Also called: AMS Lab Technician, Carbon-14 Lab Analyst
Prepares bones, wood, shells and seeds so a particle accelerator can count their carbon-14 atoms and reveal how old they are.
You scrub a 3,000-year-old charcoal flake in acid and base baths, burn it into carbon dioxide gas, and turn that gas into a pinhead of graphite pressed into a tiny metal target. Later the accelerator mass spectrometer counts its rare carbon-14 atoms. One week the samples are mammoth tusks; the next, a whiskey label someone suspects is fake.
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 chemistry, geology, physics or archaeological science.
Ways in: 4-year college, On-the-job training. Training cost: $15k – $60k.
Majors to look at: Chemistry, Geology, Physics, Archaeological Science.
Growing about average. Only a handful of US labs; steady demand from archaeology, climate and fraud testing.
Low risk in 5 years, medium in 10. Robots may take over some routine prep; judging contamination and fussy chemistry on tiny samples stay human.
Classes: Chemistry, Earth science, AP Environmental Science.
Official data: O*NET occupation 19-4031.
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.