---
title: "Scientist"
chunk: 2/3
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientist"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T03:23:46.187637+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

=== 19th century ===
Until the late 19th or early 20th century, scientists were commonly referred to as "natural philosophers" or "men of science".
English philosopher and historian of science William Whewell coined the term scientist in 1833. It first appeared in print in his anonymous 1834 review of Mary Somerville's On the Connexion of the Physical Sciences, published in the Quarterly Review.
In the review, Whewell discussed what he described as an increasing tendency toward specialization within the sciences. As highly specific terms such as chemist, mathematician, and naturalist became common, the broader term philosopher no longer adequately described those engaged in scientific study. Whewell contrasted this trend with Somerville's aim of demonstrating how distinct branches of science had historically been unified through general principles.
Whewell reported that members of the British Association for the Advancement of Science had expressed concern over the absence of a suitable collective term for "students of the knowledge of the material world." Referring indirectly to himself, he noted that "some ingenious gentleman" had proposed the word scientist by analogy with artist, arguing that similar formations such as economist and atheist were already in use. The suggestion, however, was not immediately well received.
Whewell later proposed the term again, more explicitly, in his 1840 work The Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences.

The terminations ize (rather than ise), ism, and ist, are applied to words of all origins: thus we have to pulverize, to colonize, Witticism, Heathenism, Journalist, Tobacconist. Hence we may make such words when they are wanted. As we cannot use physician for a cultivator of physics, I have called him a Physicist. We need very much a name to describe a cultivator of science in general. I should incline to call him a Scientist. Thus we might say, that as an Artist is a Musician, Painter, or Poet, a Scientist is a Mathematician, Physicist, or Naturalist.

He also proposed the term physicist as a counterpart to the French physicien. Neither term gained widespread acceptance immediately. Scientist became common in the late 19th century in the United States and around the turn of the 20th century in Great Britain.
By the twentieth century, the modern concept of science as a distinct body of knowledge, practiced by a specialized community and pursued through recognized methods, had become firmly established.

=== 20th century ===
Marie Curie became the first woman to win the Nobel Prize and the first person to win it twice. Her efforts led to the development of nuclear energy and Radiotherapy for the treatment of cancer. In 1922, she was appointed a member of the International Commission on Intellectual Co-operation by the Council of the League of Nations. She campaigned for scientist's right to patent their discoveries and inventions. She also campaigned for free access to international scientific literature and for internationally recognized scientific symbols.

== Profession ==
As a profession, the scientist of today is widely recognized. However, there is no formal process to determine who is a scientist and who is not a scientist. Anyone can be a scientist in some sense. Some professions have legal requirements for their practice (e.g. licensure) and some scientists are independent scientists meaning that they practice science on their own, but to practice science there are no known licensure requirements.

=== Education ===
In modern times, many professional scientists are trained in an academic setting (e.g., universities and research institutes), mostly at the level of graduate schools. Upon completion, they would normally attain an academic degree, with the highest degree being a doctorate such as a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD). Although graduate education for scientists varies among institutions and countries, some common training requirements include specializing in an area of interest, publishing research findings in peer-reviewed scientific journals and presenting them at scientific conferences, giving lectures or teaching, and defending a thesis (or dissertation) during an oral examination. To aid them in this endeavor, graduate students often work under the guidance of a mentor, usually a senior scientist, which may continue after the completion of their doctorates whereby they work as postdoctoral researchers.

=== Career ===
After the completion of their training, many scientists pursue careers in a variety of work settings and conditions. In 2017, the British scientific journal Nature published the results of a large-scale survey of more than 5,700 doctoral students worldwide, asking them which sectors of the economy they would like to work in. A little over half of the respondents wanted to pursue a career in academia, with smaller proportions hoping to work in industry, government, and nonprofit environments.
Other motivations are recognition by their peers and prestige. The Nobel Prize, a widely regarded prestigious award, is awarded annually to those who have achieved scientific advances in the fields of medicine, physics, and chemistry.
Some scientists have a desire to apply scientific knowledge for the benefit of people's health, the nations, the world, nature, or industries (academic scientist and industrial scientist). Scientists tend to be less motivated by direct financial reward for their work than other careers. As a result, scientific researchers often accept lower average salaries when compared with many other professions which require a similar amount of training and qualification.