Careers in Materials Science

Material scientists are at the forefront of research in developing new materials for applications in infrastructure, transportation, technology, and much more.  A degree in materials science allows for a career in sectors such as manufacturing, research, aerospace, coatings, biomedical systems, and technology.  Changes in the chemical and atomic structure leads to new materials with improved properties such as toughness, flexibility, hardness, etc.  Materials science research also pushes the processing and synthesis of materials to make them more reliable, sustainable, and economic.  

Since materials science combines the study of chemistry, physics, engineering, mathematics and biology, careers in materials science include product/process development scientist, design engineer, and technical sales engineer.  

According to the U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, industries with the highest levels of employment in materials science are Scientific R&D service and chemical manufacturing.  The mean annual wage is $104,450 with the highest materials scientists employed in Massachusetts and Washington.   

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What is the most difficult part of the job?
As veterinary pathologists, we are trained to examine tissue in a microscope and provide a definitive diagnosis. Sometimes we are not able to give a definitive diagnosis. Although this aspect may be a little frustrating at times, it is what makes it, in my opinion, an intriguing and life-long learning career.
 
What is your favorite part about your job?
The most exciting aspect of my job is working with infectious diseases and animal models. At Texas Biomed, we work in BSL2, BSL3, and BSL4. These represent different levels of containment of infectious diseases. There are few places in the world with BSL4 containment laboratories. TxBiomed is one of the few places in the world you can work with infectious agents such as Ebola and Tuberculosis. The best part is there is always something new to learn.
 
Stephanie, 24, asks: 
How did you know this is what you wanted to do? I’m majoring in medical/molecular biology and I haven’t decided what I want to do career wise. There are so many things involved in the world of biology, it makes it hard to pick something. 
 
Hi Stephanie, That is certainly a great question. Number #1 find a mentor by reaching out to your professors. I would highly recommend exploring research opportunities in your local university during the semesters and explore internship opportunities at the center for disease control (CDC) during the summer break. This is time to build your resume and learn new skills that can only be gathered with hands-on experience in the laboratory setting.
 
From Ilia on Facebook:
I saw in the news that vets are vaccinating primates for Covid-19.  What can you tell us about how Covid-19 affects primates?  Do you have any experience or have any colleagues in your industry researching if Covid is just as lethal in primates as it is in humans?
 
Hi Ilia, at Texas Biomed, we have worked with primates as animal models for Covid-19. I can tell you from experience that monkeys get infected with COVID19, but do not tend to develop the lethal outcomes seen in humans. Monkeys were used to test the safety and efficacy of our current Covid-19 vaccines. 
 
From Ilia on Facebook:
Will scientific research ever reach a point when we no longer have to experiment on live animals?  (I’m a rabbit rescuer)
 
Research in animals is a highly regulated industry. All research follows the three Rs, which represent: Replacement, Reduction, and Refinement. The current pandemic has shown how animal models save lives.
 
Submitted anonymously:
What does a day in your current role look like?  Do you get to do the hands-on lab work? 
 
A typical work week consists of performing necropsies at different level containment laboratories, collecting tissues, spending many hours at the microscope, and writing pathology reports. Pathologists are also involved in scientific manuscript write-ups.
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What is a piece of advice you would give to a young girl who wants to pursue a career in STEM?
 
Number #1 and most important step is to find a mentor by reaching out to your teachers or professors. I would highly recommend exploring research opportunities in your local university during the semesters and explore internship opportunities throughout the US or abroad. Your time as an undergraduate student is the perfect time to build your resume and learn new skills that can only be gathered with hands-on experience in the laboratory setting.
 
 
You now work at a research institute; did you have prior research experience?  Do you have any advice on how to find a research opportunity when in college?
 
Number #1 and most important step is to find a mentor by reaching out to your teachers or professors. I would highly recommend exploring research opportunities in your local university during the semesters and explore internship opportunities throughout the US or abroad. Your time as an undergraduate student is the perfect time to build your resume and learn new skills that can only be gathered with hands-on experience in the laboratory setting.
 
Is research at your institute collaborative?   Do you have opportunities to publish in journals?  
 
Yes, absolutely. Veterinary pathologists are also involved in scientific manuscript write-ups of research projects. We are also able to pursue our own research interests and publish on those topics.
 
We have had a rough year dealing with the pandemic and the road to vaccines.  What is the most impressive scientific advantage that has come out of it?  
 
 The most impressive scientific advances, in my opinion, have been how quickly researchers throughout the world have been able to develop, test and deploy a vaccine for a novel virus in record-breaking time. I think this sets a very positive precedent for the treatment and vaccine development of other infectious diseases.
 
 
 

​Early on during my childhood years growing up in Puerto Rico, I focused on the idea of becoming a veterinarian. Opportunities to study veterinary medicine in Puerto Rico were non-existent at that time, requiring me to look beyond the island setting and exploring veterinary professional schools in the US mainland. However, at the time, the idea of moving far away from the family for many years was daunting. I understood this was the only way.
As an undergraduate student at the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras campus, I worked as a research assistant at a parasitology laboratory led by Dr. Sharon File. We worked with animal models of bilharzia to understand transmission and pathology associated with this endemic parasite. I also volunteered at the local veterinary clinic to gain contact hours working with domestic species. With my family's support and the help of many mentors who selflessly opened their doors to their clinics and research laboratories, I finished my Bachelor's degree in Biology and fulfilled the experience requirements to apply and be accepted into veterinary school. I completed the veterinary program at the University Of Wisconsin Madison School Of Veterinary Medicine, and then I decided to specialize in veterinary pathology. After completing my veterinary pathology residency and completing board certifying exams, I worked in multiple settings, including academia, veterinary diagnostic laboratories, and primate centers.  
As a veterinary pathologist at the Southwest National Primate Research Center, I have the privilege to work with laboratory animal models of infectious diseases in a research setting. This opportunity has been the most rewarding experience of my professional career. Looking back at the path that landed me in San Antonio, Tx, I will be eternally grateful for the academic mentors that provided career-defining experiences.

U.S. News and World Report Best Biomedical Engineering Programs:
https://www.usnews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-engineering-schools/biomedical-rankings
 
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics:
https://www.bls.gov/ooh/architecture-and-engineering/biomedical-engineers.htm
 
US Dept of Health and Human Services biomedical resources for parents and teachers:
https://www.nibib.nih.gov/science-education/parents-teachers-resources
 
US Dept of Health and Human Services biomedical resources for students:
https://www.nibib.nih.gov/science-education/students-resources
 
California Biomedical Research Association:
https://ca-biomed.org/
 
New Jersey Association for Biomedical Research:
https://njabr.org/
 
North Carolina Association for Biomedical Research:
https://www.ncabr.org/
 
Northwest Association for Biomedical Research:
https://www.nwabr.org/
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Careers in Aerospace Engineering
 https://www.aiaa.org/docs/default-source/default-document-library/careersinaerospace.pdf
 
Aeronautical Engineer: Educational Requirements
https://study.com/articles/Aeronautical_Engineer_Educational_Requirements.html
 
Best Aerospace Engineering Programs
​https://www.usnews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-engineering-schools/aerospace-rankings 

US Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Handbook for Aerospace Engineers
 https://www.bls.gov/ooh/architecture-and-engineering/aerospace-engineers.htm
 
 
American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics
 https://www.aiaa.org/
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I grew up in South Central Los Angeles. My parents immigrated from El Salvador with no money, searching for a better life in the U.S. They met in Los Angeles and decided to start a family. So that made me first generation for, well, everything. Since my parents did not come from wealth, they always told me that as an inheritance, they couldn’t offer me any riches or property but what they could offer me was an education. They always pushed the importance of school and going to college because they believed it was the only way I could have a better life financially than they did. My dad worked as a security guard and my mom was a stay at home mom with many side hustles (cooking Salvadoran cuisine for events, cleaning houses, working in thrift shops etc.). On my dad’s day off he would often take me to the library because he wanted to cement a love for books.  At that library in Compton, was the first clue, the very first seed planted for my future career as an Aerospace Engineer. 


I always gravitated toward the section full of science books that specifically covered celestial bodies. The titles were Saturn, The Moon, Comets & Asteroids, Jupiter etc. I was hooked. Every chance I got, I chose to do school reports on space and it’s celestial bodies, but I was never told or encouraged to pursue science in elementary or middle school. In fact, I didn’t know what an engineer was until I was 16 years old. 
I was an incoming senior getting ready to submit my college applications. That summer, I attended the UCLA SMARTS (Science and Mathematics Achievement and Research Training for Students) program. SMARTS was a program to get students interested in STEM. I took a Statistics and a Robotics class for college credit through the program. It was my first exposure to coding, building and making something with my own hands. I was hooked, we built tiny robots using breadboards and I wrote my first computer program that summer.


I was riding the robotics course high, so I searched for the Robotics Club when I went back to school that fall. I joined Team 1692, the Crenshaw Cougarbots and participated in my first FRC (First Robotics Competition). There, I met two of the earliest influences on my decision to pursue a STEM career. Mr. Reyes was the robotics club facilitator & the school’s only computer science teacher. Tim was an actual engineer from The Aerospace Corporation who volunteered his time to mentor our Robotics team for FRC. 


I took on a design role within the team, I spent most of my time drawing on the white boards thinking about what mechanisms we could put on the robot to make it accomplish certain tasks. I spent so much time at the Robotics Club that fall semester, I often brought my college applications so I could work on them. One afternoon, I was debating out loud what major to mark on my college applications. Mr. Reyes took one look at my scribbles on the whiteboard and said “You’re always around here talking about space, why don’t you apply for aerospace engineering?” I looked at him stunned. What the heck was aerospace engineering? I had never heard of it. He went on to explain that engineering was basically what I was doing in the robotics club and aerospace engineering meant I could do the same thing but what I built would either fly or go to space. I could not believe what I just learned. I quickly switched all of my major selections to aerospace engineering wherever it was available. I received my acceptance to UCLA for aerospace engineering that Spring, I had made it. I was off to pursue my dream of building things that would someday work in space. 


I was 100% not prepared for what UCLA had in store for me. It’s no secret that engineering is hard, but the UCLA engineering program was on another level. I struggled quite a bit during my time there, all of my friends who were first generation students in STEM did. We weren’t prepared, there was definitely a gap in our basic math and physics education but we kept going because we knew we deserved to be there and we would just have to work a bit harder. While at UCLA, I was part of the Center for Excellence in Engineering & Diversity. I made lifelong friends there. CEED was an essential support system to get me through engineering. I met other engineering students of color from backgrounds like mine and it made me feel less alone in engineering. It was BECAUSE of CEED that I found my next leap opportunity to take a leap forward into my dream career. One of my friends had just finished an internship at Intel, in one of the group chats she joined,  there was someone encouraging people to apply to The Brooke Owens Fellowship. She sent me a link to the program and application because I was the only Aerospace Engineering major she knew (she was an electrical engineering major, shout out to Justine!). As a rising senior in college, I decided to apply. 
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The Brooke Owens Fellowship is an aerospace fellowship that aims to increase the number of gender minorities in the aerospace industry. The fellowship offers a 10 week internship at many startups and big aerospace companies, a summit in DC to meet with the founders and other fellows, and access to a network of professionals in the industry ranging from scientists to engineers to space policy experts. The Brooke Owens fellowship was life-changing. I had the privilege to become part of the inaugural class. I had never met so many women my age, so passionate about aviation and space. Even in my classes at UCLA, I was often 1 of 3 women in a class of 60 and almost always the only person of color. Now, I suddenly knew 40+ young women just as excited about aerospace as I was.
It was through becoming a fellow that I landed an internship with Space Systems Loral (now Maxar Technologies Space Division). Maxar is a satellite manufacturer located in Silicon Valley. We make satellites for space exploration, imaging and GEO applications. I now work full time for MAXAR as a Mechanical Design Engineer for Solar Arrays. I’ve learned SO much in the past three years about space hardware, the industry, what it takes to take a design from concept to test and finally to flight. I am currently working on qualifying (testing phase of a new design) a solar array wing and it is expected to launch later this year! 
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My journey to become an Aerospace Engineer wasn’t easy, it wasn’t linear, it was hard, frustrating and sometimes lonely but it was also fun, exciting and inspiring. I want to help other first generation students realize that they have the option to go into a career in aerospace. I want everyone to know that aerospace now,  more than ever before, is for everyone.