Chemistry Teachers, Postsecondary

Job description

Beyond lecturing, the job includes grading lab work, papers, and exams, supervising students' hands-on lab sessions, and keeping attendance and grade records in order. Many chemistry professors also mentor undergraduate or graduate students through internships and research projects, splitting their time between teaching and their own investigations. The role calls for patience and precision, since lab safety and correct technique matter as much as course content, and it requires a PhD, the highest bar for education among the careers in this catalog, reflected in a wide pay range that runs from roughly $58,000 up past $170,000.

A typical day

The 9am general-chemistry lecture for 180 students opens with a demonstration — a color-change equilibrium that earns thirty seconds of delight before the professor spends the hour converting delight into understanding of Le Chatelier. Office hours draw the anxious and the ambitious in equal numbers; the professor's craft is serving both. The afternoon belongs to the research group: a graduate student's spectra reviewed at the whiteboard, an undergraduate taught to run the NMR for the first time, a paper's revisions argued gently with a co-author overseas. Threaded between: a safety inspection of the teaching labs, exam writing calibrated to test thinking rather than memory, and a grant progress report due Friday. At teaching-focused colleges the balance tilts toward students and pedagogy; at research universities, toward the lab. Both versions profess the same faith — that matter's rules can be taught, and that teaching them well matters.

Tasks at the job

• Prepare and deliver lectures to undergraduate or graduate students on topics such as organic chemistry, analytical chemistry, and chemical separation.
• Evaluate and grade students' class work, laboratory performance, assignments, and papers.
• Supervise students' laboratory work.
• Maintain student attendance records, grades, and other required records.
• Supervise undergraduate or graduate teaching, internship, and research work.
• Compile, administer, and grade examinations, or assign this work to others.

Workplace & working conditions

Work happens indoors in a climate-controlled setting, and most of the day is spent sitting at a desk. The role involves regular exposure to hazardous equipment or conditions and contaminants, and standard protective equipment (gloves, safety glasses, and similar) is expected.

There's a regular, moderate amount of time pressure, and you're expected to exercise significant independent judgment day to day. Precision and accuracy are essential to the work, and the work is highly structured, following set procedures.

Education necessary or common

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in the relevant field

Common college majors

Career path

Related fields

Courses to take

• AP Chemistry — as early and seriously as possible
• AP Calculus BC — physical chemistry will demand it
• AP Physics C
• AP Biology
• AP English Language — lectures, papers, and grants are all writing

Clubs, activities & competitions

• Chemistry Olympiad (USNCO)
• Science Olympiad chem events
• Tutor chemistry — the teaching half starts now
• Science fair

First steps you can take now

• Tutor a classmate through a chemistry unit and study what makes explanations land
• Take the USNCO local exam
• Email a chemistry professor about summer research programs for high schoolers (many universities run them)
• Watch one great chemistry lecture online and one mediocre one; write down the difference

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