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Gianluca Grimalda is the first worker ever fired for having refused to catch a plane for environmental reasons. He did an act of civil disobedience to save 5 tons of CO2 and raise awareness ... Read all Gianluca Grimalda is the first worker ever fired for having refused to catch a plane for environmental reasons. He did an act of civil disobedience to save 5 tons of CO2 and raise awareness on the causes of climate change. Was it worth it? Gianluca Grimalda is the first worker ever fired for having refused to catch a plane for environmental reasons. He did an act of civil disobedience to save 5 tons of CO2 and raise awareness on the causes of climate change. Was it worth it?

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University of Chicago grad, 2 other scientists awarded Nobel Prize in chemistry for work on proteins, building blocks of life

By Todd Feurer , The Associated Press

October 9, 2024 / 10:08 AM CDT / CBS/AP

CHICAGO (CBS/AP) -- A University of Chicago alumnus was awarded a share of the Nobel Prize in chemistry on Wednesday, along with two other scientists, for their work to discover powerful techniques to predict and even design novel proteins — the building blocks of life.

John Jumper, who received his master's degree in 2012 and his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 2017, shared the prize with Dennis Hassabis — who works with Jumper at Google DeepMind, a British-American artificial intelligence research laboratory based in London — and David Baker, who works at the University of Washington in Seattle, for their work on "protein structure prediction."

Their work used advanced technologies, including machine learning, and holds the potential to transform how new drugs are made.

"It's absolutely extraordinary," Jumper said in a statement on the University of Chicago website. "I've been a computational biologist a long time, and I like to say in talks: we need this to work. We need computation to solve the problems of biology, and I just love that it's starting to work."  

Heiner Linke, chair of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry, said the award honored research that unraveled long-standing scientific mysteries.

"That was actually called a grand challenge in chemistry, and in particular in biochemistry, for decades. So, it's that breakthrough that gets awarded today," he said.

Jumper and Hassabis co-invented the AlphaFord System at Google DeepMind. The Nobel committee wrote they "have utilised artificial intelligence to successfully solve a problem that chemists wrestled with for over 50 years: predicting the three-dimensional structure of a protein from a sequence of amino acids."

Jumper is the 19th person affiliated with the University of Chicago to receive a Nobel Prize for chemistry, and the 100th scholar associated with the university to receive a Nobel Prize overall.

What is the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for?

Proteins are complex molecules with thousands of atoms that twist, turn, loop and spiral in a countless array of shapes. The shape of a protein determines its biological function. For decades, scientists have dreamed of being able to efficiently design and build new proteins.

Baker, whose work has received funding from the National Institutes of Health since the 1990s, created a computer program called Rosetta that helped analyze information about existing proteins in comprehensive databases in order to build new proteins that don't exist in nature.

"It seems that you can almost construct any type of protein now with this technology," said Johan Åqvist of the Nobel committee.

Hassabis and Jumper created an artificial intelligence model that has been able to predict the structure of virtually all the 200 million proteins that researchers have identified, the committee added.

The duo "managed to crack the code. With skillful use of artificial intelligence, they made it possible to predict the complex structure of essentially any known protein in nature," Linke said.

Why this work matters?

The ability to custom design new proteins — and better understand existing proteins — could enable researchers to create new kinds of medicines and vaccines. It could also allow scientists to design new enzymes to break down plastics or other waste materials, and to design fine-tuned sensors for hazardous materials.

"I think there's fantastic prospects for making better medicines — medicines that are smarter, that only work in the right time and place in the body," Baker told The Associated Press.

One example is a potential nasal spray that could slow or stop the rapid spread of specific viruses, such as COVID-19, he said. Another is a medicine to disrupt the cascade of symptoms known as cytokine storm.

"That was always the holy grail. If you could figure out how protein sequences folded into their particular structures, then it might be possible to design protein sequences to fold into previously never seen structures that might be useful for us," said Jon Lorsh of the NIH.

Baker said Hassabis and Jumper's artificial intelligence work gave his team a huge boost.

"The breakthroughs made by Demis and John on protein structure prediction really highlighted to us the power that AI could have. And that led us to apply these AI methods to protein design and that has greatly increased the power and accuracy," he said.

How the winners reacted

Baker told the AP he found out he won the Nobel during the early hours of the morning alongside his wife, who immediately started screaming.

"So it was a little deafening, too," he said.

Hassabis said in a statement that "receiving the Nobel Prize is the honor of a lifetime."

One of Britain's leading tech figures, he co-founded the AI research lab DeepMind in 2010, which was later acquired by Google. DeepMind's breakthroughs include developing an AI system that mastered the Chinese game of Go and was able to defeat the game's human world champion much faster than expected.

Jumper said in the same statement that it was an honor to be "recognized for delivering on the long promise of computational biology to help us understand the protein world and to inform the incredible work of experimental biologists."

"It is a key demonstration that AI will make science faster and ultimately help to understand disease and develop therapeutics," Jumper said.

More about the Nobels

Baker gets half of the prize money of 11 million Swedish Kronor ($1 million) while Hassabis and Jumper share the other half.

It's the second Nobel prize that has gone to someone with links to Google. Physics prize winner Geoffrey Hinton also previously worked at the tech company, but later quit so he could speak more freely about the potential dangers of artificial intelligence.

Last year , the chemistry award went to three scientists for their work on quantum dots — tiny particles just a few nanometers in diameter that can release very bright colored light and whose applications in everyday life include electronics and medical imaging.

Six days of Nobel announcements opened Monday with Americans Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun winning the medicine prize. Two founding fathers of machine learning — Hinton and John Hopfield — won the  physics prize .

The awards continue with the literature prize on Thursday. The Nobel Peace Prize will be announced Friday and the economics award on Oct. 14.

The prize money comes from a bequest left by the award's creator, Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel. The laureates are invited to receive their awards at ceremonies on Dec. 10, the anniversary of Nobel's death.

• University of Chicago
• Nobel Prize

Todd Feurer is a web producer for CBS Chicago. He has previously written for WBBM Newsradio, WUIS-FM and the New City News Service.

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• 3.9 • 193 Ratings

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DISCOVER & DISCUSS IMPORTANT RESEARCH Researcher is where you discover and discuss the latest scientific and academic research. The only tool you need to stay up to date. With keyword and author feeds, notifications, trending papers, bookmarks, institutional access and syncing with Mendeley or Zotero, staying on top of the latest scholarly literature has never been easier. DISCOVER Keep up-to-date with scientific and academic content from over 20,000 sources, including: Peer-reviewed journals Preprints Scientific blogs Universities blogs and news Leading life sciences and technology companies Podcasts DISCUSS WITH RESEARCHER LIVE Hear directly from scientists and connect with peers via Researcher Live: built-in Live events that bring breakthrough research directly to you. Listen in, ask questions and discuss trending topics and papers directly with the researchers behind them. We want to give every scientist and researcher the opportunity to connect and discuss their work with their peers and colleagues from across the globe and help facilitate those vital conversations that drive science forward. FREE TO USE Researcher is free to download and always will be. Get started in a few simple steps and create your own personalised feeds. DISCOVER WHAT'S NEW BEFORE ANYONE ELSE No more email alerts, no more RSS feeds. Access to industry research and paper abstracts from 20,000 content sources across 10 different subject areas delivered directly to you in a social media style feed. Be the first to discover relevant content from all the top STEM, Social Science and Humanities publications - you’ll never miss essential research again. JOIN A FAST-GROWING COMMUNITY Join the 2.4 million users from around the world, who already use Researcher to get new, relevant scholarly content every day. CREATE FEEDS FOR KEYWORDS OR AUTHORS Personalise your app. Set up feeds to show paper abstracts including your chosen keywords and authors so you can easily discover what matters to you. BOOKMARK PAPERS FOR LATER Discover research at your own pace. Bookmark papers to read later from any mobile device or from your laptop by going to www.researcher-app.com. LINK YOUR ACCOUNT WITH MENDELEY OR ZOTERO Send your papers to your chosen reference manager. We support Mendeley and Zotero. TURN ON NOTIFICATIONS AND NEVER MISS IMPORTANT RESEARCH All you need to do is turn on notifications to get updates on your content preferences. You won't have to worry about missing vital research ever again. FIND OUT WHAT’S TRENDING Discover what papers are gaining traction in your subject and in other research areas. READ OPEN ACCESS CONTENT WITH EASE We’ve integrated Unpaywall with Researcher so you can read and discover open access content that helps you move forward with your research. LOG IN WITH YOUR UNIVERSITY CREDENTIALS To see the full-text of papers, you can log in using your university credentials. We offer institutional login for libraries and institutions that use EZProxy. RESEARCHER’S CONTENT COVERAGE We have more than 20,000 sources of research covering all major disciplines: Medical & Health Sciences Life Sciences and Biology Chemistry & Materials Science Engineering & Computer Science Social Sciences & Psychology Earth Sciences & Geography Physics and Mathematics Business & Management Arts & Humanities Economics and Finance. Disclaimer: Researcher aggregates the abstracts of recently published academic papers. The content includes a combination of open access papers, pre-prints and copyright-protected articles behind a paywall. In order to access paid content, users must have valid institutional credentials or provide payment to the publisher. Please email us on [email protected] or leave a review to give us your feedback!

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Ratings and Reviews

193 Ratings

Useful to keep up to date with current research

Useful app to follow all the new articles published in scientific journals and really nice feature to look for key words, which at the end seems better than a google scholar notification, and to be honest just more natural than reading a “newsletter” type stuff from gscholar. However, even if the main features are here, I think some useful things would be interested to implement, like putting in greyish the articles already seen (which makes it able to see where we left last time we update the research) and the possibility to have push notifications for the keywords selected. The “my article” are linked with Mendeley, which in my opinion is a limitation as many people don’t use it (part of it because it is owned by Elseveir) so it could be great to link it with a zotero account (although I am not familiar if there is any API limitation for that...). Also I noticed that some journals are missing (such as Optica) which makes me still stick with arXiv newsletter + google scholar email notifications on keywords.

Developer Response ,

Hi Gregelliom, Thanks for the review and for your suggestions. We will soon be introducing push notification. We will hopefully be adding both Zotero and Endnote. If there are any journals you want, you can tell me by simply filling in this short form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdItKW1cVTBDYapugbbSShO3D9ADfLCIb-PPpOHZJ-CT0ri4A/viewform?usp=sf_lin. Also, I really like your idea of the grey read article, I will forward this on to the team to discuss. Thanks, Joe from Researcher

Good tool to keep up with the literature

It has all the necessary functions (filters, journal feeds etc) that help me see the recent publications in my area. One problem I found is that the journal feed does not allow me to filter out “just accepted” papers from ASAP (as soon as publishable) articles. As least I did not find such a function. The difference is that for most journals I follow, “just accepted” articles are pre-galley proof and they do not have TOC graphics, which makes them much harder to navigate through than ASAP (as soon as publishable) or already published articles. For some journals (for example, Agnewandte Chemie), the feed page is overwhelmed by “just accepted” papers without any graphics, and I find it really hard to read through all the tittles and abstracts without any graphics.

Dear user, Thank you for your valuable feedback. We're sorry that you are facing this issue. This has been shared within the team and we will look into it. If we can help you with anything else you can contact us via [email protected]. Thanks, Maria.

Love the app, despise the interface.

What I love: The fact that I can keep up with a bunch of journals all in one place. What I hate: The interface is awful. It is slow. It freezes. The fact that to delete an entry I have to swipe AND then hit the X button, which is often when it freezes. I had switched to the desktop app because I could just hit an X and get rid of the things I didn’t care about but they’ve removed that feature from the desktop app. I tried the updated iPhone version again today and it’s as bad as it has always been. What would make the app great: Bulk delete, something that you can select edit and then mark everything you don’t care about for deletion. Smoother interface that doesn’t freeze. The ability to delete from the abstract screen would also be helpful. Bottom Line: If you like a quasi useful app that will occasionally frustrate you until you want to scream. This app is for you. When it works it’s great but it doesn’t work all that often or for very long. Update: I’ve discovered a wonderful new bug. Now the app recycles the same abstracts over and over again. While scrolling through my feed looking at article I noticed they were all looking similar. Many of the same abstracts scrolled past several times despite my swiping left on them earlier. I’ve uninstalled/reinstalled multiple times but no change.

Hi, thanks for taking the time to leave a review and for providing us with your valuable feedback. I have forwarded your suggestions on to our product manager who will investigate the potential of adding these to the app and website. In regards to the app being slow, this sounds like a bug, so please do email us at [email protected] so we can gather more information from you and investigate this issue. Edit: Thank you for making us aware of this bug. We recently fixed this in our most recent update, so please make sure that you are on the most recent version. If this issue still persists, please do get in touch with us and we will investigate this further. Thanks, Joe

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Google’s DeepMind researchers among recipients of Nobel prize for chemistry

The award honours protein design and the use of ai for protein-structure prediction.

I T IS A recurring joke among chemists that the Nobel prize for chemistry is, more often than not, awarded for developments in biology. Recent examples include awards for the gene-editing tool CRISPR , in 2020 ; directed evolution of enzymes and antibodies, in 2018 ; and DNA repair mechanisms, in 2015 . Some may view this year’s prize, which awarded work designing and predicting the structure of proteins, as a continuation of that trend. But the main message lies elsewhere: some of the best brains in chemistry do not only make molecules, they make computer models too.

One half of the award went to David Baker, a biochemist at the University of Washington, for his work on designing new proteins using computers. The other half was shared between John Jumper and Demis Hassabis from DeepMind, Google’s artificial-intelligence ( AI ) company, for their development of AI models capable of predicting three-dimensional protein structure, a long-standing grand challenge in biochemistry.

Dr Baker has long been considered a favourite to win. The choice of Drs Hassabis and Jumper, though, came as something of a surprise. But this has been AI ’s year. The day before the chemistry announcement, the prize for physics was awarded for the development of the neural networks that underpin artificial intelligence models such as those DeepMind pioneered (a subject, some argued, that hardly counts as physics at all).

Proteins are the main chemical building blocks of life. They are made up of smaller molecules called amino acids, arranged in long chains which fold in highly complex and specific ways. A protein’s final folded form determines its biological function. In other words, to understand proteins—and, by extension, biology—one must understand their structure.

Dr Baker achieved such understanding through doing. In a landmark paper from 2003, he succeeded in designing a completely new protein. Using a computer program he named Rosetta , he found an amino-acid sequence capable of folding in ways not seen in nature. Once the sequence was recreated in the lab and the protein formed, he determined its final structure using a technique called X -ray crystallography: it was a close match to what he had set out to make. Rosetta, now called Rosetta Commons, has subsequently become a software package used by every protein chemist, and computational protein design has assisted in everything from vaccine development to the detection of toxic chemicals.

Going the other way, and predicting a protein’s structure from its amino-acid sequence, is a problem that took even longer to crack. Given the near-limitless number of configurations into which a protein can fold—by some estimates, as many as 10 300 for a single complex protein—even computers had limited success. DeepMind’s AI -based AlphaFold 1 and 2 models, made public in 2018 and 2020 respectively, were the first to even get close. AlphaFold 2 now has a database of more than 200m protein structure predictions, with a prediction accuracy approaching 90%.

Though Drs Jumper and Hassabis have featured on various contender lists this year, many wondered if it was too soon for AlphaFold to be recognised. Yet it has already had real impact : DeepMind says that some 2m scientists already use it in their research. AlphaFold 3, released in May, goes beyond proteins to predict the structure of a host of other biomolecules, such as DNA , as well as small molecules that might function as drugs. It can also predict how different molecules with different structures fit together, such as how a virus’s spike protein might interact with antibodies and sugars found in the body.

By choosing, for the first time, to honour work performed with an AI model, the committee has opened the door for more such prizes in the future. That is just as well; AI has been seeping into all areas of science for some time now, as Dr Baker illustrated when he was phoned up during the committee’s press conference. He said that AlphaFold has inspired him to make generative AI models that can design new proteins. “Our new AI methods are much more powerful,” he said, sounding happy and a little tired. If recent history is anything to go by, researchers will be repeating that line for years to come. ■

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Career Planning

How to become a rese..., how to become a researcher (duties, salary and steps).

You could uncover the next big thing in our lives.

• Updated Mar 6, 2024
• 11 min read

Mike Dalley

HR and Learning & Development Expert

Reviewed by Chris Leitch

Everything important in our day-to-day life started as a groundbreaking piece of research.

Researchers make ideas come to life, and all of the things that we take for granted wouldn’t be here without research. Therefore, being a researcher offers a rewarding, challenging and varied career path .

This article takes you through the details of being a researcher, including what this exciting role entails, what the working environment and salary are like and, critically, what you can do to get started in the role.

What is a researcher?

A researcher collects data and undertakes investigations into a particular subject , publishing their findings. The purpose of this is to uncover new knowledge or theories. Researchers typically specialize in a particular field and follow rigorous methodologies in order to ensure their research is credible.

What are the different types of researchers?

There are many ways to categorize researchers, such as by their field, expertise or methodologies. Here are six basic types of researchers:

• Applied researchers use existing scientific knowledge to solve problems . They use this knowledge to develop new technologies or methodologies.
• Clinical researchers conduct research related to medical treatments or diseases. They often work in institutions like hospitals or pharmaceutical companies.
• Corporate researchers collect data related to business environments, with the aim to use this to benefit organizations.
• Market researchers gather data related to consumer preferences or an organization’s competitors.
• Social researchers investigate human behavior and the factors influencing this. Social research relates to fields like psychology , anthropology and economics.
• Policy researchers work with companies and governments to investigate the impact of policies, regulations or programs.

What does a researcher do?

Researcher work is quite varied. It begins with reviewing existing research and literature and formulating research questions . Researchers also have to design studies and protocols for their research, and diligently and thoroughly collect data.

Once the data is collected, researchers have to critically analyze their findings and communicate them . To ensure the research is reliable, researchers must embrace peer review , where their research is evaluated by other researchers in the same field, and draw conclusions accordingly. The entirety of this process must be bound by ethical considerations, as researchers have a duty to ensure their work is truthful, integral and accurate.

Researchers also undertake supportive duties, such as applying for grants and funding, and investigating new areas to research.

What is their work environment?

Researchers’ work environment depends greatly on the type of research they are doing and their field. The typical researcher environment can, therefore, vary considerably but might include time in laboratories, academic institutions, office spaces and IT workshops. There might also be the need to undergo onsite fieldwork or attend conferences and workshops.

Researchers work in collaborative environments, and teamwork is common. That said, they also need to undertake plenty of solo work that requires concentration and quiet. Consequently, they need to be happy in a variety of different work settings.

How many hours do they work?

The hours researchers work vary just as much as their working environment. Freelance or contract researchers might work atypical hours, whereas academic or corporate researchers might work more standard hours, such as a 40-hour working week.

Field researchers might have to work longer hours at times in order to collect data. This also might involve travel time.

All researchers might have to work long hours when deadlines are due, or when projects are time-sensitive. Finally, because of the idiosyncratic nature of research work, all researchers might have their favorite personal working style and work their hours in preferred patterns.

How much do they earn?

Owing to the nature of the role, researcher salaries can vary considerably. Based on current market data , the average salary is $82,276 per year .

One of the largest variables in researcher salaries is the field you decide to go into. Academic researchers are typically paid towards the lower end of the scale, as are government researchers. Industry or corporate researchers are paid a lot more, with computer and information research roles paying a median annual salary of over $130,000.

Researcher salaries can also vary based on the job level. Apprentices or research assistants have lower salaries, whereas research scientist or professor-level roles often pay over $100,000. Pay scales are connected to academic reputation, industry credentials, and the industry you work in. This also means that as your career in research progresses, you can expect to take home extremely good paychecks.

What is the job market like for researchers?

Some research roles can be extremely competitive, with tenure-track roles in academic research being highly in demand, as are positions in consulting firms. The labor market for corporate research and governmental research roles can also be very strong, but research is heavily impacted by economic conditions, and roles can be cut in times of recession.

In general, research roles are highly sought-after , and this means competition for them is fierce. This means that you need to have a strong network, undergo continuous professional development, work on your research portfolio, and ensure your résumé and other supporting documentation are up to date.

What are the entry requirements?

Starting your career as a researcher requires plenty of preparation. Here’s what you need to focus on in terms of education, skills and knowledge, and licensing and certification.

Higher education is essential to become a researcher; what degree you choose might depend on what field of research you are interested in. A bachelor’s degree will give you foundational knowledge , whereas a master’s or PhD offers more specialized knowledge and can lead to more career opportunities later in your career journey.

Skills and knowledge

Entry-level researchers need a rich mix of skills and knowledge to be able to fulfil their job duties . Skills to develop include analytical skills , critical thinking ability and solving problems, with other useful ones being IT and presentation skills . Knowledge of research methodologies and rationale, as well as database management, is very useful.

Licensing and certification

Licensing and certification requirements for researchers vary , depending on the field you are planning to go into. Academic credentials, as outlined above, are important, but being a member of relevant professional associations is also highly advised.

Some sensitive areas of research might require you to have specialist credentials, such as certification in Good Clinical Practice if you’re planning to undertake medical research.

Do you have what it takes?

Being a researcher is a labor of love. If your values, passions and talent are related to traits like curiosity, attention to detail, discovering more about the world we live in, and rigorous attention to detail, then being a researcher is the perfect job for you. You also have to have a lot of patience, honesty when it comes to reporting unwelcome results, and resilience.

If you’re not sure what kind of career your skills, interests and passions might lead to, then consider taking CareerHunter’s six-stage assessment . These tests have been developed by psychologists and assess your skills and interests in order to provide you with best-fit careers that you can really thrive in.

How to become a researcher

A lot of preparation is needed to become a researcher. If, after reading this far, you still feel that becoming a researcher is the perfect job for you, then read on to discover how you can make this career dream a reality.

Step 1: Choose your field

Try to choose your research field as soon as you can. This is important, because it might provide you with direction for your higher education. There are so many different research fields to choose from — for example: social sciences, humanities, business, healthcare, engineering , or simply focusing on research theory or methodologies.

It’s important to choose a field that you have a strong interest or passion in. Also, consider where your talents and skills lie, and let this guide your decision too.

Step 2: Get qualified

As we’ve covered already, education is an important first step to becoming a researcher.

Common degrees to focus on can be the sciences (biology, chemistry or physics), computer science , mathematics, or statistics . Alternatively, if you have decided on your chosen research field, then consider obtaining higher education that relates to this.

Being a researcher is a competitive career: good grades in leading institutions will be required if you want to work as a researcher in prestigious organizations.

Step 3: Develop your research skills

Whether it’s part of your higher education or simply learning in your own time, developing research skills such as new methodologies, quantitative and qualitative methods , strategic analysis, or data analytics will keep you professionally competitive.

Additionally, it’s useful to gain experience in using research tools and software. These can include statistics software like SPSS, as well as programming languages like Java and Python. Understanding data visualization and presentation tools can also be hugely helpful.

Step 4: Gain research experience

A great way to start your career as a researcher is to undertake undergraduate research. This could be your own independent research project but is most commonly achieved through research internships or assistantships . With these experiences, you can collaborate with academic leaders, mentors or established researchers on their projects, and learn from their experience and expertise as well.

Another way to gain experience is through volunteering in research-related roles in academic institutions, laboratories or other similar environments.

Step 5: Network with peers

Networking with fellow research professionals enables you to exchange ideas, resources and expertise . Your network might be able to support you in finding research positions as your career progresses.

Grow your network by attending conferences and seminars, and by leveraging your work experience. You can also grow your network by reaching out to researchers on LinkedIn, and by publishing your own research papers as your experience grows.

Step 6: Present and publish your work

Presenting your work and publishing your findings establishes and grows your credibility as a researcher. You can present your research at conferences or even online via websites like YouTube.

Being published or listed as a collaborator on research papers can impact your career hugely , and being featured on important or large-scale research works can truly establish you as a researcher and lead to larger projects or more funding.

Step 7: Develop your résumé

Ensure that your résumé links to your portfolio of published works , as well as your presentations. It should showcase to potential employers and academic institutions what you have done, and what you’re capable of doing.

Ensure your résumé also references your research skills in a way that relates to the reader, and that it can be parsed effectively in applicant tracking systems .

Step 8: Seek funding

Research requires time and money. By applying for research grants, fellowships, scholarships and projects, you’ll grow your experience and leverage your credibility . Many of these opportunities are competitive, and being able to showcase what you can achieve via your published work, portfolio or résumé is essential.

Applying for funding is a skill in itself, as researchers need to be able to write compelling and thorough applications. You’ll also need to use negotiating and influencing skills in order to secure the funding and get your projects off the ground.

Step 9: Apply for research jobs

Whereas being a researcher often means that you’re working on independent projects, freelancing, or affiliated with an academic institution rather than being employed by one, there are plenty of research jobs out there — and lots of companies have their own in-house research teams.

If you apply for these roles, ensure that your résumé is up to date and that you practice your interviewing skills for them. Research jobs are in demand, and being able to showcase what you do is essential for success.

Step 10: Never stop discovering

Being a successful researcher isn’t just about continuous learning; it’s about endless discovery as well. The best researchers stay curious about their field , exploring new research questions, learning and growing from failure, and asking new questions.

Researchers are passionate about discovery and believe that learning new things and overcoming challenges makes the world a better place. Enthusiastically discovering new things will also ensure that your career as a researcher keeps growing. You’ll also develop resilience and persistence, which are powerful skills to have.

Final thoughts

Being a researcher requires a lot of skills and knowledge, as well as you taking time to figure out exactly what kind of research you want to get involved with. The job is complex and detailed, and can be as frustrating as it can be rewarding.

Becoming a leading researcher requires a lot of career preparation, and hopefully this article can point you in the right direction if you feel this is the perfect job for you. Once you get started, choose your research projects carefully, and who knows? You could be the researcher that uncovers the next big thing in our lives!

Are you thinking about becoming a researcher, or want to share your experiences? Let us know in the comments section below.

Career Exploration

Career Paths

Educational resources and simple solutions for your research journey

Roles and Responsibilities of a Researcher

A researcher’s job is to discover or confirm, in a responsible manner, evidence-based knowledge that can benefit society or the world. However, the role of a researcher is much wider than the job description and the responsibilities of a researcher are numerous. In this article, we will take a brief look at the many responsibilities a researcher that must be fulfilled to play this role effectively.

Varied roles of a researcher

A good researcher needs to be many things to many people; here are some researcher duties and responsibilities:

• Scientist – The primary role of a researcher is to conduct research, be that through experimental studies, literature reviews, or qualitative studies. This includes designing experiments and writing reports.
• Colleague/collaborator – Researcher duties and responsibilities often include collaborations with colleagues on scientific studies as well as review others’ work and provide feedback.
• Communicator – The role of a researcher includes communicating with various audiences about their work. Journal articles need to be written, grant applications completed, and presentations made to review boards and decision makers.
• Steward of the public trust – Many studies are funded with public resources, which come with the need for accountability. The responsibility of a researcher is to fulfill obligations required by the funding source, such as creating reports and presentations.
• Advocate – Researcher’s duties and responsibilities often include promoting their work to policymakers or others who can help apply the knowledge gained. They advocate for their work, their discipline, and sometimes even for science itself.

  Responsibilities of a researcher

As with the medical profession and its Hippocratic Oath, the main overarching responsibility of a researcher is to do no harm. This is especially important in today’s environment and encompasses a wider reach than simply ensuring the safety and well-being of research subjects, although that is vitally important. It means behaving in a proper manner rather than engaging in unacceptable behavior 1 .

Obviously, the primary role of a researcher is chasing knowledge and conducting studies. However, it is also essential that any conclusions reached through the research be evidence based. The results reported must be honest, objective, and scientifically supported. Here are some examples of ethical issues that a good researcher must consider when designing and conducting studies, reporting results, and drawing conclusions 2 :

• Over generalizing results – all studies have limitations. It is the responsibility of a researcher to openly reveal their limitations to ensure their work is useful and can be built on.
• Biased methodology or conclusions – this is especially important in qualitative studies. Researchers need to ask themselves if the survey questions are fair or if their own opinions are clouding the results.
• Correlation does not imply causation – a competent researcher will ensure they do not make this common mistake.
• Not considering other related factors – a researcher’s duties and responsibilities include being open to all possibilities and comprehensively consider them.
• Not understanding the data – the types and amount of data currently available are extremely vast and easy to misinterpret. Good researchers know exactly how their data were gathered and stored and will ask questions about the data’s validity and origin.

If you’re conducting your research in a university or commercial setting, most of these aspects will probably be regulated, well-known, and overseen by an advisor, supervisor, or institutional research board.

Ethical responsibilities of a researcher

In addition to the ethical responsibilities specific to scientific studies discussed above, an effective researcher’s duties and responsibilities mean adhering to some general ethical principles, including the following 1,2 .

• Honesty – report all data, results, and procedures honestly, without fabrication or misrepresentation.
• Objectivity – recognize and avoid bias in all aspects of research and behavior.
• Integrity – keep promises, behave consistently, always be sincere in your interactions, and respect intellectual property standards.
• Openness – practice transparency in all your professional activities, share ideas, data, results, and feedback. Be open to new ideas and criticism.
• Privacy and confidentiality – a key responsibility of a researcher would be to protect the privacy of research participants, safely maintain confidential documents, data, and trade secrets.
• Ethical treatment of research participants – one of the most important researcher duties and responsibilities is to treat research participants, both human and animal, respectfully and according to current guidelines.

No research is ever done in a vacuum, even if the study is being conducted by one person alone. In fact, all meaningful scientific research is built on a foundation laid by those who came before. So for good researchers, it’s all about the work – theirs and others. Thus, a take care to be ethical in their professional behavior and attitude and treat all colleagues fairly and respectfully.

Science has been getting some bad press lately; therefore, it is the responsibility of a researcher to behave ethically and model good scientific practice to the public. Instead of giving the public reasons to distrust your intelligence and knowledge, engage with them in an open and honest way, build trust with your audience, and let them see what effective research is about.

Finally, the role of a researcher is also have a social responsibility to ensure that their work is for the benefit of society, causes no harm to the environment or to others, and helps make the world a better place.

By demonstrating a willingness to shoulder these often unwritten responsibilities of a researcher, one can earn the respect of their colleagues, decision makers, and the public, which will ensure that their work will be respected as well.

Table of Contents

• Resnik, D.B. What Is Ethics in Research & Why Is It Important? U.S. National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. 23 December, 2020. https://www.niehs.nih.gov/research/resources/bioethics/whatis/index.cfm .
• Purdue University. Common Pitfalls of Primary Research. Purdue Writing Lab. https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/conducting_research/conducting_primary_research

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UC researcher studies the impact of socio-ecological factors on children's sleep

Do racism, housing instability, screen time and stress influence a child’s ability to sleep.

A University of Cincinnati researcher has been awarded a five-year, $3.4-million grant from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) to lead a team studying how socio-ecological factors may influence sleep health in young children.

“Limited research defines disparities and inequities in early childhood sleep health,” explains Randi Bates, PhD, assistant professor in the UC College of Nursing. “Also missing from this work is the examination of the effects of racism, housing instability, peak levels of screen media use and stress on the sleep health of toddlers and preschoolers. Our long-term goal is to design and test strategies and health policy to help families prevent and remedy inequities in early sleep health.”

Bates and her team will recruit 550 racially and economically diverse families from the metropolitan regions of Cincinnati and Columbus to conduct a micro-longitudinal study over a six-month period to examine sleep health in children aged 20 months to 48 months.

“We are looking at this from a multisystem perspective,” says Bates. “Some multilevel factors such as structural and personal experiences with racism are an understudied area for young children’s sleep health. We’re also examining how stress may influence children’s sleep. Screen time for little ones might disrupt sleep. So, we’re also going to look at how some conditions of screen time might influence children’s sleep more than others. For this study, our target age group is toddlers and preschoolers. There’s been a lot of focus on infants."

Randi Bates, PhD, shown in the UC College of Nursing. Photo by Andrew Higley/UC Marketing + Brand.

Trained as a nurse and family nurse practitioner, Bates is a former postdoctoral researcher at the Ohio State University Crane Center for Early Childhood Research and Policy. Her clinical practice spanned public health, acute care and managing chronic disease. Her research focuses on understanding the role of early life stress on health. She uses a bioecological lens to examine how different levels of ecologies or environments, from the molecular to the macro, shape stress and health-related behaviors in young children — key factors that may influence chronic disease. 

According to the Sleep Foundation , most healthy adults need at least seven hours of sleep nightly, but young children need more: Infants should get 12 to 16 hours with naps, and toddlers need 11 to 12 hours with naps. Preschoolers require 10 to13 hours of sleep, while school-aged children need between nine and 12 hours.

Bates says children who have sleeping problems don’t necessarily grow out of it. She adds that up to 40% of young children might have sleeping difficulties at some point and research suggests that 11% of kids with sleeping difficulties will experience them throughout their life.

The Society of Behavioral Medicine reports that good sleep in children supports better attention, school performance, emotional regulation and impulse control. It also promotes better immune system functioning and helps children fight off germs and infections. Long-term sleep problems increase risk for mental and physical health concerns, including depression, anxiety, risky behaviors and viral illnesses.

Sleep tips for kids

• Keep a consistent, simple and short sleepy time routine. A nap routine could involve shutting curtains and singing a soothing song. A bedtime routine could involve brushing teeth, a warm bath, putting on PJs and reading a storybook.
• Go to bed around the same time. Around 3 months of age, children develop an internal biological clock and with consistency they will be ready for sleep around the same time.
• Make a sleepy room by regulating light, noise and temperature. Keep room temperature around 65F.
• Start dimming indoor lights as bedtime approaches, and keep your child’s bedroom as dark as possible. A small nightlight is OK for kids who don’t like the dark.
• Consider noise-blocking curtains to cut down on street noise or use a fan or white noise machine to drown out unpredictable or distracting sounds.

Sources:  The Sleep Foundation ; Randi Bates, PhD, UC College of Nursing

Stress in young children

Looking at stress in very young children is an area of emerging research. Researchers in the field measure stress hormones, including the release of cortisol, in toddlers and infants, who can’t tell the adults around them that they are feeling significant stress.

“Not all stress is bad,” says Bates. “You need stress to learn new skills. But for children, toxic stress can be related to damaging outcomes later in life across many domains, such as cancer, cardiovascular disease and adverse mental health issues, including chronic depression. 

“Some children are more sensitive to stress than others. Our research suggests toddlers with increased physiological chronic stress were having a more difficult time maintaining and initiating sleep. With this new study, we want to identify these stress and sleep patterns.”

Randi Bates, PhD, is an assistant professor and researcher in the UC College of Nursing. Photo by Andrew Higley/UC Marketing + Brand.

Bates is working with a pediatric expert from Yale University, along with interdisciplinary experts in sociology and developmental psychology, to really understand the inequities and disparities in early childhood sleep health.

“What I really hope for this research is to provide children and their families with the opportunity to sleep,” says Bates. “It’s not just what the parents do. Sleep advice might not matter if the parents don’t have the resources to help their child sleep. Sleep is so important for everything. It’s not just a behavior but also a biological process and if your child doesn’t sleep the parents probably don’t either.”

Issues with sleep can lead to behavior issues for children and problems with school performance, explains Bates.

The research study is supported by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number R01HL170100. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

Featured photo at top of child sleeping. Credit/iStockPhoto/shironosov. 

Impact Lives Here

The University of Cincinnati is leading public urban universities into a new era of innovation and impact. Our faculty, staff and students are saving lives, changing outcomes and bending the future in our city's direction.  Next Lives Here.

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The Role of the Researcher

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In “The Role of the Researcher,” we provide encouragement for carefully considering and defining relationships among material, audience, and scholarly venues. We hope that this discussion will prompt readers to find new avenues for capturing and documenting their work, and perhaps add a new dimension to ongoing research interests. We discuss various research methodologies, IRB guidelines, primary research methods and methodologies, research with human subjects, the scholarship of teaching, and research with students.

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Department of English, Georgia State University, USA

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Gaillet, L.L., Guglielmo, L. (2014). The Role of the Researcher. In: Scholarly Publication in a Changing Academic Landscape: Models for Success. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137410764_5

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