honestly i think that to//ny st//ark is just too irresponsible to have a job in the sciences. because as an engineer, he developed weapons that were used in other countries and have a body count. also, as an engineer, he created a fucking doom bot. to//ny st//ark’s mistakes have a higher than average body count than everyone else’s in the avengers. and unlike someone’s powers accidentally misfiring, his superpower is his genius and his tech - and the shitty decisions he makes with them. 

if he were researching cancer he would probably accidentally create a super virus and infect everyone with it through pollen or something. if he were an architect he’d probably just be so invested with using the lightest strongest materials that his project would go way over budget, at least, if not using experimental materials that haven’t been fully tested and accidentally killing people when the building collapses. the man is just not suited to creating stuff without accidentally killing someone.