material research

[kobi]

how much can a part time material researcher hope to earn on avererage. no need to be too specific, just a rough figures will do.

[theprof]

Researching what?

[kobi]

researching different kinds of MATERIALS.

[theprof]

Let's get a few things straight before we go any further.

First of all, I suggest you find a good definition of "material". Here's one - the substance or substances of which a thing is made or composed. Here's another - anything serving as crude or raw matter for working upon or developing.

Now let's talk about you. What field are you qualified in or interested in? Are you an engineer, a chemist or other scientist for example?

You see kobi, you can spend a lifetime working as a textile researcher examining fabric everyday of the way for little more than the minimum wage. Yes, textile researchers are materials researchers. On the other hand, you could spend your days researching aspects of radioactive elements in a hi-tech lab with state-of-the-art facilities and get paid a pretty reasonable wage for your efforts.

You could work in the Patent Office, which is another interesting job and is reasonably well paid.

All these jobs are "material researchers" and you need to appreciate that you'll never get a true answer to your question unless you're a lot more specific than you've been so far.

What do you mean by "researching different kinds of materials". Are you implying that you think material researchers test fabric one day and uranium samples the next? Sorry, it doesn't happen like that and besides, you're not going to find a "How to become a Materials Researcher" book in your careers library, believe me.

(continued)

[theprof]

The wages at the end of the day depend a great deal on your qualifications. It's not unusual for a doctorate to be required for some of this type of work nowadays. The better the degree, the more money you'll earn. Also people with engineering degrees tend to earn marginally more than pure scientists for these types of jobs especially when destructive testing is involved.

I do some advisory work at a government research agency, and we have people who do things such as test the ability of defence vehicles to withstand penetration by shells etc. These people are highly qualified engineers and you might well call them materials researchers. Earnings? A minimum of around �80k to around �140k for a 36 hour week depending on their seniority. You won't get this sort of money researching fabric.

Materials researchers are specialists and confine themselves to researching a relatively narrow field of materials. The depth of knowledge required does not allow them to widen their talents into other areas.