20 Types of Scientists | A Guide on Their Study and Contribution to Society

Scientists help in human development and progress in technology in the current lifestyle.

Different types of scientists work in various areas of science to gain more knowledge.

They contribute to better health, quality products, safety measures, ease of living, and economic and employment enhancement.

The options like industrialization, the internet, social media, and connectivity that humans enjoy now are products of the collective efforts of scientists working in different sectors.

20 Different types of scientists and what they study

1. Space scientist

types of scientists
  • He is the one involved in exploring the solar system, space, galaxies, and the movement of planets.
  • They enhance our knowledge about the sun, Mars, Saturn, and other planets.
  • They also explore the possibility of life on other planets, other space technology exploration, defense, etc.
  • Their contribution to the current lifestyle includes mobile networks, television, and other communication through various satellites in space.
  • Some of them even go to space and work by staying in space centers.
  • They are also called astronauts.

2. Geoscientist

  • Unlike the above type of scientist, geoscientists’ work involves exploring the earth and its internal environment.
  • They study the composition, structure, and movements of the earth.
  • They contribute to discovering mines, petroleum deposits, minerals, and other aspects of the earth.

3. Seismologists

  • These scientists study the origin and movement of seismic waves on the Earth.
  • They can help in detecting earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunamis, etc.

4. Hydrologist

  • He learns about water distribution, its movement, rainfall, water cycle, and water resources.
  • He also studies the chemical nature of water, its interactions with other living beings, methods of storage, etc.

5. Meteorologists

scientists studying weather
National Hurricane Center: Florida
  • They are also similar to space scientists. But their focus is on weather, climate, and the environment.
  • They give us a weather report, forecast rainfalls, Hurricanes, cyclones, regional temperatures, global warming, etc.

6. Medical scientists

  • These scientists work to improve human health.
  • They study the cause of the disease, its mechanism, and options for treatment.
  • They also explore the human body in complete detail to prevent, diagnose, and treat disorders.
  • When there are new infections like recent swine flu, ebola virus, etc., they study the viral structure in detail to check for possible vaccines.
  • They design drugs, vaccines, antidotes, diagnostic kits, nutrition supplements, and other essential health requirements.

Some of the other types of medical scientists are pathologists, pharmacologists, etc.

7. Pharmacologist

  • He is also a medical scientist involved in discovering new drugs and molecules for diseases with no treatment.
  • He is mainly concerned with how the drug, once administered, behaves in the body.
  • How it produces the drugs’ therapeutic effects, metabolism, toxicity, and side effects.

8) Nutritional Scientist/dietitian

  • The one who assesses the nutrition contribution of different foods and their contribution to the well-being and treatment of malnutrition.
  • They can work in sports nutrition and medical nutrition therapy as clinical dietitians, community dietitians, etc.

9) Social scientists

  • This is a group of similar scientists who can be defined based on their area of social research, like

10) Anthropologist

  • Is one who studies aspects of human society of the past and present.

11) Archaeologists

  • These are a group of scientists who try to explain past human activity by exploring past remains.

12) Geographers

  • As the name indicates, they study the region’s land, habitat, and human life.
  • They also help in making maps.

13) Historians

  • These scientists try to explain history from the available records or events.

14. Physicist

  • He is a scientist with knowledge and curiosity in the field of physics.
  • The knowledge involves interactions of matter and energy at all time scales in the universe.
  • Based on observation, these scientists postulate laws or principles that help understand the universe’s principles, like gravitation, motion, time, etc.
  • Examples of great scientists in this area include Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein.

15. Nuclear physicists

  • These scientists study the structure, atomic nuclei characters, and their components’ interactions.
  • These scientists’ work helps develop nuclear energy, X-ray techniques, and other radiation-related methods.

16. Chemical scientist

  • The science of chemistry is so vast. The work involves discovering the chemical structure of any compound either from nature or obtained by synthesis.
  • Also, they formulate methods to identify a substance and determine its chemical and physical properties.
  • Further, they also identify their uses and toxic properties. 
  • Many scientists are involved in the research of chemistry in different areas of study, like

a) Organic chemists.

  • They are concerned that the study of pure organic compounds is so wide, and most compounds, including drugs, poisons, and disinfectants, are organic in nature.
  • They try to study these compounds’ structure, synthesis methods, and reactions.

b) Biochemist

  • These scientists study the organism’s source of food, digestion, metabolism, and excretion.
  • They also study processes like fermentation, transcription, translation, etc.
  • They are the ones involved in the human genome project.

c) Medicinal chemists

  • The scientists in this area study the structure of available drug molecules and explore the structure by further modification to find more new molecules.
  • They also try to minimize the toxicity of existing medicine by suitable modifications in the parent molecule.

See Chemistry in Medicine for more.

d) Inorganic chemist

  • These chemical compounds are used in daily life, like table salt, baking soda, talc, etc.
  • There are many inorganic compounds, and they are explored for their chemical and physical properties.

Further, their uses and harmful effects are sorted out.

e) Analytical chemist.

  • Analytical chemistry tries to analyze substances.

Scientists try to find new ways to determine a substance with more accuracy in a shorter time, in an inexpensive way.

f) Formulation chemist.

He is the one who mixes chemicals to derive formulations.

The formulation can be home-related cleaning solutions, those of personal hygiene like shampoos and hair gels.

Further, they can be involved in pharmaceutical formulations to make different dosage forms like lozenges, gels, etc.

17. Astronomers

  • They are the scientists who study celestial objects like planets and stars and the details of how they are formed, behave, etc.
  • They help discover new stars and comets with the use of telescopes.

18. Biologists

  • These scientists study living beings and their characters in all forms.

They are again of different types, like

a. Zoologists

  • These are scientists who study animals in detail.
  • They focus on animals’ origin structure, living habitats, genetics, reproduction, etc.
  • They also try to predict and explain the evolution of animals.

b. Botanist

  • Is one who explores the knowledge about plants.
  • They try to understand the evolution of plants, their physiology, growth, age, etc.
  • Further, they explore the distribution of plant species and types in the nation and the world.
  • They also define methods to identify plants and study their external and internal structures.
  • Even the uses of plant constituents are explored. Hence, we use plants for medicine, dye, textile, and other uses due to plant studies.

c. Microbiologist

  • This person studies microorganisms like bacteria, viruses, protozoa, fungi, algae, etc.
  • He is also concerned with methods like sterilization (destruction of microbes), disinfection, body immunity, vaccination, etc.

d) Bacteriologist

  • They specialized in the knowledge of bacteria. This includes their classification, distribution, food habits, benefits to man, etc.

e) Virologist

  • A scientist with immense knowledge of viruses, their emergence, growth, distribution, pathogenicity, etc.

d. Bio-technologist

  • He studies living beings’ genetic and other traits and develops new biological entities to benefit humanity.

e) Ornithologists

  • These scientists are involved in the study of birds.
  • Their main focus is the study of birds’ behaviors, habits, habitats, migration, and other features.

f) Entomologist

  • He tries to classify insects and study their anatomy, physiology, food habits, reproduction, and life cycle.

g) Ichthyologist

  • He is the one who is involved in the study of fish. This includes their anatomy, characters, habits, habitats, etc.

i) Marine biologist

He is the one involved in the study of animals in the sea and ocean.

They study a variety of aquatic organisms, starting from the minute plankton and major animals.

19. Agriculturist

  • Scientists are concerned with the methods and improvement of agriculture. They study crop varieties, soil characteristics, crop disease, etc.
  • They aim to enhance crop yield, prevent diseases, and survive drought and other conditions crops.

20. Environmental scientist

  • These scientists advise about global warming, melting glaciers in Antarctica, and the possibility of sea-level rise risking coastal cities.
  • They study the reasons for pollution and global warming and methods to prevent or overcome these problems.

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Leave a comment

  1. This wasn’t this helpful. I am looking for a scientist who mixes chemicals, and if there was it didn’t have a good explanation

    Reply
  2. OMG, this dude has been arguing with me for the last 2 hours saying that there’s no such thing as a forensic scientist or political scientist and that a zoologist, biologist, chemist, and anthropologist are not scientists. Even after finding numerous citations online this moron is literally throwing things and pounding his fists proclaiming that he is right.

    Reply
  3. “Environmental scientist” isn’t a real thing. Never has been. Scientists can, and do, advise on environmental issues, but that doesn’t make them “environmental scientists”.

    Reply

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