• Question: Can you tell me what study do you need to be a water scientist?

    Asked by boomshot to Jake, Amy Heather, Annette, Ann, Maxime, Philip on 12 Nov 2019. This question was also asked by cake46can.
    • Photo: Jake Cunningham

      Jake Cunningham answered on 12 Nov 2019:


      To become a water scientist I would suggest either studying a lot of science, but you can see that there is huge variety within being a water scientist. Would you rather work with water animals or renewable energy? A good place to start is by studying a lot of science. I hope this helps you out a little, but if you have further questions fire away.

    • Photo: Annette Wilson

      Annette Wilson answered on 18 Nov 2019:


      Hi @boomshot & @cake46can. If you want to be any type of scientist it is a good idea to study science for your junior cert and take two science subjects for your leaving certificate. Depending on the type of water scientist you would like to be, you could pick biology, chemistry or physics! If you are interested in the animals and plants that live underwater, biology would be a good choice. If you are interested in checking the quality of water and you like being in a lab doing experiments, chemistry might be good for you. And if you are interested in how water moves (ocean currents), and learning more about the properties of water, physics would be good. Maths and geography are also good subjects for scientists to study. Hope this helps, but please ask any other questions you might have! 🙂

    • Photo: Philip Schuler

      Philip Schuler answered on 19 Nov 2019:


      To the already mentioned topics, I’d add environmental engineering, geology, hydrology.

      There are so many topics water scientist can be involved with, so there are many possible subjects you could study.

    • Photo: Amy Heather Fitzpatrick

      Amy Heather Fitzpatrick answered on 22 Nov 2019:


      Hello. as everyone below said, you can study so many different topics at university and still be a water scientist. I studied Food Science and went on to do more molecular biology, looking at the DNA/RNA of life. A good place to start is by studying basic science at university, so picking biology or chemistry over marine biology or food sciences, as sometimes I feel that I am missing the foundations in science, as I went into an applied science straight away.

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