Following her doctorate, Eckerson obtained the post of assistant plant physiologist at the University of Chicago until 1915 when she became an instructor of plant microchemistry. Between 1921 and 1922 Eckerson taught and did research at the University of Wisconsin whilst also working for the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Bureau of Plant Industry, before taking a job as plant microchemist at the Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research in Yonkers, New York in 1924; a position in which she remained for the rest of her career, eventually becoming chair of the institute's Department of Microchemistry.[1]