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Senior associate scientist vs research fellow

The differences between senior associate scientists and 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 senior associate scientist and a research fellow. Additionally, a senior associate scientist has an average salary of $90,208, which is higher than the $53,823 average annual salary of a research fellow.

The top three skills for a senior associate scientist include data analysis, chemistry and cell culture. The most important skills for a research fellow are patients, research projects, and data analysis.

Senior associate scientist vs research fellow overview

Senior Associate ScientistResearch Fellow
Yearly salary$90,208$53,823
Hourly rate$43.37$25.88
Growth rate17%17%
Number of jobs47,74259,746
Job satisfaction--
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 70%Bachelor's Degree, 47%
Average age4141
Years of experience44

What does a senior associate scientist do?

A Senior Associate Scientist supervises the work of associate scientists. They manage the design and implementation process of a research project, which includes analyzing information for that project.

What does a research fellow do?

A research fellow is an academic researcher who conducts research and analysis of comprehensive literature, data, and results and provides literature reviews. He/She supervises research assistants and recruits study participants to interview them for a particular study. To become a research fellow, a candidate should have a doctorate in a relevant discipline and publish peer-reviewed papers. Also, a research fellow can be an independent investigator or be supervised by a principal investigator.

Senior associate scientist vs research fellow salary

Senior associate scientists and research fellows have different pay scales, as shown below.

Senior Associate ScientistResearch Fellow
Average salary$90,208$53,823
Salary rangeBetween $57,000 And $141,000Between $39,000 And $72,000
Highest paying CitySan Francisco, CASouth San Francisco, CA
Highest paying stateCaliforniaHawaii
Best paying companyWorkdayMcKinsey & Company Inc
Best paying industryHealth CareNon Profits

Differences between senior associate scientist and research fellow education

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

Senior Associate ScientistResearch Fellow
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 70%Bachelor's Degree, 47%
Most common majorChemistryChemistry
Most common collegeUniversity of Southern CaliforniaDuke University

Senior associate scientist vs research fellow demographics

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

Senior Associate ScientistResearch Fellow
Average age4141
Gender ratioMale, 52.7% Female, 47.3%Male, 55.3% Female, 44.7%
Race ratioBlack or African American, 6.5% Unknown, 4.2% Hispanic or Latino, 9.8% Asian, 25.8% White, 53.5% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.1%Black or African American, 6.4% Unknown, 4.1% Hispanic or Latino, 9.6% Asian, 27.1% White, 52.7% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.1%
LGBT Percentage8%8%

Differences between senior associate scientist and research fellow duties and responsibilities

Senior associate scientist example responsibilities.

  • Collaborate with automation engineers to automate creation of sequencing templates and to automate emulsion PCR reaction setup.
  • Manage study protocols and study conduct, intimately involve in the toxicology and pharmacokinetic study protocol development process.
  • Develop and validate quantitative HPLC and LC/MS methods for the measurement of parent drug and their metabolites according to GLP guidelines.
  • Optimize binding ELISA for use during phage screening.
  • Optimize procedures to extract RNA from bone taken from surgical procedures.
  • Culture primary (rat) and stem cell-derive neurons and extract RNA.
  • Show more

Research fellow example responsibilities.

  • Collaborate with software engineers to automate identification of 15N- and 13C- labele LC-MS features.
  • Process and manage GIS databases to contribute towards research in human transportation behavior.
  • Manage investigator initiate and cooperative group correlative studies to identify biomarkers to ascertain tumor burden and clinical outcomes in lymphoma.
  • Analyze quantitative and qualitative data through statistical software SAS and SPSS.
  • Conduct sampling, PCR, data analysis and oral presentations of the work
  • Implement python and C++ codes for numerical computation of transport properties in models and materials.
  • Show more

Senior associate scientist vs research fellow skills

Common senior associate scientist skills
  • Data Analysis, 8%
  • Chemistry, 7%
  • Cell Culture, 5%
  • CRISPR, 5%
  • Flow Cytometry, 4%
  • Oncology, 4%
Common research fellow skills
  • Patients, 10%
  • Research Projects, 6%
  • Data Analysis, 5%
  • Cell Culture, 5%
  • Immunology, 4%
  • CRISPR, 4%

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