Research professor vs senior research fellow

The differences between research professors and senior research fellows can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 2-4 years to become both a research professor and a senior research fellow. Additionally, a research professor has an average salary of $119,503, which is higher than the $62,129 average annual salary of a senior research fellow.

The top three skills for a research professor include research projects, public health and data collection. The most important skills for a senior research fellow are python, research projects, and data analysis.

Research professor vs senior research fellow overview

	Research Professor	Senior Research Fellow
Yearly salary	$119,503	$62,129
Hourly rate	$57.45	$29.87
Growth rate	17%	17%
Number of jobs	59,502	53,535
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 59%	Bachelor's Degree, 52%
Average age	41	41
Years of experience	4	4

What does a research professor do?

Research professors lead the research culture in their departments. In some cases, they will do less undergraduate teaching and focus more on teaching post-graduates. They also teach students at higher education institutions. They focus on their research activities that include presenting research findings at conferences worldwide. They are involved in initiatives working with private sectors and other public sector bodies. Part of their duties includes marking assessed work, attending planning meetings to ensure cross-departmental parity, and doing administrative tasks within the department.

What does a senior research fellow do?

Senior Research Fellows are reputable researchers employed in an academic institution or a research facility. The nature of their employment in the institution is related to their research work or field of interest. Senior Research Fellows lead a team of researchers on big projects that require more team members. They manage the team's budget, set timelines, and guide the researchers. They spearhead the analysis of the data gathered. They also set the tone for the presentation materials. Senior Research Fellows should be passionate about their field, should have a thirst for knowledge, and should be able to lead teams.

Research professor vs senior research fellow salary

Research professors and senior research fellows have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Research Professor	Senior Research Fellow
Average salary	$119,503	$62,129
Salary range	Between $67,000 And $212,000	Between $40,000 And $95,000
Highest paying City	Pasadena, CA	Urban Honolulu, HI
Highest paying state	Connecticut	Hawaii
Best paying company	New York University	Google
Best paying industry	Health Care	-

Differences between research professor and senior research fellow education

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

	Research Professor	Senior Research Fellow
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 59%	Bachelor's Degree, 52%
Most common major	Chemistry	Chemistry
Most common college	Duke University	Duke University

Research professor vs senior research fellow demographics

Here are the differences between research professors' and senior research fellows' demographics:

	Research Professor	Senior Research Fellow
Average age	41	41
Gender ratio	Male, 62.4% Female, 37.6%	Male, 56.1% Female, 43.9%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 6.4% Unknown, 4.1% Hispanic or Latino, 9.6% Asian, 26.4% White, 53.4% 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, 53.7% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.1%
LGBT Percentage	8%	8%

Differences between research professor and senior research fellow duties and responsibilities

Research professor example responsibilities.

Research lead to important biomarkers for stages of microglial activation.
Manage social media publications to spread awareness and notifications on Facebook.
Publish reports and papers, submit program applications to NIH, DTRA and DARPA.
Focuse on the chemical synthesis of sulfate dendrimer molecules for heparin-like coagulant activity.
Produce accurate results in Stata using appropriate statistical tests and regression models for given dataset.
Conduct statistical analyses and writing programs in SAS and STATA for sophisticate multivariate linear or non-linear regression.

Senior research fellow example responsibilities.

Lead a project aim at improving DNA yields from various soil types in Dr. Connell's lab.
Manage grant base research and submit the grant proposal to ICAR and get approved for fund research.
Mentore a graduate student on the following topics: study design, literature reviews, drafting data plans and SAS.
Contribute to the creation of new markup standards for scholarship in the humanities.
Research unidentify payments and patients.
Conduct long-term observations of grind water dynamics and chemistry.

Research professor vs senior research fellow skills

Common research professor skills

Research Projects, 16%
Public Health, 12%
Data Collection, 11%
Mathematics, 7%
Python, 7%
Research Methods, 5%

Common senior research fellow skills

Python, 12%
Research Projects, 8%
Data Analysis, 6%
C++, 6%
Research Findings, 5%
Data Collection, 4%

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Research Professor
Research Professor vs Senior Research Fellow

Updated January 8, 2025

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