Medical Scientists
Sign In
Speciality
OverviewSalaryAboutEducationWhere are the jobsEmploymentGenderRace/Origin
Overview
Conduct research dealing with the understanding of human diseases and the improvement of human health. Engage in clinical investigation, research and development, or other related activities. Includes physicians, dentists, pharmacologists, and medical pathologists who primarily conduct research. Practitioners who primarily provide medical or dental care or dispense drugs are included in "Healthcare Diagnosing or Treating Practitioners" (29-1000).
Highlights
Undergraduate program resulting in the highest median salary ($105K): Electrical Engineering
Largest undergraduate program (22.9% of workers): Biology
Explore Pathways
Titles for this career often contain these words
ScientistClinicalResearchMedicalResearcherAnalystLaboratoryLiaisonPharmacologistSpecialistSeniorAnatomistCancerChemotherapistCytologistEndocrinologistGerontologistHistologistHistopathologistImmunochemistHealthPhysicistScienceMSLNeurophysiologistNeuroscientistParasitologistPesticideUseCoordinatorPharmaceuticalBotanistPharmacognosistSerologistToxicologist
Share
Fewer details
Responsibilities and activities

Medical scientists typically do the following:

  • Design and conduct studies that investigate both human diseases and methods to prevent and treat them
  • Prepare and analyze medical samples and data to investigate causes and treatment of toxicity, pathogens, or chronic diseases
  • Standardize drug potency, doses, and methods to allow for the mass manufacturing and distribution of drugs and medicinal compounds
  • Create and test medical devices
  • Develop programs that improve health outcomes, in partnership with health departments, industry personnel, and physicians
  • Write research grant proposals and apply for funding from government agencies and private funding sources
  • Follow procedures to avoid contamination and maintain safety

Many medical scientists form hypotheses and develop experiments, with little supervision. They often lead teams of technicians and, sometimes, students, who perform support tasks. For example, a medical scientist working in a university laboratory may have undergraduate assistants take measurements and make observations for the scientist’s research.

Medical scientists study the causes of diseases and other health problems. For example, a medical scientist who does cancer research might put together a combination of drugs that could slow the cancer’s progress. A clinical trial may be done to test the drugs. A medical scientist may work with licensed physicians to test the new combination on patients who are willing to participate in the study.

In a clinical trial, patients agree to help determine if a particular drug, a combination of drugs, or some other medical intervention works. Without knowing which group they are in, patients in a drug-related clinical trial receive either the trial drug or a placebo—a pill or injection that looks like the trial drug but does not actually contain the drug.

Medical scientists analyze the data from all of the patients in the clinical trial, to see how the trial drug performed. They compare the results with those obtained from the control group that took the placebo, and they analyze the attributes of the participants. After they complete their analysis, medical scientists may write about and publish their findings.

Medical scientists do research both to develop new treatments and to try to prevent health problems. For example, they may study the link between smoking and lung cancer or between diet and diabetes.

Medical scientists who work in private industry usually have to research the topics that benefit their company the most, rather than investigate their own interests. Although they may not have the pressure of writing grant proposals to get money for their research, they may have to explain their research plans to nonscientist managers or executives.

Medical scientists usually specialize in an area of research within the broad area of understanding and improving human health. Medical scientists may engage in basic and translational research that seeks to improve the understanding of, or strategies for, improving health. They may also choose to engage in clinical research that studies specific experimental treatments.

Salary
Median salary: $91,510 annually
Half of those employed in this career earn between $63,400 and $126,270.
$92K$0$50K$100K$150K$200K
Context: Median Salary
How do salaries for this career compare to other jobs' salaries?
Fewer details
Salary growth for specialized life scientists
Is this job likely to reward you for sticking with it through pay raises and promotions? The higher a job’s “experience quotient,” the more you are likely to get as you stay there.
Experience quotient percentile
Take a minute to look at how much you might expect your salary to increase with each five years' experience, as well as how the numbers working at each age change. Does this seem to be a job for the young or the old, or could it be a career offering steady salary growth for many years?
Salary distribution
$53K$69K$103K$103K$50K$84K$99K$99K$44K$0$50K$100K$150K$200K20-2425-2930-3435-3940-4445-4950-5455-5960-64
Number employed
010K20K30K20-2425-2930-3435-3940-4445-4950-5455-5960-64
About Medical Scientists
How do benefits for this career compare to other jobs? The availability of health care, especially employer provided health care, and pension plans can add significantly to the value of compensation you receive in a career. These charts compare how this career compares to other careers with regard to health care and pension plans.
Employee has health insurance
Employer is providing health insurance
Employer-provided pension plan is available
Worker concerns
Some jobs are more stressful than others, and some are just plain dangerous. The following list gives the percentages of medical scientists who report hazardous or difficult situations typically occurring at least once a week.
  • Time Pressure (60%)
  • Consequence of Error (40%)
  • Responsible for Others' Health (36%)
SOURCES:
Fewer details
Personality and skills
Can you see yourself in the ranks of Medical Scientists? Here are the skills and traits that could lead to success.
Communication skills
Communication is critical, because medical scientists must be able to explain their conclusions. In addition, medical scientists write grant proposals, because grants often are required to fund their research.
Critical-thinking skills
Medical scientists must use their expertise to determine the best method for solving a specific research question.
Data-analysis skills
Medical scientists use statistical techniques, so that they can properly quantify and analyze health research questions.
Decisionmaking skills
Medical scientists must determine what research questions to ask, how best to investigate the questions, and what data will best answer the questions.
Observation skills
Medical scientists conduct experiments that require precise observation of samples and other health-related data. Any mistake could lead to inconclusive or misleading results.
Injury and Illness
About 16 medical scientists become injured or ill for every 10,000 workers, making this job more dangerous than 51% of other careers. The most common specific illnesses or injuries are detailed following.
Fractures
Sprains, strains, tears
Education pathways to this career
Education attained by medical scientists
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), medical scientists typically hold a doctoral or professional degree.
Sometimes the typical education identified by the BLS differs a bit from the reality of the how much education current workers actually have. The donut shows the education level held by people currently working as specialized life scientists as reported in responses to the American Community Survey.
Details: Education and training recommended for medical scientists

Students planning careers as medical scientists generally pursue a bachelor’s degree in biology, chemistry, or a related field. Undergraduate students benefit from taking a broad range of classes, including life sciences, physical sciences, and math. Students also typically take courses that develop communication and writing skills, because they must learn to write grants effectively and publish their research findings.

After students have completed their undergraduate studies, they typically enter Ph.D. programs. Dual-degree programs are available that pair a Ph.D. with a range of specialized medical degrees. A few degree programs that are commonly paired with Ph.D. studies are Medical Doctor (M.D.), Doctor of Dental Surgery (D.D.S.), Doctor of Dental Medicine (D.M.D.), Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine (D.O.), and advanced nursing degrees. Whereas Ph.D. studies focus on research methods, such as project design and data interpretation, students in dual-degree programs learn both the clinical skills needed to be a physician and the research skills needed to be a scientist.

Graduate programs emphasize both laboratory work and original research. These programs offer prospective medical scientists the opportunity to develop their experiments and, sometimes, to supervise undergraduates. Ph.D. programs culminate in a dissertation that the candidate presents before a committee of professors. Students may specialize in a particular field, such as gerontology, neurology, or cancer.

Those who go to medical school spend most of the first 2 years in labs and classrooms, taking courses such as anatomy, biochemistry, physiology, pharmacology, psychology, microbiology, pathology, medical ethics, and medical law. They also learn how to record medical histories, examine patients, and diagnose illnesses. They may be required to participate in residency programs, meeting the same requirements that physicians and surgeons have to fulfill.

Medical scientists often continue their education with postdoctoral work. This provides additional and more independent lab experience, including experience in specific processes and techniques, such as gene splicing. Often, that experience is transferable to other research projects.

Details: Licensing and certification recommended for medical scientists

Medical scientists primarily conduct research and typically do not need licenses or certifications. However, those who administer drugs or gene therapy or who otherwise practice medicine on patients in clinical trials or a private practice need a license to practice as a physician.

Education level of Specialized Life Scientists
About 74% of specialized life scientists have a graduate-level education, and 98% have at least a bachelor's degree.
Education attained by specialized life scientists
None
High School
Some College
Associate's Degree
Bachelor's Degree
Master's Degree
Professional Degree
Doctorate
Top college degrees
Here are the top college degrees held by the 88% of people in this job who have at least a bachelor's degree. Some of degrees may link to multiple programs due to the way Census classifies college majors. Click on a program to learn more about career opportunities for people who major in that field.
  1. Biology
  2. Chemistry
  3. Biochemical Sciences
  4. Psychology
  5. Microbiology
Fewer details
College majors held by specialized life scientists
This table shows the college majors held by people working as specialized life scientists. If you see "**" before the name of a degree/program, that means this field is one that the Department of Education believes is preparatory for this career. However, you can see from this list that those recommendations are far from your only path to this job!
Salary comparison for bachelor's only
Higher
Similar
Lower
Career salary (tail) versus Career/Major salary (dot)
Does the bachelor's-only salary rise or fall with this major?
$49K$105K
Salary for bachelor's-only
For people with this career and major
Median
Middle 50%
Middle 80%
Salary for all workers
For people with this career and major
Median
Middle 50%
Middle 80%
Education for Career and Major
Bachelor's
Master's
Professional
Doctorate
Workers with this career/major
Percentage in this career with this major
Not so much?
The link between degrees and this career
With the following sankey diagram, you can follow the top ten bachelor's degrees held by people working as specialized life scientists, and then, in turn, you can see the 10 occupations that hire the most of each degree's graduates. We hope this provides ideas for similar jobs and similar fields of study.
Expand degrees
BiologyChemistryBiochemical SciencesPsychologyMicrobiologyMedical Technologies...PhysicsPharmacy, Pharmaceut...Molecular BiologyMultidisciplinary or...All other degreesThis jobTop 10 majors
Where are the jobs
State-by-state employment numbers
Some careers tend to be centered in specific parts of the country. For example, most jobs in fashion are in New York or California. Let's see if your dream job is easy to find in your dream location! We have a few choices for viewing the data that can help you get a full employment picture.
Select a state to see local area details
Number of Specialized Life Scientists per 1,000 workers (ACS)
AKMEWIVTNHWAIDMTNDMNILMINYMAORUTWYSDIAINOHPANJCTRICANVCONEMOKYWVVAMDDEAZNMKSARTNNCSCDCOKLAMSALGAHITXFLPR
Fewer details
Job density versus job count
Which states hire the most medical scientists? We wonder if that's a fair question since states come in all sizes, so instead let's start with the question of which states have the highest density of people working as medical scientists. You can choose to view the number of jobs per state if you prefer.
Salaries by state
Let's get a feel for where medical scientists earn the highest salaries. There are several choices for which data we consider and how we view that data, and each can lead to different conclusions, so please read on...
Median salary versus state ratio
We use two methods to compare salaries across states:
  • In-state comparisons: the ratio of median (middle) salaries for specialized life scientists compared to the median salary for all people working in each state, or
  • Median salary: the unaltered median salaries for specialized life scientists.
We hope the ratio allows perspective about how salaries may compare to the regional cost-of-living.
The darkest shading corresponds to states in which specialized life scientists earn the highest salary when compared to other jobs in the state. We think this figure might be a better indicator than the actual salary for your buying power as a state resident.
Select a state to see local area details
Location-adjusted median salary for Specialized Life Scientists (ACS for all specialties)
AKMEWIVTNHWAIDMTNDMNILMINYMAORUTWYSDIAINOHPANJCTRICANVCONEMOKYWVVAMDDEAZNMKSARTNNCSCDCOKLAMSALGAHITXFLPR
Employment
4% of Specialized life scientists are working part time.
We’ve found that some jobs have a huge number of part-time workers, and typically that is because they are unable to find full-time work or the job itself can’t provide full-time hours. With 4% part-time workers, this occupation has a lower percentage of part-time workers than 83% of careers.
4%0%20%40%60%80%100%
Employer types
This donut shares the break-down of workers by employer type, giving us a picture of what employers most typically hire for this career.
Employers of undefined (ACS)
Private for-profit
Private not-for-profit
Local government
State government
Federal government
Self-employed incorporated
Self-employed not incorporated
Working without pay
Fewer details
Distribution: Salaries of specialized life scientists by type of employer
Here are the salary distributions based on employer type.
$69K$81K$55K$60K$64K$88K$0$50,000$100,000$150,000$200,000Federal governmentState governmentLocal governmentPrivate not-for-profitPrivate for-profitAll
Gender
Specialized life scientists and gender
With 53% women, this occupation has a higher percentage of women than 64% of careers.
Gender of Specialized life scientists
Men (47%)
Women (53%)
Distribution: salaries by gender
Does gender greatly influence your salary in this career? The closer the bars are, the less discrepancy there is.
$66K$73K$0$100K$200K$300KWomenMen
We only include salary data when the survey error is less than 20%, so you may see only partial information for some categories.
Fewer details
Context: Women in the workforce
How does this career compare to other careers with regard to the percentage of women in the career.
53%0%20%40%60%80%100%
Context: Salary inequity
The median salary for all full-time male workers in the US exceeds the full-time median salary for women by 19%. The situation is a little better for specialized life scientists, with the median salary for men 11% higher than the median salary for women.
11%0%20%40%60%80%100%
Race/Origin
Race and origin of Specialized life scientists
This donut shows the distribution of race and origin among those employed as Specialized life scientists.
Race/origin of specialized life scientists
White (59% )
Asian (31% )
Black (5% )
Multiracial (3% )
Other (1% )
Hispanic (0% )
American Indian (0% )
Pacific Islander (0% )
Distribution: salaries by race/origin
Some careers might have a pay disparity based on race or origin, the closer the below bars are the less of a discrepancy is present.
$52K$65K$68K$69K$73K$0$50K$100K$150KOtherMultiracialWhiteAsianBlack
We only include salary data when the survey error is less than 20%, so you may see only partial information for some categories.