I’m sorry for the vague question, but I don’t know how else to word it. Any reply is appreciated.
I suppose that depends on what you mean by “field research”.
Good point. I guess, I was thinking of anything like an expedition.
I suppose that depends on what you mean by “expedition”.
Expedition???
Most engineers work in offices and spend a good chunk of their day looking at Excel spreadsheets.
There may be a few but if you are looking to do research on an Amazon expedition or something you are better off studying now zoology or entomology or something more along those lines.
Some petroleum and mining engineers go out into the field a lot. Not sure if that’s the kind of research you’re interested in, though.
Thank you for the replies. I am leaning towards majoring in one of the engineering disciplines because of some interest and the job prospects. But I have always really liked the idea of conducting field research or going on an expedition much like you see some biologist (botanists, etc) go on. I guess I’m really just trying to find some in-between, if it does exist. Any ideas?
At the undergrad level I am not aware of much - you might go out into the field, but it would not likely be supporting a scientific investigation. And if you did, it would be in a much more junior capacity.
At the grad level this happens all the time. The distinction between engineer and scientist gets murky in grad studies and the people who create the instruments are often the people operating them. For example, I have a colleague who is an aerospace engineer working on his PhD designing atmospheric-sensing lidar, and he is currently wintering over at McMurdo Station in Antarctica.
@cosmicfish Looks like I better start planning for grad school.
cosmicfish’s comment about McMurdo Station reminded me that my electrical engineering professor used to spend half the year in Antarctica in the 70s and early 80s. Officially, he was monitoring earthquakes around the world. Unofficially, he was monitoring nuclear tests.