Chemistry career options in sustainability
There’s a wide variety of jobs that place the environment at their core
‘I really love chemistry, but how do I marry this with my lifestyle?’ was a question Natalie O’Neil, director of higher education at Beyond Benign, asked herself when considering the next step of her career. ‘I got into chemistry because I want to solve problems, but I want to do it in sustainability.’
There are many career possibilities at the interface of science and sustainability, ranging from hands-on chemistry to roles more focused on management or communication. Here, four people working in the environmental sector share their career stories to give a small flavour of the variety of jobs available.
Freya Squires: Instrument scientist
Freya Squires works at the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), which has research stations in both the Arctic and Antarctica and staff based in Cambridge, UK. Squires is part of the tropospheric chemistry group and looks after the suite of atmospheric instruments.
The day-to-day as an instrument scientist involves ordering spare parts, contacting manufacturers and carrying out general maintenance. ‘Recently what I’ve been doing is testing equipment that’s going south [to Antarctica],’ explains Squires, ‘we’ve got an instrument and we’re like “how can we break this? What kind of failure is going to happen? What weird Windows update is going to happen?”’