Scientist
This design document was once implemented, but has since been removed from Ephemeral Space.
The following reason was given for its removal: "Just a really poor design that felt cumbersome to play. Since they were primarily tasked with science and the crew objective, it felt like an obligatory role that always had to be present or else the crew was majorly debuffed. Even if one wasn't there, someone would always end up assuming a default science role, which felt bad. The increased scrutiny from being a scientist not doing the crew objective is basically nonexistent, since there's a million highly deniable ways to explain why you weren't sitting around inside science all shift. Just a really miserable role without a lot going for it."
Gordon doesn't need to hear all this. He's a highly trained professional.
Scientist is a general purpose Research job focused on round progression. Their primary task is the management of the Portal Generator and the general completion of telescience research.
True Crew?
The interesting part about the scientist's dynamic on the station is how it plays into the greater crew objective of telescience. The obvious part is that while anyone is capable of doing the actions of telescience, the fact that it's locked inside of science means that it's primarily the job of scientist's to take care of anomalies and ensure the objective is progressing.
This situation starts to unfold once science stops doing their job: what does it mean if scientists are neglecting telescience? Are the scientists evil? Have they been intercepted and killed off?
The scientist, more than most other roles, is defined by the completion of their job and their dedication to that purpose. While there is certainly leeway with constantly being on the grind, the abandonment of their post is usually a sign pointing to secretly being a member of another organization.
Suited for Research
Scientists are immediately geared for completing research through a variety of tools, like anomaly devices and radiation suits.. These can be considered the bare minimum supplies for working on anomalies, as they give a scientist protection from the baseline radiation as well as the ability to actually contain the anomaly itself.
The general dynamic of research equipment operates as a sort of duality. Scientists keep guard of the most essential equipment, which is difficult to access in order to prevent constant tampering and interference. However, this equipment does not provide a ton of safety from the effects of telescience. Other members of the crew, through their various tools, are more suited to dealing with the threats that telescience can pose, which in turn pushes them to collaborate with scientists by mitigating damage that the anomalies cause.