Industrial Chemist Vs Chemical Engineer

Q: Industrial chemist VS chemical engineer. could someone please outline the differences of these two carrers ?Its just that I am in my 2nd last year of HS and am considering a carrer in chemistry..these two seem to be a couple i can choose.

A: Industrial chemists get to play with big vats of chemicals. Chemical engineers get to build big vats of chemicals. Industrial chemists know what escaped from the vat. Chemical engineers know what broke, and how much escaped. In general, chemical engineers tend to focus strongly on materials science, civil and mechanical engineering, thus requiring a good aptitude in maths and physics to design and optimise chemical processes. They may not have exceptional practical skills, but usually can rigorously design both processes and experiments. There may be specialised versions of chemical engineers, including " biochemical", "environmental" and " process " now also available. Industrial chemists tend to focus on transferring existing small scale laboratory processes into factory scale, and optimising such processes. Thus they usually have a good aptitude in general chemistry and physics, rather than maths. They usually do have good practical skills, but often are non-specialised - with good grounding in general inorganic, organic, and analytical chemistry. Understanding biochemistry, environmental issues, and electronics is also useful. However, it is important to not specialise until you have decided on your career path, which may be quite some way into your ttertiary qualification, or even after it. Many " Industrial Chemists" don't have chemical qualifications that are obviously relevent to the work they are doing, so in a way it's easier to become an industrial chemist than many other types of chemist. Some chemical engineers can easily become industrial chemists, but industrial chemists usually have to study further to meet the requirements for chemical engineers. Most career paths have a reasonably-clear perception of the profile of aspiring students, so it's worth talking over the choices with the vocational guidance people att your educational institute - who should be able to also arrange a visit to organisations that utilise both industrial chemists and chemical engineers, as many major project teams involve both,

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Bill said:

This article is strewn with misconceptions.

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