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What's it like to be a chemist and work in a forensic lab?

I'm currently a senior in high school who is planning on majoring in chemistry at Iowa State. I would like to know what it's like to actually work as a chemist.

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Cara’s Answer

Hello, I work as a Development Chemist at a quality control lab for a gummy vitamin manufacturer. Our lab performs a variety of chemical properties, active ingredient, and contaminant testing on raw materials and finished products. We use a variety of instrumentation including HPLC, LCMS, ICPMS and GC. Chemists who work on routine data analysis follow established operating procedures to prepare and analyze samples and report and review data. A large portion of the day is routine work (preparing solutions and samples, setting up instrument runs, and reviewing data), but there is a component of troubleshooting instruments when there are issues or working on improvement projects. As a development chemist, I focus more exclusively on improving current test methods or creating new ones. This involves research, experimental design, data analysis and presentation, method validation, and writing of standard operating procedures. There are also lead and supervisory roles in our lab that focus on investigating out of specification results, troubleshooting quality control failures, and ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements. It sounds like you are interested in forensics, but I thought I'd reply with some info about being a Chemist in a slightly different setting. Best of luck as you finish up senior year and start college! I'd be happy to answer any followup questions if you have them.
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