IUBio

JOBS IN NEUROSC????

Sturla Molden STUMOL at stud.ntnu.no
Tue Sep 8 11:59:08 EST 1998


In article <libbyhigh-0709981747120001 at 88.ft-worth-02.tx.dial-access.att.net>, "Libby (Winegar) High" <libbyhigh at worldnet.att.net> wrote:
>My daughter is majoring in neurobiology in college. (She says she is
>fascinated by the brain). What career opportunities are available besides
>research? Would like to at least know what's in her future.

It soulds like you are outraged. First I want to say that you ask the wrong
question. One does not know exactly what careers are open to scientists.
If  your daugher had studied nursing she would have become a nurse; if she
had studied law she would have become a cilisitor. But science is different,
there is no correct answer to the question "what do you become then?" 
Here are some examples of carrers I  know are available to neurobiologists:

- Several types of work for the pharmaceutical industry (management,
develpment, research, product testing, marketing, etc.) This is probably were 
you find the biggest salaries. 

- Health care (many differents types of laboratory work)

- Natural management or concervation (they emply any biologist) 

- The armed forces: almost all chemical or biological weapons attack the 
nervous system. The armed forces have traditionally been one of the largest 
employers for neurobiologists. If your daughter is lucky she gets to work with 
harmless compounds like sarin,  VX gas, or botulinum toxine.

- Agricultural management, e.g. pest control (the best way to fight nasty bugs 
like the colorado beetle  is to fool its chemosensory organ) and applied 
ethology (ensuring animal welfare and enhancing production). 

- Chemical industry, e.g. work relating assament of som environmental 
pollutants.

- Teaching (everything from highschools to universities)   

- Research: most of those who study neurobiology do so to get a reasearch 
posistion. They are seldom well payed, but probably the most interesting 
careers awailable. Neuroscience is one of the fastest growing fields of 
biomedical research, so there are a number of research positions awailable. 

- Product develpoment for companies with interests in animal robotics,
artifical intelligence, neural networks, etc.

- Some universities have programs in experimental psychology for people with 
initial training in (neuro)biology, e.g. University of Sussex (see 
www.sussex.ac.uk). This opens many careers primarily awailable for 
psychologists.







Sturla Molden
















--
Sturla Molden
stumol at stud.ntnu.no



More information about the Neur-sci mailing list

Send comments to us at biosci-help [At] net.bio.net