Rodney M. Donlan stands next to the model system in which his lab is growing Legionella.

If variety helps to spice up your life, if you enjoy seeing the practical impact of your work in the not-too-distant future, and if you like to collaborate with scientists in other disciplines, you could fit right in at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The government agency, headquartered in Atlanta but with labs and offices in a number of locations, employs research scientists in a wide variety of disciplines to pursue the agency's mission: "To promote health and quality of life by preventing and controlling disease, injury, and disability." A major element of that mission involves the study of infectious diseases and the development of methods and procedures to control them.

Joe McDade, deputy director of the CDC's National Center for Infectious Diseases (NCID), says the various disciplines of...