Additional Information
Chemical laboratory chiefs have at least a bachelor's degree in chemistry
or chemical engineering.
"In my experience and [among my] contacts, most of the commercial lab directors
I've met had only a bachelor's degree," says former lab director Joseph Guth.
"And many were not in the field of chemistry. Only a relative few had master's
or PhD degrees."
Donald Cortes is a chemical laboratory director in the environmental field.
He tests air quality. He has a PhD in environmental science and a bachelor's
in biochemistry. He says most lab directors in the environmental field don't
have a PhD.
"The reason is that for most environmental laboratories, their primary
issue is running a method that's already been created, and not coming up with
new methods or expanding methods -- the modeling, risk screening and such,"
Cortes explains.
"I've been exposed to that more through my graduate education. As far as
laboratory management, that's usually handled by bachelor's and master's [degree
holders]."
In other words, since many lab chiefs do little if any research, a PhD
isn't essential (at least not in the environmental realm).
"A lot of it is management, production and quality," Cortes says. "Which
can be very difficult, but you don't really need the research aspect of it.
That's the only thing a PhD really brings -- the experience in doing research."
In addition to a degree, most chemical lab chiefs also have work experience.
Companies tend to promote from within.
"There is no magic formula," says Guth, who has operated several laboratories.
"For PhD-level directors, I would still require a minimum of 18 months of
hands-on, post-degree work in each area of testing the lab offers."
Peter Williams is a professor in the department of chemistry and biochemistry
at Arizona State University. He agrees that about two years of work experience
is probably the minimum.
"Usually, a new PhD would go into an entry-level position where they'd
be working on a bench-level project or running an analytical instrument or
some suite of analytical services, for example," Williams says.
"So they'd be working in some group of some variable size under a manager.
The rise to management...could be a couple years; it could be longer."