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Fellow vs senior scientist

The differences between fellows and senior scientists can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 2-4 years to become both a fellow and a senior scientist. Additionally, a senior scientist has an average salary of $106,672, which is higher than the $66,364 average annual salary of a fellow.

The top three skills for a fellow include patients, professional development and veterans. The most important skills for a senior scientist are patients, data analysis, and molecular biology.

Fellow vs senior scientist overview

FellowSenior Scientist
Yearly salary$66,364$106,672
Hourly rate$31.91$51.28
Growth rate17%17%
Number of jobs7,45949,712
Job satisfaction--
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 64%Bachelor's Degree, 51%
Average age4141
Years of experience44

What does a fellow do?

A fellow's responsibility will depend on the organization or industry where one belongs. However, most of the time, a fellow's duty will revolve around conducting research and analysis, presiding discussions and attending dialogues, handle lectures while complying with the guidelines or tasks set by supervisors, and assist in various projects and activities. Furthermore, a fellow must adhere to the institution or organization's policies and regulations at all times, meet all the requirements and outputs involved, and coordinate with every person in the workforce.

What does a senior scientist do?

A senior scientist is usually in charge of overseeing experiments and evaluating junior scientists' performance, especially in laboratory settings. Moreover, it is also their responsibility to assess every progress report to ensure it's accuracy and validity. As a senior scientist in the field, it is essential to lead and encourage fellow scientists in their joint pursuit for scientific innovations, all while adhering to the laboratory's standards and policies.

Fellow vs senior scientist salary

Fellows and senior scientists have different pay scales, as shown below.

FellowSenior Scientist
Average salary$66,364$106,672
Salary rangeBetween $46,000 And $93,000Between $74,000 And $153,000
Highest paying CityOak Ridge, TNRedwood City, CA
Highest paying stateTennesseeCalifornia
Best paying companyPeterson Institute for International EconomicsBill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Best paying industryProfessionalTelecommunication

Differences between fellow and senior scientist education

There are a few differences between a fellow and a senior scientist in terms of educational background:

FellowSenior Scientist
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 64%Bachelor's Degree, 51%
Most common majorPolitical ScienceChemistry
Most common collegeDuke UniversityDuke University

Fellow vs senior scientist demographics

Here are the differences between fellows' and senior scientists' demographics:

FellowSenior Scientist
Average age4141
Gender ratioMale, 46.2% Female, 53.8%Male, 70.1% Female, 29.9%
Race ratioBlack or African American, 6.4% Unknown, 4.1% Hispanic or Latino, 9.6% Asian, 26.4% White, 53.3% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.1%Black or African American, 6.3% Unknown, 4.1% Hispanic or Latino, 9.5% Asian, 26.9% White, 53.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.1%
LGBT Percentage8%8%

Differences between fellow and senior scientist duties and responsibilities

Fellow example responsibilities.

  • Design and lead labs align with the NYC curriculum, on topics including moon phases and dichotomous keys.
  • Maintain company website, as well as wrote, manage, and edit content on the SharePoint portal.
  • Manage live streaming for NARAL Facebook during NARAL's lobby day, as well as assisting in attendee organization.
  • Work through several medical software databases to generate SQL to pass on to Java developers for their programs.
  • Develop computer program to visualize EOS data in Java.
  • Include writing python scripts to parse poorly structure text into tabular data.
  • Show more

Senior scientist example responsibilities.

  • Lead the development and implementation of new technology for use in NMR applications.
  • Strategize and manage the PK/PD program with internal collaborations including chemistry, DMPK, formulation and toxicology.
  • Lead a team and develop a 24-channel GC parallel separation system for high throughput screening of catalysts.
  • Lead a team of 11 direct reports and 35 indirect reports to solve development problems for multicapillary electrophoresis instruments.
  • Influence and impact others through building and maintaining strong networks that are leverage to obtain critical information and accomplish objectives.
  • Manage collaborations with external CROs.
  • Show more

Fellow vs senior scientist skills

Common fellow skills
  • Patients, 11%
  • Professional Development, 7%
  • Veterans, 7%
  • Mathematics, 5%
  • Math, 5%
  • Public Health, 4%
Common senior scientist skills
  • Patients, 11%
  • Data Analysis, 6%
  • Molecular Biology, 3%
  • Research Projects, 3%
  • C++, 3%
  • Java, 3%

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