Microbiology
Career outlook
Employment overview
The classroom education, clinical rotations and research experience offered in the Microbiology MS programs prepare students for a wide variety of employment opportunities including:
- Supervisory roles in clinical microbiology laboratories in medical centers or private laboratories **
- Food and industrial microbiology roles
- Infection control in clinical settings
- Marketing and sales in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries
- Teaching at universities and colleges
- Research in academic, government or industry
- Continued education in medical, veterinary, or graduate school
**Note: The UWL Clinical Microbiology Master's program is distinct from our Clinical Laboratory Sciences (CLS) undergraduate major. If your main goal is to work in a hospital lab, the CLS major may be a better fit. Hospitals want broadly trained students with a CLS degree who have passed a certification exam.
Students graduating with a Clinical Microbiology M.S. degree also work in clinical diagnostic labs, often in larger hospitals where more specialists are employed. You would be expected to pass a certification exam after being hired. The MS degree in Clinical Microbiology will prepare you well for the Technologist/Scientist certification exam for Microbiology or Molecular Biology, after six months of employment.
Want to explore opportunities for yourself? The American Society for Microbiology Career Connections website is a good place to look for jobs, as is a "microbiology" search at indeed.com.
What are our grads doing?
- R&D roles at Harrisvaccines, Luminix, NewLink Genetics, Pathogenica, Lucigen, Abbott Laboratories, Becton Dickinson, Pfizer, and others
- Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL)-CDC Fellowship. These paid fellowships train and prepare scientists for careers in public health laboratories and to support public health initiatives.
- Laboratory Director of the Microbiology Hub - Kericho, Kenya and Associate Biologist, University of Bamako, Mali
- Instructors in the Medical Lab Technologist programs at Minnesota State Southeast Technical and Western Technical College
- Supervisor in the Clinical Microbiology Laboratory at Marshfield Clinic
- Microbiologists in the Molecular Division of the Washington State Public Health Labs and WI State Lab of Hygiene
- Research positions in a Howard Hughes Medical Institute, virology lab at UW-Madison, CDC, and the University of Nebraska Medical Center
- Ph.D. programs at University of Minnesota and the Medical College of Wisconsin