Also called: Petrographer, Construction Materials Petrographer
Slices concrete into paper-thin sections and studies it under a microscope to find out why bridges and buildings are cracking.
A parking garage is crumbling after just 15 years. You cut a core sample, grind a slice thin enough to see light through, and look at it under a polarizing microscope. Gel-filled cracks around certain rocks tell you a slow chemical reaction is the culprit, and your report shapes a multimillion-dollar repair.
Approximate: anchored on Bureau of Labor Statistics data for a broader job group.
Bachelor's degree (4-year), about 4 years after high school. Bachelor's in geology or materials science; many have a master's.
Ways in: 4-year college, Graduate school. Training cost: $15k – $60k.
Majors to look at: Geology, Materials Science, Civil Engineering.
Growing about average. Aging infrastructure and failure investigations.
Medium risk for 10 years. AI helps count air voids and flag features in images; diagnosing failures and defending them in court stays human.
Classes: Earth science, Chemistry, Biology (microscope skills), Physics.
Career Universe is an early version. Pay, training and AI-risk figures are estimates to start your own research, not verified facts. The research was written with AI research assistants, checked by validation scripts and spot-checked by hand. Check anything important with schools, employers and official sources. How the numbers work.