Careers in Bioinformatics
Bioinformatics specialists are already in great demand, and the rapid growth of the profession is expected to continue. The most obvious source of employment for your expertise in bioinformatics would be the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries.
The push by the Human Genome Project has created new career areas:
- DNA sequencing technicians and analysts
- Genomic database managers
- Bioinformatic programmers
- Genetic engineers
Other career options:
- The computer science industry—where software and hardware companies have divisions that serve the pharmaceutical, medical and academic industries
- Academic and government research—where there is a large and growing demand for individuals trained in bioinformatics to contribute to numerous scientific disciplines
- Medicine—whose practitioners will require knowledge of bioinformatics in this century of molecular medicine
Rewarding Futures
Graduates of the Department of Bioinformatics and Computer Science earn competitive salaries immediately following graduation. According to a national survey conducted recently, students in computer science earned salaries ranging from $50,000 to $60,000 upon graduating.