Lyman Briggs College Majors
This is a short summary of areas of study in science and math within the
Lyman Briggs College at Michigan State University.
For more comprehensive information, see the College of Natural Science Career Website:
www.ns.msu.edu/acrc/career_exploration/index.asp
Animal Science
The undergraduate program in animal science is designed to prepare students for a variety of careers by establishing a
strong basic science foundation combined with practical experience with agricultural animals at the multiple farm facilities
located near campus.
What do animal science professionals do?
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Livestock production, marketing, public affairs, transportation, processing, research, companion animal
management and a myriad of allied specialties
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Advance agriculture using multidisciplinary approaches

Generate, teach, disseminate and apply knowledge in animal biology and management
Where are they employed?
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Pharmaceutical organizations, livestock product companies and feed companies
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Food processing industry

Breed associations, livestock commodity groups, artificial insemination services and government agencies

Research facilities in the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), universities and private companies
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Teach in colleges and universities, vocational agriculture in high school.
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Cooperative Extension Service working as county agents
Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Biochemistry is the discipline that studies the chemistry of living matter. Biochemistry studies the chemical nature of the
molecules of life and the formation and processes of these chemicals. This knowledge is used to understand biological
functions and biochemical disorders and treatments.
Biotechnology is the application of the principles of engineering and technology to the life sciences.
What do biochemists do?
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Develop and use techniques to learn about genes and proteins
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Increase understanding of human disease processes and aging
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Genetic engineering of plants and animals
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Produce products such as drugs, foods, and fuels
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Work in bioremediation of pollution or other environmental issues
Where are they employed?

Environmental and pollution control companies

County, state, or federal government agencies (USDA, EPA, NIH)
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Industry (research and development at vaccine, pharmaceutical, and other biotech companies; quality
monitoring in food processing industries; biomedical research laboratories)
Biological Science-Interdepartmental
The Biological Science-Interdepartmental major is designed for students who plan to teach biological sciences in middle and
secondary schools.
Chemistry
Chemistry is the science concerned with substances—their properties, composition, structures, and reactions. The major in
chemistry is designed to provide a thorough foundation in the various fields of chemistry and the related sciences.
What do chemists do?

Study the composition, structure, properties, and reactions of matter, especially of atomic and molecular systems
Where are they employed?

Environmental and pollution control companies

County, state, or federal government agencies

Industry laboratory research, quality analysis, and testing (pharmaceutical and other biotech companies; food
manufacturing, and materials science in paint and plastics companies)

Secondary school teaching

Forensic Science
Computer Science
Computer science encompasses the broad areas of information processing and problem solving using digital computers.
Students learn to analyze, design, and build integrated software and hardware digital systems that process, transmit, and
reason about information in order to solve problems.
What do computer scientists do?

Analyze problems and select appropriate paradigms to solve them

Design and implement software

Manage system resources
Where are they employed?

Companies in need of web design, computer networking, game design, cognitive science, telecommunications, etc.

Research facilities focusing on software engineering, biometrics, image processing, robotics, etc.

Industry

University, College, and Secondary school teaching

Museums and Universities as research faculty
Entomology
Entomology is the field of biological science concerned with the study and management of beneficial and harmful insects and
their relatives in relation to other animals, plants, and the environment.
What do entomologists do?

Study and manage insects’ and their relatives’ effects on human activities

Manage non-agricultural, long-term aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems

Study interactions of insects and their relatives with economic plants and sustainable agriculture
Where are they employed?
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Nature organizations
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Educational Institutions
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Forensic Laboratories
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Agricultural Organizations
Environmental Sciences
General Environmental Science degree sampling from the areas of Ecology, Geology, Biochemistry, Aquatic Systems,
Microbiology, conservation, and Taxonomy or Phylogenetic Biology, and ecosystem management. Environmental scientists
conduct research to identify and abate or eliminate sources of pollutants or hazards that affect people, wildlife, and their
environments.
What do environmental scientists do?

Improve the natural environment and address effects of human activity on the environment

Address concerns of soil fertility, water purity, food supply quality and safety, natural resources, pollution, plants
climate change, etc.

Increase knowledge about the physical and biological environment and natural disasters
Where are they employed?

Nature organizations

Environmental Impact Firms

Environmental and pollution control companies

County, state, or federal government agencies
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Industry (oil, mineral, natural gas, and water exploration and mining)
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Museums and Universities as research faculty
Geological Sciences
The biological, chemical, isotopic, and physical aspects of the Earth are all integrated into the geological sciences, which
draw heavily on all of those other sciences, as well as mathematics and statistics. Geological studies provide knowledge
concerning the availability of natural resources, including groundwater and fossil fuels; the reduction of damage from such
hazards as landslides and earthquakes; and processes affecting biological evolution, such as those producing major
extinctions. From these diverse studies geologists gain knowledge about the controls on the physical and biological
environment.
What do geological scientists do?

Use their knowledge of the physical makeup and history of the Earth to locate water, mineral, and energy
resources, protect the environment, predict future geologic hazards, and offer advice on construction and land use
projects

Geoscience disciplines are geology, paleontology, geochemistry, mineralogy, hydrology, environmental science,
and soil science
Where are they employed?
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Environmental and pollution control companies
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County, state, or federal government agencies (NOAA, NRCS, USGS, etc.)
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Industry (oil, mineral, natural gas, and water exploration and mining)
Secondary school teaching
Museums and Universities as research faculty
History, Philosophy and Sociology of Science
History, Philosophy, and Sociology of Science courses bridge the natural and physical sciences with the social sciences and
humanities. HPS courses are offered in four overlapping substantive areas: science, technology, the environment, and
medicine. In such classes, students examine numerous empirical, conceptual, and theoretical issues related to these
substantive areas, using historical, philosophical, and sociological perspectives and methods.
What do HPS scientists do?

Use their knowledge to improve the historical, philosophical, and sociological understanding of science, technology,
the environment, and medicine

Examine numerous empirical, conceptual, and theoretical issues related to these substantive areas, using
historical, philosophical, and sociological perspectives and methods
Where are they employed?
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Public policy agencies and law firms
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Research

County, state, or federal government agencies
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Industry
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Education
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Museums and Universities as research faculty
Human Biology
The Human Biology major is an interdisciplinary science degree, suitable for students who want a broad background in
biological science and want to understand the interrelationships among fields. It can be used mainly as a foundation to
pursue medical, dental, and veterinary school paths.
Mathematics
Mathematics, which may partially be defined as the science of number and form, is a vital tool in all branches of knowledge.
Mathematics is also studied for its own sake by those who become fascinated by the results of modern mathematics and the
making of new discoveries.
What do mathematicians do?

Use mathematical modeling and computational methods to formulate and solve practical problems in business,
government, engineering, and in the physical, life, and social sciences
Where are they employed?
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Industry – process design, traffic analysis, electric power routing, inflation statistics, computer software design

Business – Actuaries, financial analysts, insurance underwriters, budget analysts, market research

Federal government – Cryptology, data mining, and other advanced mathematics
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Secondary school teaching
Medical Technology/Clinical Laboratory Science/
Diagnostic Molecular Science
The Biomedical Laboratory Diagnostics Program offers three undergraduate degree programs to assist students in entering
the exciting, hi-tech world of the clinical laboratory.
Clinical laboratory science traditionally called medical technology, is the health profession focused on the provision of high
quality medical laboratory tests on blood and body fluids.
Diagnostic molecular science is the allied health profession whose practitioners specialize in performing medical laboratory
tests on DNA and RNA.
What do they do?

Clinical Laboratory Scientists/Medical Technologists (terms are synonymous) are scientists who apply their
knowledge to perform diagnostic tests on blood and body fluids. The sub-disciplines include, but are not limited to,
clinical chemistry, hematology, immunology, immunohematology and microbiology. Diagnostic Molecular Science
is a subdiscipline of laboratory science emerging as a separate laboratory profession whose practitioners perform
molecular diagnostic techniques for medical diagnosis of acquired or inherited diseases as well as forensic testing.
Where are they employed?
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Hospitals or private laboratories

Federal, state, and local health departments

Commercial and academic biomedical research laboratories

Forensic laboratories

Medical and scientific sales, laboratory consulting, and medical laboratory education
Microbiology and Molecular Genetics
Microbiology involves the study of microscopic organisms: bacteria, viruses, algae, fungi, and protozoa, as well as animal
and plant cells in culture. Microbiology also includes research on the interaction of pathogenic and symbiotic microbes with
their hosts and the host response to infection. Molecular genetics and genomics includes study of the basis of heredity and
the mechanisms by which genes exert their effects.
What do microbiologists do?

A microbiologist is a scientist who studies living organisms and infectious agents, many of which can only be seen
with a microscope. They may focus on findings critical to health, agriculture, environmental sciences, or how living
systems function at the molecular level.
Where are they employed?

Environmental and pollution control companies

County, state, or federal government agencies (NIH, USDA, EPA, etc.)

State departments of health or public health

Industry – Research in diagnostic labs, vaccine companies, pharmaceutical companies. Product safety for products
such as cosmetics, food, and egg and dairy industries. Research and development and quality control for food
companies.

Commercial and academic biomedical research laboratories
Nutritional Science
Nutritional science explores the science of nutrition and the relationships between nutrients and human health. Most
research, public health, and clinical nutrition positions require a graduate degree. Jobs in industry and food service
management are common; course work in food science and business is helpful.
Physics
Physics is the study of the physical universe. By means of observation, experiment, theoretical constructions and computer
simulations, this science attempts to find the principles, which describe that universe. Among the topics of physics are
motion and force, energy, sound, electricity and magnetism, light, atomic and nuclear structure, nuclear reactions, properties
of condensed matter, the elementary particles and their interactions, and particle accelerators.
What do physicists do?

Explore and identify basic principles governing the structure and behavior of matter and the interaction of matter
and energy
Where are they employed?

Research – government and private industries

Technical sales

Optics or industrial labs

Radiation monitoring, electrical power plants
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Health - nuclear medicine, radiation therapy
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Secondary school teaching
Physical Sciences - Interdepartmental
The Physical Science-Interdepartmental major is designed for students who plan to teach physical sciences in middle and
secondary schools.
Physiology
Physiology studies life processes, both in the whole organism and at cellular and molecular levels. Most professionals in
physiology hold a Ph.D. Anyone aspiring to be an independent investigator in physiology should plan to obtain a graduate or
an MD degree. For this reason, individuals interested in physiology careers should give careful consideration to graduate
study.
Plant Biology
The field of plant biology, also referred to as botany, concerns itself with the study of the structure, function, evolution,
distribution, and classification of plants. The physiological, molecular, and biochemical mechanisms; systematics;
development; inheritance; ecology; and geological history of plants are areas of plant biology pertinent to solving problems
fundamental to all living organisms.
What do plant biologists do?

Study the form, function, diversity, reproduction, and uses of plants and their interactions within the biosphere.
Ecologists, botanists, and taxonomists can be plant biologists, as well as plant pathologists. People working with
algae and fungi are often trained as or called plant biologists (even though, technically, those groups aren’t plants).
Where are they employed?
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Environmental and pollution control companies
County, state, or federal government agencies (USDA, NRCS, Forest Service, etc.)
Secondary school teaching
Nature organizations and Public botanical gardens
Agricultural industries
Statistics and Probability
Statistics is the study of methods of drawing inferences from sets of data.
What do statisticians do?

Statistics includes planning for the collection of data, data management, drawing conclusions from data, and
presentation of results. Using statistics, many businesses make projections from small samples to larger
processes—for example: forecasting sales in business; predicting the effectiveness of new drugs; or determining
insurance rates.
Where are they employed?

Federal, state, and local government (IRS, CIA, USDA, NIH, etc.)

Public health and medicine (as epidemiologists or biomathemeticians)
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Business and Industry as actuaries or budget analysts

Scientific, environmental, and agricultural companies to help identify patterns in data
Zoology
Zoology is the branch of natural science that deals with animal biology. It is concerned with every level of biological
organization from the gene to the ecosystem, and with the structure, physiology, behavior, genetics, development,
distribution, and evolution of animals in all taxonomic groups.
What do zoologists do?

Study life at the level of the cell, organism, population, community, and/or ecosystem. Ecologists, marine biologists,
taxonomists, wildlife and fisheries biologists, and others are examples of zoologists.
Where are they employed?

County, state, and federal agencies – in research or regulation and enforcement of environmental laws
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Industry – such as monitoring effluent production and land use around a factory and measure environmental health
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Zoos – as animal caretakers or zookeepers
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Environmental Educators at Nature Centers or Museums