Organic chemist vs scientist

The differences between organic chemists and scientists can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. Additionally, a scientist has an average salary of $97,344, which is higher than the $76,894 average annual salary of an organic chemist.

The top three skills for an organic chemist include NMR, method development and HPLC. The most important skills for a scientist are chemistry, data analysis, and patients.

Organic chemist vs scientist overview

	Organic Chemist	Scientist
Yearly salary	$76,894	$97,344
Hourly rate	$36.97	$46.80
Growth rate	6%	17%
Number of jobs	2,680	62,467
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 76%	Bachelor's Degree, 60%
Average age	42	41
Years of experience	-	4

What does an organic chemist do?

An organic chemist studies the properties of chemicals with carbon. This type of chemistry is vital for industries concerning products and services related to living organisms, such as plants, animals, and people. Pharmaceuticals, the food industry, and agriculture all require an organic chemist's skill to create and develop products suitable for living organisms. The organic chemist's role is to help in the development phase of a product, determine its effects on biological life, and note all side-effects: many companies, especially those concerned in medicine and food production.

What does a scientist do?

A scientist is responsible for researching and analyzing the nature and complexities of the physical world to identify discoveries that would improve people's lives and ignite scientific knowledge for society. Scientists' duties differ in their different areas of expertise, but all of them must have a broad comprehension of scientific disciplines and methods to support their experiments and investigations. They collect the sample for their research, record findings, create research proposals, and release publications. A scientist must know how to utilize laboratory equipment to support the study and drive results efficiently and accurately.

Organic chemist vs scientist salary

Organic chemists and scientists have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Organic Chemist	Scientist
Average salary	$76,894	$97,344
Salary range	Between $50,000 And $116,000	Between $67,000 And $140,000
Highest paying City	Newark, DE	Redwood City, CA
Highest paying state	Delaware	California
Best paying company	Entegris	Airbnb
Best paying industry	Pharmaceutical	Technology

Differences between organic chemist and scientist education

There are a few differences between an organic chemist and a scientist in terms of educational background:

	Organic Chemist	Scientist
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 76%	Bachelor's Degree, 60%
Most common major	Chemistry	Chemistry
Most common college	University of Southern California	University of Southern California

Organic chemist vs scientist demographics

Here are the differences between organic chemists' and scientists' demographics:

	Organic Chemist	Scientist
Average age	42	41
Gender ratio	Male, 65.7% Female, 34.3%	Male, 56.9% Female, 43.1%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 7.9% Unknown, 4.7% Hispanic or Latino, 9.6% Asian, 19.0% White, 58.5% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2%	Black or African American, 6.5% Unknown, 4.1% Hispanic or Latino, 9.8% Asian, 26.3% White, 53.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.1%
LGBT Percentage	5%	8%

Differences between organic chemist and scientist duties and responsibilities

Organic chemist example responsibilities.

Achieve and maintain ISO 9001-2000 certification by creating and implementing policies and serving as management representative.
Ensure compounds are of the highest possible purity using LCMS, NMR spectroscopy, GC, and HPLC.
Perform organic analysis for semi-volatile and acid-base-neutrals using GCMS, HPLC, GCFID, GCNPD, GCECD and IR.
Perform GC analyses for gas, diesel, BTEX and PCB analyses in Washington and remote sites of Alaska.
Facilitate routine analyses in organic analytic chemistry - distillation, extraction, separation, crystallization, and purification.
Utilize 1H-NMR , 13C-NMR, GC/MS, HPLC, MALDI-TOF, ChemDraw, and ChemWindow.

Scientist example responsibilities.

Lead a cross-functional team to return an HIV combination product to market on random-access instrument.
Design the VERIS HIV-1 quantitative PCR assay which achieve Conformit Europ enne (CE) marking.
Manage an elemental analytical laboratory that include operating, maintaining and troubleshooting an ICP-OES, ICPMS, MXRF, and IC.
Develop and manage third party claim investigations and contractor remedial oversight for various insurance companies.
Manage study protocols and study conduct, intimately involve in the toxicology and pharmacokinetic study protocol development process.
Manage sample inventory via in-house laboratory information management system (LIMS) and implement additional systems for sample and chemical organization.

Organic chemist vs scientist skills

Common organic chemist skills

NMR, 8%
Method Development, 8%
HPLC, 7%
Organic Synthesis, 7%
Laboratory Equipment, 6%
Sample Preparation, 5%

Common scientist skills

Chemistry, 9%
Data Analysis, 7%
Patients, 7%
Molecular Biology, 4%
Cell Culture, 4%
Java, 3%

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Organic Chemist vs Scientist

Updated January 8, 2025

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