Environmental statistician
Environmental statisticians are responsible for the analysis and interpretation of environmental data, for the design of environmental studies.
What does an environmental statistician do?
Environmental statisticians are often involved in supporting scientific research programmes within research organisations or university departments. Statisticians working in this sector may tackle problems such as assessing changes in climate patterns, extreme event risk assessment, evaluating temperature patterns in ocean currents and their effects on the weather, and several other environmental issues.
Take a look at our profile of environmental statistician Adam Butler to learn more.
What qualifications do I need?
For the greatest career opportunities, you will require a postgraduate degree (MSc or PhD). Some employers may recruit from a first degree and then sponsor their staff to undertake higher degrees.
For information about postgraduate degrees throughout the general area of statistics, please see our prospective postgraduates section.
Your professional work as a statistician might benefit from the professional qualification of Chartered Statistician (CStat), giving you a professional affiliation with the Royal Statistical Society.
How do I find a job as an environmental statistician?
An environmental statistician is most likely to be employed in a publicly-funded research institute or a university department.
There are also some posts in government agencies:
The best places to find job vacancies are electronic mailing lists (particularly Allstat and Envstat), the RSS jobs board and New Scientist. Jobs are also listed on websites of organisations involved in environmental research and development, including NERC institutes, government agencies and universities.
What are the career prospects of an environmental statistician?
Career progression prospects within publicly funded research are like those for other disciplines: NERC, universities and other research councils all have defined career structures and routes to career progression. Rapid career advancement will occur for those who provide innovative, practical solutions to applied problems, can engage in and contribute to multidisciplinary projects and who can secure new sources of funding.
Career progression within the private and charitable sectors depend on the nature of the organisation and role.