • Refrigerated recirculating water baths
  • Respirators
  • Rotator mixers
  • Safety glasses
  • Safety shoes
  • Scanning electron microscopes SEM
  • Sectioned petri plates
  • Semidry blotting apparatus
  • Serology rotators
  • Shaking incubators
  • Sonicators
  • Staining dishes
  • Steroclaves
  • Test tube racks
  • Thermocyclers
  • Tissue homogenizers
  • Transilluminators
  • Transmission electron microscopes TEM
  • Ultra cold biological freezers
  • Ultracentrifuges
  • Ultraviolet UV lamps
  • Visible spectrometers
  • Visible/UV light scanning spectrophotometers
  • Vortex mixers
  • Water purification systems
  • Water sample collection containers
  • X ray diffractometers

Technology Skills required for Microbiologist

  • Assistant Software for Antimicrobial Susceptibility Interpretation ASASI
  • Basic Local Alignment Search Tool BLAST
  • BD Biosciences CellQuest
  • BD Biosciences CloneCyt
  • Bruker Optics OPUS
  • BtB Software Mycobacteriology Lab
  • Codon Usage Database
  • ComBase
  • Computer Service & Support CLS-2000 Laboratory System
  • Computing Solutions LabSoft LIMS Micro
  • Database management software
  • DM2 Bills of Lading
  • Email software
  • FindTarget
  • FramePlot
  • Gene Finder
  • Gene recognition software
  • Genie Interactive
  • Image capture and analysis software
  • Laboratory information management system LIMS
  • Microsoft Access
  • Microsoft Excel
  • Microsoft Office software
  • Microsoft Outlook
  • Microsoft PowerPoint
  • Microsoft Windows
  • Microsoft Word
  • NetLims AutoLims
  • Orchard Software Orchard Harvest LIS
  • Pathogen Modeling Program PMP
  • PHYLIP
  • PIBWin
  • PredictProtein
  • Proscan
  • Protein databases
  • Protein Explorer
  • ProtScale
  • SAP software
  • STARLIMS
  • Statistical software
  • TreeView
  • Verity Software House ModFit LT
  • Web browser software
  • WHONET
  • Word processing software