the different careers in chemistry?

Answer 1

There are a variety of careers for chemists. Most use electronic instruments far more than the traditional test tubes and beakers.

Some chemists (synthetic chemists) figured out the reactions needed to make a new drug used in medicine.

Other chemists then do analyses. For the pharmaceutical industry, this may be to confirm the purity of the drug they are manufacturing. There may be residual materials from the beginning reagents used to make the drug, or the a different compound may have formed than the one needed. Both could be very bad if you were the patient taking the drug.

Still other industries use analytical chemists for other needs.
The coffee industry uses analytical chemists to establish the quality of coffee beans being sold (See link below for an interesting article)

For the steel industry, they can confirm the content of materials in the steel. The addition of trace amounts of carbon (C) or sulfur (S) can have dramatic effects on steel's hardness or strength. This is vitally important for construction and manufacturing.

Biochemistry is HOT field for chemists right now, as they are involved with many of the biotechnologies (genomics, proteomics) that will have a huge impact on technology and society. Biochemists work w/ the compounds produced by living creatures (plant, animal, bacterial, or even viral).

Other chemists are working with catalysts...those are materials and/or systems that improve the reactions needed to make materials. You may want to form gasoline from heavier hydrocarbons...or lighter hydrocarbons. It doesn't make much sense to use alot of energy to do this, since you want the gasoline for energy. So, catalysts can improve the production in such circumstances, reducing the cost, in dollars, time and energy.

Geochemists may be helping the energy industry search for new places for fuel, and to ensure that the environment is not polluted by these efforts.

Some chemists analyze meteorites to determine their origin, and infer how the universe developed.

These are just a few examples of careers for chemists.

Answer 2

In addition to careers in which you actually *do* chemistry, there are also careers that center around chemistry but do not require any sort of lab work. I'm an organic/materials research chemist, but I have acquaintances who have become patent agents, patent attorneys, science editors, technical writers, medical technologists, etc., etc. It's a very versatile field. And let's not forget the academic track. You can always teach other people about chemistry at either the secondary school or university level.

Answer 3

ACS will help the most acs.org or chemistry.org

there are 3 types of chemists:
makers
modelers
measurers

I'm a bioorganic chemist who makes and measures stuff so you normally don't do just one thing.