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Microbiologists

It's a bright outlook for

This career will grow rapidly in the next few years.

Learn more about what they do.

Investigate the growth, structure, development, and other characteristics of microscopic organisms, such as bacteria, algae, or fungi. Includes medical microbiologists who study the relationship between organisms and disease or the effects of antibiotics on microorganisms.

Related: Biochemists & Biophysicists Biological Technicians Geneticists Histotechnologists Medical Scientists

Industries: Professional, Science, & Technical Manufacturing Government

Summary
Details

Monitor and perform tests on water, food, and the environment to detect harmful microorganisms or to obtain information about sources of pollution, contamination, or infection.
Develop new products and procedures for sterilization, food and pharmaceutical supply preservation, or microbial contamination detection.
Examine physiological, morphological, and cultural characteristics, using microscope, to identify and classify microorganisms in human, water, and food specimens.
Observe action of microorganisms upon living tissues of plants, higher animals, and other microorganisms, and on dead organic matter.
Investigate the relationship between organisms and disease, including the control of epidemics and the effects of antibiotics on microorganisms.
Conduct chemical analyses of substances such as acids, alcohols, and enzymes.
Provide laboratory services for health departments, community environmental health programs, and physicians needing information for diagnosis and treatment.
Examine physiological, morphological, and cultural characteristics, using microscope, to identify and classify microorganisms in human, water, and food specimens.
Isolate and maintain cultures of bacteria or other microorganisms in prescribed or developed media, controlling moisture, aeration, temperature, and nutrition.
Monitor and perform tests on water, food, and the environment to detect harmful microorganisms or to obtain information about sources of pollution, contamination, or infection.
Prepare technical reports and recommendations, based upon research outcomes.
Research use of bacteria and microorganisms to develop vitamins, antibiotics, amino acids, grain alcohol, sugars, and polymers.
Use a variety of specialized equipment, such as electron microscopes, gas and high-pressure liquid chromatographs, electrophoresis units, thermocyclers, fluorescence-activated cell sorters, and phosphorimagers.
Study growth, structure, development, and general characteristics of bacteria and other microorganisms to understand their relationship to human, plant, and animal health.
Supervise biological technologists and technicians and other scientists.
Study the structure and function of human, animal, and plant tissues, cells, pathogens, and toxins.
Isolate and maintain cultures of bacteria or other microorganisms in prescribed or developed media, controlling moisture, aeration, temperature, and nutrition.

Time Management
- Managing your time and the time of other people.
Active Learning
- Figuring out how to use new ideas or things.
Troubleshooting
- Figuring out what is causing equipment, machines, wiring, or computer programs to not work.
Systems Analysis
- Figuring out how a system should work and how changes in the future will affect it.
Management of Material Resources
- Managing equipment and materials.
Service Orientation
- Looking for ways to help people.
Complex Problem Solving
- Noticing a problem and figuring out the best way to solve it.
Writing
- Writing things for co-workers or customers.
Reading Comprehension
- Reading work-related information.
Critical Thinking
- Thinking about the pros and cons of different ways to solve a problem.
Management of Personnel Resources
- Selecting and managing the best workers for a job.
Social Perceptiveness
- Understanding people's reactions.
Persuasion
- Talking people into changing their minds or their behavior.
Negotiation
- Bringing people together to solve differences.
Speaking
- Talking to others.
Operation and Control
- Using equipment or systems.
Instructing
- Teaching people how to do something.
Repairing
- Repairing machines or systems using the right tools.
Judgment and Decision Making
- Thinking about the pros and cons of different options and picking the best one.
Active Listening
- Listening to others, not interrupting, and asking good questions.
Quality Control Analysis
- Testing how well a product or service works.
Management of Financial Resources
- Making spending decisions and keeping track of what is spent.
Coordination
- Changing what is done based on other people's actions.
Mathematics
- Using math to solve problems.
Science
- Using scientific rules and strategies to solve problems.
Monitoring
- Keeping track of how well people and/or groups are doing in order to make improvements.
Operations Analysis
- Figuring out what a product or service needs to be able to do.
Technology Design
- Making equipment and technology useful for customers.
Equipment Selection
- Deciding what kind of tools and equipment are needed to do a job.
Installation
- Installing equipment, machines, wiring, or computer programs.
Learning Strategies
- Using the best training or teaching strategies for learning new things.
Programming
- Writing computer programs.
Operations Monitoring
- Watching gauges, dials, or display screens to make sure a machine is working.
Equipment Maintenance
- Planning and doing the basic maintenance on equipment.
Systems Evaluation
- Measuring how well a system is working and how to improve it.

Spatial Orientation
- Knowing where things are around you.
Night Vision
- Seeing at night or under low light.
Response Orientation
- Quickly deciding if you should move your hand, foot, or other body part.
Trunk Strength
- Using your lower back and stomach.
Perceptual Speed
- Quickly comparing groups of letters, numbers, pictures, or other things.
Deductive Reasoning
- Using rules to solve problems.
Category Flexibility
- Grouping things in different ways.
Flexibility of Closure
- Seeing hidden patterns.
Static Strength
- Lifting, pushing, pulling, or carrying.
Dynamic Strength
- Exercising for a long time without your muscles getting tired.
Far Vision
- Seeing details that are far away.
Control Precision
- Quickly changing the controls of a machine, car, truck or boat.
Explosive Strength
- Jumping, sprinting, or throwing something.
Near Vision
- Seeing details up close.
Memorization
- Remembering words, numbers, pictures, or steps.
Arm-Hand Steadiness
- Keeping your arm or hand steady.
Wrist-Finger Speed
- Making fast, simple, repeated movements of your fingers, hands, and wrists.
Multilimb Coordination
- Using your arms and/or legs together while sitting, standing, or lying down.
Auditory Attention
- Paying attention to one sound while there are other distracting sounds.
Speech Recognition
- Recognizing spoken words.
Fluency of Ideas
- Coming up with lots of ideas.
Time Sharing
- Doing two or more things at the same time.
Reaction Time
- Quickly moving your hand, finger, or foot based on a sound, light, picture or other command.
Extent Flexibility
- Bending, stretching, twisting, or reaching with your body, arms, and/or legs.
Peripheral Vision
- Seeing something to your side when your are looking ahead.
Rate Control
- Changing when and how fast you move based on how something else is moving.
Speech Clarity
- Speaking clearly.
Manual Dexterity
- Holding or moving items with your hands.
Speed of Limb Movement
- Quickly moving your arms and legs.
Glare Sensitivity
- Seeing something even if there is a glare or very bright light.
Written Comprehension
- Reading and understanding what is written.
Written Expression
- Communicating by writing.
Speed of Closure
- Quickly knowing what you are looking at.
Visualization
- Imagining how something will look after it is moved around or changed.
Stamina
- Exercising for a long time without getting out of breath.
Finger Dexterity
- Putting together small parts with your fingers.
Gross Body Equilibrium
- Keeping your balance or staying upright.
Hearing Sensitivity
- Telling the difference between sounds.
Dynamic Flexibility
- Quickly and repeatedly bending, stretching, twisting, or reaching out with your body, arms, and/or legs.
Depth Perception
- Deciding which thing is closer or farther away from you, or deciding how far away it is from you.
Gross Body Coordination
- Moving your arms, legs, and mid-section together while your whole body is moving.
Sound Localization
- Noticing the direction that a sound came from.
Number Facility
- Adding, subtracting, multiplying, or dividing.
Inductive Reasoning
- Making general rules or coming up with answers from lots of detailed information.
Selective Attention
- Paying attention to something without being distracted.
Visual Color Discrimination
- Noticing the difference between colors, including shades and brightness.
Oral Comprehension
- Listening and understanding what people say.
Oral Expression
- Communicating by speaking.
Information Ordering
- Ordering or arranging things.
Problem Sensitivity
- Noticing when problems happen.
Mathematical Reasoning
- Choosing the right type of math to solve a problem.
Originality
- Creating new and original ideas.

Customer and Personal Service
- Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
Computers and Electronics
- Knowledge of circuit boards, processors, chips, electronic equipment, and computer hardware and software, including applications and programming.
Public Safety and Security
- Knowledge of relevant equipment, policies, procedures, and strategies to promote effective local, state, or national security operations for the protection of people, data, property, and institutions.
Sociology and Anthropology
- Knowledge of group behavior and dynamics, societal trends and influences, human migrations, ethnicity, cultures, and their history and origins.
Biology
- Knowledge of plant and animal organisms, their tissues, cells, functions, interdependencies, and interactions with each other and the environment.
Physics
- Knowledge and prediction of physical principles, laws, their interrelationships, and applications to understanding fluid, material, and atmospheric dynamics, and mechanical, electrical, atomic and sub-atomic structures and processes.
Economics and Accounting
- Knowledge of economic and accounting principles and practices, the financial markets, banking, and the analysis and reporting of financial data.
Sales and Marketing
- Knowledge of principles and methods for showing, promoting, and selling products or services. This includes marketing strategy and tactics, product demonstration, sales techniques, and sales control systems.
Fine Arts
- Knowledge of the theory and techniques required to compose, produce, and perform works of music, dance, visual arts, drama, and sculpture.
Foreign Language
- Knowledge of the structure and content of a foreign (non-English) language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition and grammar, and pronunciation.
Telecommunications
- Knowledge of transmission, broadcasting, switching, control, and operation of telecommunications systems.
Chemistry
- Knowledge of the chemical composition, structure, and properties of substances and of the chemical processes and transformations that they undergo. This includes uses of chemicals and their interactions, danger signs, production techniques, and disposal methods.
Psychology
- Knowledge of human behavior and performance; individual differences in ability, personality, and interests; learning and motivation; psychological research methods; and the assessment and treatment of behavioral and affective disorders.
Personnel and Human Resources
- Knowledge of principles and procedures for personnel recruitment, selection, training, compensation and benefits, labor relations and negotiation, and personnel information systems.
Administration and Management
- Knowledge of business and management principles involved in strategic planning, resource allocation, human resources modeling, leadership technique, production methods, and coordination of people and resources.
Mathematics
- Knowledge of arithmetic, algebra, geometry, calculus, statistics, and their applications.
Medicine and Dentistry
- Knowledge of the information and techniques needed to diagnose and treat human injuries, diseases, and deformities. This includes symptoms, treatment alternatives, drug properties and interactions, and preventive health-care measures.
History and Archeology
- Knowledge of historical events and their causes, indicators, and effects on civilizations and cultures.
Education and Training
- Knowledge of principles and methods for curriculum and training design, teaching and instruction for individuals and groups, and the measurement of training effects.
Transportation
- Knowledge of principles and methods for moving people or goods by air, rail, sea, or road, including the relative costs and benefits.
Therapy and Counseling
- Knowledge of principles, methods, and procedures for diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation of physical and mental dysfunctions, and for career counseling and guidance.
Production and Processing
- Knowledge of raw materials, production processes, quality control, costs, and other techniques for maximizing the effective manufacture and distribution of goods.
Communications and Media
- Knowledge of media production, communication, and dissemination techniques and methods. This includes alternative ways to inform and entertain via written, oral, and visual media.
Law and Government
- Knowledge of laws, legal codes, court procedures, precedents, government regulations, executive orders, agency rules, and the democratic political process.
Mechanical
- Knowledge of machines and tools, including their designs, uses, repair, and maintenance.
Geography
- Knowledge of principles and methods for describing the features of land, sea, and air masses, including their physical characteristics, locations, interrelationships, and distribution of plant, animal, and human life.
Administrative
- Knowledge of administrative and office procedures and systems such as word processing, managing files and records, stenography and transcription, designing forms, and workplace terminology.
Food Production
- Knowledge of techniques and equipment for planting, growing, and harvesting food products (both plant and animal) for consumption, including storage/handling techniques.
Philosophy and Theology
- Knowledge of different philosophical systems and religions. This includes their basic principles, values, ethics, ways of thinking, customs, practices, and their impact on human culture.
English Language
- Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, and rules of composition and grammar.
Building and Construction
- Knowledge of materials, methods, and the tools involved in the construction or repair of houses, buildings, or other structures such as highways and roads.
Design
- Knowledge of design techniques, tools, and principles involved in production of precision technical plans, blueprints, drawings, and models.
Engineering and Technology
- Knowledge of the practical application of engineering science and technology. This includes applying principles, techniques, procedures, and equipment to the design and production of various goods and services.

Education

Bachelor's degree

Work Experience

No work experience

Training

No on-the-job training

Education and Training Opportunities

Washington Annual Salary

77130/yr

Washington Hourly Wage

37.08/hr

Currently Employed

490

Yearly Projected Openings

Investigative: People interested in this work like activities that include ideas, thinking, and figuring things out. They do well at jobs that need:

Innovation
Achievement Orientation
Intellectual Curiosity
Cautiousness
Integrity
Attention to Detail

Air samplers or collectors
Anaerobic chamber
Analytical balances
Automated cover slipping equipment
Automated microscope stages
Benchtop centrifuges
Binocular light compound microscopes
Blotting or transfer apparatus
Calorimeters
Circulating baths
Conductivity meters
Counters
Cryogenic or liquid nitrogen freezers
Culture tubes
Darkfield microscopes
Decontamination shower
Deoxyribonucleic sequence analyzers
Desktop computers
Developing tanks
Digital cameras
Dissolved oxygen meters
Dropping pipettes
Dry baths or heating blocks
Dry heat or hot air sterilizers
Dry wall single chamber carbon dioxide incubators
Drying cabinets or ovens
Electronic counters
Electronic encyclopedias
Electronic multichannel pipetters
Electronic toploading balances
Electroporation cuvettes
Eyewashers or eye wash stations
Fire extinguishers
Fluorescent microscopes
Forced air or mechanical convection general purpose incubators
Freeze dryers or lyopholizers
French pressure cells
Gas burners
Gas chromatographs
Gas generators
Gel boxes
Gel documentation systems
General purpose refrigerators or refrigerator freezers
General purpose trays
HEPA filtered enclosures
High pressure liquid chromatograph chromatography
Homogenizers
Hybridization ovens or incubators
Impedance meters
Infra red or ultra violet absorption analyzers
Infrared spectrometers
Inverted microscopes
Laboratory adapters or connectors or fittings
Laboratory balances
Laboratory beakers
Laboratory flasks
Laboratory funnels
Laboratory graduated cylinders
Laboratory heat exchange condensers
Laboratory hotplates
Laboratory incubator thermometers
Laboratory membrane filters
Laboratory mixers
Laboratory staining dishes or jars
Laboratory vacuum pumps
Laboratory washing machines
Laminar flow cabinets or stations
Laser printers
Lasers
Liquid chromatographs
Magnetic stirrers
Manual or electronic hematology differential cell counters
Mass spectrometers
Microbiology analyzers
Microbiology fermentation equipment
Microbiology inoculation loops or needles
Microbiology slide stainers
Microcentrifuges
Microplate readers
Microscope objectives
Microscope slides
Multipurpose or general test tubes
Notebook computers
Orbital shaking water baths
Osmometers
Peristaltic pumps
Personal computers
Petri plates or dishes
Photo attachments for microscopes
Pipette pumps
Pipetter inserts or accessories
Protective coats
Protective gloves
Protective hood
Refrigerated baths
Refrigerated benchtop centrifuges
Respirators
Robotic or automated liquid handling systems
Rotating shakers
Safety glasses
Safety shoes
Scanning electron microscopes
Shaking incubators
Specialty plates for bacteria
Specimen collection container
Spectrometers
Spectrophotometers
Spirit burners
Steam autoclaves or sterilizers
Stereo or dissecting light microscopes
Temperature cycling chambers or thermal cyclers
Test tube racks
Tissue culture flasks
Transilluminators
Transmission electron microscopes
Ultra cold or ultralow upright cabinets or freezers
Ultra pure water systems
Ultracentrifuges
Ultrasonic disintegrators
Ultraviolet UV lamps
Vortex mixers
X ray diffraction equipment
pH meters

Analytical or scientific software
Data base user interface and query software
Electronic mail software
Enterprise resource planning ERP software
Information retrieval or search software
Internet browser software
Medical software
Office suite software
Operating system software
Presentation software
Spreadsheet software
Word processing software

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