How to become Chemist in 2024

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

Chemist is Also Know as

In different settings, Chemist is titled as

  • Air Quality Chemist
  • Analytical Chemist
  • Chemical Lab Scientist (Chemical Laboratory Scientist)
  • Chemist
  • Forensic Chemist
  • Product Development Chemist
  • QC Chemist (Quality Control Chemist)
  • R and D Chemist (Research and Development Chemist)
  • Research Chemist
  • Scientist

Education and Training of Chemist

Chemist is categorized in Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed

Experience Required for Chemist

A considerable amount of work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is needed for these occupations. For example, an accountant must complete four years of college and work for several years in accounting to be considered qualified.

Education Required for Chemist

Most of these occupations require a four-year bachelor's degree, but some do not.

Degrees Related to Chemist

Training Required for Chemist

Employees in these occupations usually need several years of work-related experience, on-the-job training, and/or vocational training.

Related Ocuupations

Some Ocuupations related to Chemist in different industries are

What Do Chemist do?

  • 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.
  • Study effects of various methods of processing, preserving, or packaging on composition or properties of foods.
  • 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.

Qualities of Good Chemist

  • Written Comprehension: The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
  • Oral Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
  • Written Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
  • Oral Comprehension: The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
  • Deductive Reasoning: The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
  • Inductive Reasoning: The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • Near Vision: The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
  • Mathematical Reasoning: The ability to choose the right mathematical methods or formulas to solve a problem.
  • Number Facility: The ability to add, subtract, multiply, or divide quickly and correctly.
  • 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.
  • Speech Clarity: The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
  • Visual Color Discrimination: The ability to match or detect differences between colors, including shades of color and brightness.
  • 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).
  • 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.
  • Visualization: The ability to imagine how something will look after it is moved around or when its parts are moved or rearranged.
  • Selective Attention: The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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).
  • 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.
  • Memorization: The ability to remember information such as words, numbers, pictures, and procedures.
  • 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.
  • Speed of Closure: The ability to quickly make sense of, combine, and organize information into meaningful patterns.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • Hearing Sensitivity: The ability to detect or tell the differences between sounds that vary in pitch and loudness.
  • Auditory Attention: The ability to focus on a single source of sound in the presence of other distracting sounds.
  • 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.
  • Wrist-Finger Speed: The ability to make fast, simple, repeated movements of the fingers, hands, and wrists.
  • Reaction Time: The ability to quickly respond (with the hand, finger, or foot) to a signal (sound, light, picture) when it appears.
  • Static Strength: The ability to exert maximum muscle force to lift, push, pull, or carry objects.
  • Extent Flexibility: The ability to bend, stretch, twist, or reach with your body, arms, and/or legs.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • Gross Body Equilibrium: The ability to keep or regain your body balance or stay upright when in an unstable position.
  • Stamina: The ability to exert yourself physically over long periods of time without getting winded or out of breath.
  • Gross Body Coordination: The ability to coordinate the movement of your arms, legs, and torso together when the whole body is in motion.
  • Dynamic Strength: The ability to exert muscle force repeatedly or continuously over time. This involves muscular endurance and resistance to muscle fatigue.
  • Explosive Strength: The ability to use short bursts of muscle force to propel oneself (as in jumping or sprinting), or to throw an object.
  • Spatial Orientation: The ability to know your location in relation to the environment or to know where other objects are in relation to you.
  • Speed of Limb Movement: The ability to quickly move the arms and legs.
  • 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.
  • Sound Localization: The ability to tell the direction from which a sound originated.

Tools Used by Chemist

  • Air dryers
  • Airfree/waterfree solvent purification systems
  • Alcohol lamps
  • Analytical balances
  • Annealing ovens
  • Atomic absorption AA spectrometers
  • Automatic peptide synthesizers
  • Autotitrators
  • Beakers
  • Benchtop lyophilizers
  • Box furnace ovens
  • Bunsen burners
  • Burets
  • Capillary electrophoresis systems
  • Carbon hydrogen nitrogen CHN elemental analyzers
  • Centrifugal evaporator concentrators
  • Chemical centrifuges
  • Closed cycle refrigerators
  • Cold trap evaporators
  • Combustion furnaces
  • Conductance meters
  • Conductivity detectors
  • Conductivity meters
  • Cryogenic refrigerators
  • Cryostats
  • Cuvettes
  • Deflagration spoons
  • Densitometers
  • Desktop computers
  • Differential scanning calorimeters
  • Digital cameras
  • Digital electrophoresis documentation and analysis systems
  • Digital gel analyzer systems
  • Diode lasers
  • Dissolved oxygen meters
  • Distillation ovens
  • Distilling units
  • Dye lasers
  • Electrochemical analyzers
  • Electronic toploading balances
  • Erlenmeyer flasks
  • Floor centrifuges
  • Flow injection analyzers
  • Fluorescence microscopes
  • Fourier transform infrared FTIR spectrometers
  • Fraction collectors
  • Freeze dryers
  • Fume hoods
  • Funnels
  • Galvanostats
  • Gas chromatograph mass spectrometers GC-MS
  • Gas chromatographs GC
  • Glassware washers
  • Graduated cylinders
  • Grinder mills
  • Helium-cadmium lasers
  • High-performance liquid chromatographs
  • High-pressure high-temperature reactors
  • High-pressure liquid chromatography systems
  • High-speed centrifuges
  • Homogenizers
  • Hot plates with magnetic stirrers
  • Hydrogenation apparatus
  • Immersion probes
  • Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometers ICP-MS
  • Inert atmosphere glove boxes
  • Infrared IR spectrometers
  • Inverted microscopes
  • Ion analyzers
  • Ion selective electrode ISE meters
  • Karl Fischer titrators
  • Lab heat exchangers
  • Laboratory presses
  • Laboratory vacuum pumps
  • Laptop computers
  • Large-format plotters
  • Laser power meters
  • Laser printers
  • Liquid chromatographs LC
  • Liquid scintillation counters
  • Luminescence spectrometers
  • Magnetic susceptibility balances
  • Magnetometers
  • Mainframe computers
  • Mass spectrometers
  • Melting point apparatus
  • Mercury lamp photolysis systems
  • Micro electrobalances
  • Microcentrifuges
  • Microdistillation ovens
  • Microinjectors
  • Micropipettes
  • Microplate spectrophotometers
  • Microwave digestion systems
  • Mini synthesizers
  • Monocular microscopes
  • Multiwell microplates
  • Nanoscopes
  • Neodymium-doped yttrium aluminum garnet Nd:YAG lasers
  • Nitrogen lasers
  • Nuclear magnetic resonance NMR spectrometers
  • Oscillating disc rheometers
  • Oscilloscopes
  • Oxygen bomb calorimeters
  • Particle size analyzers
  • Personal computers
  • Petri dishes
  • pH meters
  • Photochemical reactors
  • Picosecond lasers
  • Pipettes
  • Pipetting stations
  • Plasticorders
  • Polarimeters
  • Polarizing microscopes
  • Polarographic analyzers
  • Potentiostats
  • Pressure sensors
  • Reagent pumps
  • Refrigerated circulators
  • Refrigerated high-speed centrifuges
  • Respirators
  • Respirometers
  • Rotary evaporators
  • Scanning electron microscopes SEM
  • Scanning tunneling microscopes STM
  • Shaking incubators
  • Shaking waterbaths
  • Signal average storage scopes
  • Single crystal x ray diffractometers
  • Solar simulators
  • Solvent recyclers
  • Sonicators
  • Spectrofluorimeters
  • Spectrometers
  • Spectrophotometers
  • Speed-vac concentrators
  • Split-hinge furnaces
  • Stereo zoom microscopes
  • Strip chart recorders
  • Stripping analyzers
  • Syringe pumps
  • Tabletop centrifuges
  • Tensile testers
  • Test tubes
  • Thermal cyclers
  • Thermal gravimetric analyzers
  • Thistle tubes
  • Tissue culture plates
  • Titrators
  • Top-loading electronic balances
  • Tube magnetic mixers
  • Tubular furnaces
  • Ultracentrifuges
  • Ultraviolet-visible spectrometers
  • Vacuum ovens
  • Water baths
  • Well tissue culture plates
  • X ray diffraction equipment

Technology Skills required for Chemist

  • Accelrys Cerius2
  • Accelrys DeCipher
  • Advanced Chemistry Development ACD/1D nuclear magnetic resonance NMR processor
  • Agilent ChemStation
  • Apple iWork
  • Apple iWork Keynote
  • Apple iWork Numbers
  • Apple iWork Pages
  • Bruker BioSpin TopSpin
  • C
  • C++
  • CambridgeSoft ChemOffice Ultra
  • Chem2Pac
  • Chemical kinetics software
  • ChemInnovation Software Chem 4-D
  • ChemSW Buffer Maker
  • ChemSW Calibration Pro
  • ChemSW Chemical Inventory System CIS
  • ChemSW Laboratory Document Control System LDCS
  • ChemSW Mass Spec Tools
  • ChemSW Molecular Modeling Pro
  • ChemSW Uncertainty Pro
  • Conversion tools software
  • Crystallography software
  • CrystalMaker
  • Density functional theory DFT software
  • Digital imaging software
  • Extensible markup language XML
  • Gas chromatograph GS software
  • Gaussian software
  • Graphics software
  • Hypercube HyperChem
  • Hypertext markup language HTML
  • Internet browser software
  • ItemTracker
  • JDA Arthur KnowledgeBase database
  • Laboratory information management system LIMS
  • LabTrack Electronic Lab Notebook
  • Logger software
  • Microsoft Access
  • Microsoft Excel
  • Microsoft Office software
  • Microsoft PowerPoint
  • Microsoft Visio
  • Microsoft Visual Basic
  • Microsoft Word
  • Minitab
  • Modeling software
  • MolDraw
  • Molecular simulation software
  • Molsearch Pro
  • MSI Insight/Discover
  • Multi-functional calculators
  • National Instruments LabVIEW
  • NeoOffice
  • Network Science IR Mentor Pro
  • Oracle Java
  • Organic synthesis planning software
  • Q-Chem
  • SAP software
  • SAS JMP
  • SciQuest PE TurboChrom
  • Siemens SHELXTL
  • Statistical software
  • Structured query language SQL
  • Surface modeling software
  • Synthematix StructureSearch
  • UBI Biotracker
  • Vogel Scientific Software Group CALACO
  • Waters Empower Chromatography Data Software
  • Waters Millennium32
  • Wavefunction Spartan
  • Word processing software