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Fellow vs staff scientist

The differences between fellows and staff 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 staff scientist. Additionally, a staff scientist has an average salary of $93,941, 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 staff scientist are data analysis, research projects, and molecular biology.

Fellow vs staff scientist overview

FellowStaff Scientist
Yearly salary$66,364$93,941
Hourly rate$31.91$45.16
Growth rate17%17%
Number of jobs7,459121,054
Job satisfaction--
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 64%Bachelor's Degree, 60%
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 staff scientist do?

The primary role of a Staff Scientist is to develop and manage scientific research projects with minimal supervision. They are also responsible for the technical and budgetary aspects of scientific research projects.

Fellow vs staff scientist salary

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

FellowStaff Scientist
Average salary$66,364$93,941
Salary rangeBetween $46,000 And $93,000Between $63,000 And $137,000
Highest paying CityOak Ridge, TNRedwood City, CA
Highest paying stateTennesseeCalifornia
Best paying companyPeterson Institute for International EconomicsEtsy
Best paying industryProfessionalTechnology

Differences between fellow and staff scientist education

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

FellowStaff Scientist
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 64%Bachelor's Degree, 60%
Most common majorPolitical ScienceChemistry
Most common collegeDuke UniversityDuke University

Fellow vs staff scientist demographics

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

FellowStaff Scientist
Average age4141
Gender ratioMale, 46.2% Female, 53.8%Male, 67.8% Female, 32.2%
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, 6.2% Unknown, 4.1% Hispanic or Latino, 9.4% Asian, 26.5% White, 53.6% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.1%
LGBT Percentage8%8%

Differences between fellow and staff 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

Staff scientist example responsibilities.

  • Lead efforts to replace a critical radioactive immunoassay with a non-radioactive format to measure clinical samples.
  • Manage clinical sample testing using MSD and ELISA in LIMS, including data review and approval using LIMS.
  • Assist in managing and maintenance of HPLC and Prep-HPLC systems to ensure maximum productivity for the process development group.
  • Manage pediatric dose development project, technology transfer project and alternate API supplier qualification project on budget and on schedule
  • Assist with RNA and DNA extractions from FFPE tissue and blood.
  • Supervise temps performing HPLC assays and validations during development and production campaigns under GMP conditions.
  • Show more

Fellow vs staff scientist skills

Common fellow skills
  • Patients, 11%
  • Professional Development, 7%
  • Veterans, 7%
  • Mathematics, 5%
  • Math, 5%
  • Public Health, 4%
Common staff scientist skills
  • Data Analysis, 9%
  • Research Projects, 7%
  • Molecular Biology, 5%
  • Next-Generation Sequencing, 4%
  • Statistical Analysis, 4%
  • RNA, 4%

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