How To Become A Professor Of Microbiology: What It Is and Career Path

What is a professor of microbiology and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Quoted expert

Fabio Lanza

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a professor of microbiology. For example, did you know that they make an average of $31.54 an hour? That's $65,602 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 12% and produce 159,400 job opportunities across the U.S.

What general advice would you give to a professor of microbiology?

Fabio Lanza

Professor, Ashford University

I tell them not to expect that they can achieve the same, old-style academic career (like mine, for example). A tenure-track job in a research university to be clear. Those jobs exist but they are becoming rarer and rarer. I also tell them that if they forecast incurring in serious (or even non-serious) debt in order to get a PhD, they should not do it. They should not pursue that path at all. In the program, they should take all the chances they have to learn new skills, including skills that don't seem directly related to an academic career.

ScoreProfessor Of MicrobiologyUS Average

Salary

5.1

Avg. Salary $65,602

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

5.2

Growth rate 12%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

5.2

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.28%

Asian 11.24%

Black or African American 7.23%

Hispanic or Latino 10.29%

Unknown 4.95%

White 66.01%

Gender

female 43.59%

male 56.41%

Age - 46

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 46

Stress level

5.2

Stress level is manageable

7.1 - high

Complexity level

10.0

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

5.7

Work life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a professor of microbiology

Explore professor of microbiology education requirements

Most common professor of microbiology degrees

Bachelor's

44.8 %

Doctorate

28.4 %

Master's

20.9 %

Start to develop specific professor of microbiology skills

Skills	Percentages
Laboratory Equipment	52.01%
General Microbiology	32.72%
Animal Production	15.26%

Research professor of microbiology duties and responsibilities

Manage externally fund genome sequencing projects as a principal investigator.
Note for hands-on research into microbial productions of enzymes.
Purify, characterize and successfully cloned unique thermophilic DNA polymerase enzymes for pcr-base applications.
Work on different electrophoresis and their identification as well as on determination of amino acids in serum and urine.

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