Hi!
On bioinformatics.org there is this old poll:
- http://bioinformatics.org/poll/index.php?dispid=4
Asking if bioinformatics people are supposed to be called bioinformaticist or bioinformaticians, and if they are technicians or scientits.
I'm sure we're scientists ;), but for the first question, which are the differences between the two terms?
I'm not english mother-tongue, so I don't get it.. when I write in my CV, or in a forum/blog post, or in a mail... should I say that I'm a (supposed to be) bioinformaticist or bioinformatician?
Thanks!! ;)
Joy of English
Welcome to the joys of the English language. Can you discern a pattern in these pairs of words?
physics - physicist (not physician which = doctor of medicine)
statistics - statistician
mathematics - mathematician
chemistry - chemist
biology - biologist
astronomy - astronomer
geography - geographer
archaeology - archaeologist
No, neither can I. I use bioinformatician because (a) it's marginally easier to say than bioinformaticist, (b) it's used by people I respect and (c) as someone else said, informatics = informatician.
Greek vs latin compound nouns
*Ahem* A little etymology of nouns and their adjectival forms, anyone? Doesn't help that some Greek words are borrowed via Latin, so that Greek-like endings take Latin adjectival forms.
eg.
logos (G) -> logist (G)
nomy (G) -> nomer (L)
Naturally, the fact that they have been assimilated into English, where forms are not standard, further muddies the waters. Given that the word information is derived from Latin and the prefix bio- from Greek, I'd suggest you go with whatever rings true for you.
Informatician
I think bioinformatician is in wider use, but either is will be understood. Dropping the bio, it seems "informatician" is much more common that informaticist, at least in the Goospel according to Google