Fast‑Facts Dashboard
| Metric | 2024 U.S. snapshot* |
| Typical entry credential | PhD in a biological science; some community colleges hire master’s + industry/lab experience |
| Tenure‑track starting range | Salary.com |
A Day in the Life: Lab, Lecture Hall & Greenhouse
- 6 a.m. - Glance at overnight Illumina run; 85 % Q30 score on coral‑microbiome samples.
- 8 a.m. - Teach “Principles of Genetics” (180 sophomores); live‑demo CRISPR base‑editing via cloud virtual lab.
- 9:30 a.m. - Office hours: pre‑med asks about MCAT prep; grad student needs advice on R linear‑mixed models for honeysuckle invasion dataset.
- 11 a.m. - Department meeting: finalize cluster‑hire ad for computational biology line, review greenhouse expansion budget.
- 12 p.m. - Bang out NIH R01 grant aims over sushi; Slack postdoc about missing reagent lot numbers in ELN.
- 1 p.m. - Lead lab meeting: undergrad presents flow‑cytometry plots on T‑cell exhaustion; critique statistics and figure design.
- 3 p.m. - Supervise students installing soil‑moisture sensors in campus prairie restoration; show them how to push data to ThingSpeak API.
- 5 p.m. - Grade take‑home problems on population genetics while waiting for HPLC chromatograms.
- 7 p.m. - Record 10‑minute TikTok explainer on antifreeze proteins for departmental outreach; schedule posts via Buffer.
Field seasons swap the lecture hall for Amazon canopy cranes, NOAA research vessels, or Antarctic microbe huts. Sabbaticals pivot to biotech start‑up collaborations or Fulbright fellowships in Nairobi.
Tool‑Kit & Tech Stack
| Area | 2025 essentials |
| Wet‑lab | qPCR & digital‑PCR systems, Illumina & Oxford Nanopore sequencers, automated liquid handlers, flow cytometers |
| Field gear | UAVs for NDVI mapping, SonTek acoustic Doppler profilers, NEON‑style environmental sensor arrays |
| Computation | RStudio, Python (SciPy, Bioconductor), Galaxy server, Docker/Singularity containers on HPC clusters |
| Imaging | Confocal & light‑sheet microscopes, live‑cell incubation chambers, AI‑assisted cell‑segmentation software |
| Teaching tech | HyFlex lecture capture, virtual lab simulations (Labster), LMS analytics dashboards, mobile AR plant anatomy apps |
| Data management | FAIR‑compliant repositories (Dryad, NCBI SRA), electronic lab notebooks (Benchling, LabArchives), ORCID / DataCite DOIs |
| Compliance | IACUC & IRB protocols, biosafety level certifications, USDA & CITES permits for specimen export |
| Funding & outreach | NIH eRA Commons, NSF Research.gov, Science Twitter/X, department TikTok, campus podcast studio |
Emerging must‑knows: AlphaFold‑driven protein‑modeling pipelines, spatial transcriptomics platforms, AI lab‑assistants that auto‑annotate Western blots, and open‑source LLMs fine‑tuned on PubMed for rapid literature scans.
Core Competencies & Personality Match
| Competency | Real‑world demonstration |
| Interdisciplinary curiosity | Linking CRISPR gene‑editing ethics to population ecology in one lesson. |
| Data‑science literacy | Teaching freshmen to tidy big RNA‑seq matrices in R while debugging HPC jobs for your lab. |
| Grant‑writing grit | Converting 12 % NIH success odds into funded R01s through crisp aims & broader impacts. |
| Pedagogical agility | Flipping lectures, designing Course‑Based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs), using universal‑design principles. |
| Mentorship & DEI leadership | Recruiting first‑gen students, scaffolding lab skills, writing inclusive syllabi. |
| Communication range | Peer‑reviewed papers, conference keynotes, viral 60‑second TikToks on tardigrade embryos. |
If your MAPP Assessment lights up Investigative (problem‑solving), Social (mentorship), and Enterprising (grant hustle) motivators, you’ll likely thrive here.
Work Environment & Lifestyle
- Schedule: Mix of fixed lectures, flexible lab blocks, and unpredictable grant deadlines; evenings/weekends for field sampling and manuscript revisions.
- Contract: Nine‑month base; summer salary (up to 3/9ths) from grants, plus consulting or textbook royalties. Adjunct and visiting lines exist, but tenure‑track demand rising as boomers retire.
- Union presence: Strong in many public systems (AFT, UUP); weaker in private R1s.
- Physical setting: Climate‑controlled labs, steaming greenhouses, icy research stations. Eye protection and gloves swap with mosquito head‑nets, depending on the week.
Education & Credential Pathway
| Stage | Typical timeline | Milestones |
| BS in Biology or related | 4 yrs | Undergraduate research, REU field school, poster at regional society meeting |
| MS (optional) | 2 yrs | Thesis, TA labs, first co‑authored paper |
| PhD in sub‑discipline | 4‑6 yrs | Multi‑chapter dissertation, ≥ 3 peer‑reviewed papers, grant fellowship (NSF GRFP, NIH NRSA) |
| Postdoc (one or more) | 2–4 yrs | Independent publications, K99/R00 or NSF PRFB proposals, teaching‑certificate workshops |
| Assistant professor (tenure‑track) | 6‑yr clock | Steady funding, lab setup, grad advising, strong teaching evals, service |
| Tenure & promotion to associate | Year 6–7 | National reputation, citation impact, outreach record |
| Full professor / endowed chair | Year 12+ | Departmental leadership, big multi‑PI grants, policy advising |
Community‑college instructors need an MS + teaching experience; R1 research universities want postdocs with robust funding track records.
Career Ladder & Earnings
| Level | 9‑mo base salary* | Focus |
| Adjunct lecturer | $3k–$7k per 3‑credit course | Heavy teaching, minimal research funding |
| Visiting assistant professor | $55k–$70k | Short-term contract, lab access varies |
| Assistant professor | $70k–$90k (public) • $85k–$110k (private) | 40 % research, 40 % teaching, 20 % service |
| Associate professor (tenured) | $90k–$120k | Stable funding, grad committee chair, bigger grants |
| Full professor / dept. chair | $120k–$155k + admin stipend | Strategic hiring, budget management |
| Endowed chair / distinguished prof. | $150k–$200k + discretionary fund | National academy memberships, shape discipline |
Sector & Research Trends Shaping the Next Decade
- AI‑Accelerated Discovery: AlphaFold models, large‑language search agents, and automated lab robots cut experiment cycles; faculty fluent in computational biology are cluster‑hire magnets.
- Climate & One‑Health Funding: NSF Convergence Accelerators and NIH Climate‑Health initiatives prioritize projects linking ecosystems, pathogens, and human well‑being.
- Undergraduate Research Mandates: ABET‑style recommendations push CUREs; teachers who can scaffold publishable undergrad projects are hot hires.
- Data‑sharing & Open‑Science: NIH 2026 data‑management mandates, FAIR repositories, preprint culture; faculty must budget for curation staff.
- DEI & Community Engagement: Grant panels demand broader impacts: citizen‑science coral surveys, bilingual lab manuals, Indigenous knowledge co‑creation.
- Biotech‑Industry Partnerships: CRISPR start‑ups, biofoundries, and cell‑ag companies offer sponsored‑research chairs; professors navigate IP contracts plus pedagogy.
- Retirement Surge: ughly 35 % of tenured biology faculty hit retirement age by 2032; new PhDs with interdisciplinary chops well positioned.
Pros & Cons: Straight Talk
| Why professors stay | Why some leave |
| Intellectual freedom to chase any gene, microbe, or ecosystem question. | Grant‑writing treadmill—12 % success rates can exhaust. |
| Blend of lab discovery, outdoor fieldwork, and classroom energy. | Balancing 60‑hr weeks with personal life; tenure clock stress. |
| Sabbaticals in Australia or at EMBL; summer salary boosts. | Funding uncertainties; lab shutdown risk if grants lapse. |
| Chance to mentor first‑gen scientists and diversify STEM. | Administrative load, IRB, IACUC, safety audits pile up. |
Are You Ready to Teach Biology and Advance It?
- Does coding R pipelines and pipetting CRISPR reactions feel equally thrilling?
- Can you pivot from writing NSF broader‑impact statements to calibrating drone NDVI sensors before lunch?
- Will you celebrate a freshman’s first successful gel as much as your own Cell paper?
- Are you prepared to revise a rejected NIH grant three times without losing steam?
If that sounds like you, and your MAPP Career Assessment highlights Investigative, Social, and Enterprising drives, postsecondary biological‑science teaching might be your perfect habitat.
Is this career path right for you? Find out Free.
- Take the MAPP Career Assessment (100% free).
- See your top career matches, including five free custom matches revealing whether a life of teaching and bench science aligns with your strengths.
- Receive a personalized compatibility score plus next‑step guidance toward PhD programs, postdocs, and coveted tenure‑track searches.
Start the FREE MAPP Career Assessment today and begin evolving your future.
2025 BLS Salary and Job Outlook
The figures below are U.S. national estimates. Wages refer to May 2025; job growth and annual openings refer separately to the 2025–2035 BLS employment projections.
Biological Science Teachers, Postsecondary
Related O*NET occupation: Biological Science Teachers, Postsecondary (25-1042.00). BLS reporting code: 25-1042.
- Median wage (May 2025): $84,620 per year.
- Mean wage (May 2025): $102,840 per year.
- 10th percentile wage (May 2025): $52,150 per year.
- 25th percentile wage (May 2025): $64,350 per year.
- 75th percentile wage (May 2025): $126,770 per year.
- 90th percentile wage (May 2025): $169,900 per year.
- OEWS employment estimate (May 2025): 50,190. This estimate excludes self-employed workers.
- Employment in the projections base year (2025): 62,000.
- Projected employment (2035): 66,500.
- Projected employment change (2025–2035): 7.3%.
- Projected annual openings (2025–2035 average): 4,700. Openings include employment growth and workers leaving the occupation; they are not all newly created jobs.
Wage percentiles describe the distribution of wages, not guaranteed entry-level or experienced-worker salaries. National figures can differ from pay in a particular state, industry, or employer. OEWS wages do not include self-employed earnings. The projections employment estimates use a different coverage basis and may include self-employed workers.
Sources: BLS May 2025 national OEWS wage estimates; BLS 2025–2035 occupational projections, Table 1.2; BLS OEWS coverage and definitions.
