Description:

 

Scientific research involves designing and conducting experiments to collect data which can be analysed and used to develop new materials and products. Researchers often have to read scientific journals, keep up to date with web based research and attend lectures to renew their scientific understandings and keep up to date with discoveries and theories.

 

 

Career Paths:

 

Research...

• ...often leads to a careers in research laboritories, etc...

• ...careers can often include roles such as: 

  • planning and conducting experiments to investigate and analyse scientific phenomena

  • operating complex instrumentation

  • arranging the testing of products or materials to ensure that they meet quality standards

  • developing new products and ways of applying new methodology

  • developing innovative methods to improve existing products

  • writing up results in reports and/or scientific papers or books

  • maintaining accurate records of results

  • in industry, ensuring that the manufacture of new products and materials can be carried out without problems regardless of scale

  • writing applications for funding

  • managing a research team (which may include technicians and support staff) or a group of research students in an academic department

  • collaborating with other scientists, sometimes including scientists from other disciplines

  • carrying out fieldwork (collecting samples and monitoring environment)

  • developing specialist skills and expertise

  • working within health and safety regulations

  • teaching or lecturing

• ...can also lead to physics research careers in universities or a physics Ph.D. 

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Education:

 

On average, to study a physics degree, the following qualifications are needed:

• 5 GCSEs A*-C

• 2 A-levels including Physics and Maths - depending on the university, their requirements will differ on the grades required at A2 and As level

 

If you are considering taking a Ph.D involving research or even a Masters, you will also need a degree in physics, applied physics or a related physics or engineering subject.

 

 

Average salary:

 

Again, depending on the institution that you work for, the location, the research you are undertaking, whether it is privately funded or not, what qualifications you have achieved and how much experience you have gained. For those who have a Ph.D in a science related subject, the average salary is between £24,000 and £35,000. The, for those with more experience and have been in the industry for 10-15 years, the average salary is between £30,000 and £45,000. On top of this, University professors who teach as well as undertaking research in the labs at the university earn, on average, between £50,000 and £70,000.