As we approach yet another graduation season (and I explore the uselessness of my college degree), I have looked into my crystal ball to ponder the jobs of the future. For all you newly credentialed college grads here are some careers your kids (and you will have kids) many need to focus their future studies on.
Quantum Information Scientist –  An emerging information science discipline that studies and builds systems that utilize quantum effects in physics, information theory and computation. It includes theoretical issues in computational models as well as more experimental topics in quantum physics including what can and cannot be done with quantum information. This can apply to all manners scientific disciplines such as biology, systems complexity science and general information processing. One would need to be versed in large array of disciplines such as physics, statistics, computer science, math and other forms of information theory. As microprocessors and other computational components get smaller, the laws of conventional physics don’t apply and quantum effects start to take place. The next realm in computer science will be at the quantum level in both hardware and software.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_information_science
http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2000/nsf00101/nsf00101.htm#preface
Who will hire you?
- Government Defense & Intelligence
- Computer Hardware companies
- Universities
Synthetic Biologist – an emerging area of biological research that combines biological sciences, computer science, chemistry and engineering.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synthetic_biology
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computational_biomodeling
Who will hire you?
- Drug companies
- Hospitals
- Agricultural Businesses
- Chemical Companies
- Universities
Data Scientist – A person who can extract information from large datasets and then present something of use to an organization. The skills needed for this vary, but a computer science background would help as well as being strong in math (particularly statistics). A background in graphic design would complement these skills if extracted data needs to take a more visual form.
http://flowingdata.com/2009/06/04/rise-of-the-data-scientist/
http://benfry.com/phd/
Who will hire you?
- Governments (particularly Defense & Intelligence)
- Banks
- Internet Companies
- Hospitals
- Retail
- Agricultural Businesses
- Universities
- Logistics & Transportation Companies