In the movies, Dr. Jane Foster, portrayed by Natalie Portman, is an astrophysicist that ends up working with Thor. She made a mathematical model about the kind of wormhole Thor uses to get to Earth. SHIELD, a spy organization that specializes in superhuman matters, confiscates her data and all her equipment. That’s about the extent of the science in the movie. It seems like she is a scientist only for the plot device of SHIELD stealing her information. Other than being a plot device, her other purpose in the first Thor movie is to be a love interest for Thor. 

In the second Thor movie, she is back investigating more portals to other worlds that have shown up. Dr. Foster ends up being sucked into one and taken to another world where she absorbs the Aether, which is a mysterious force. The rest of Thor: the Dark World is spent trying to get the force out of her, and she doesn’t end up doing any more science. 

Starting in 2014, a Thor series of comics started where Thor was no longer deemed worthy of being the god of thunder anymore and Jane became “the Mighty Thor”. At the same time, she was battling cancer, which using her new powers just made worse. Thor offered to heal her using magic, but she stuck to her science background and wanted to battle this herself using chemo. After she stops being Thor, she completes her chemotherapy. She then gets involved with Asgard again and becomes an Asgardian warrior called a valkyrie. At this point, she’s become a superhero and has abandoned her background as a doctor. 

In the next phase of Marvel movies, she is going to become Thor. It will be interesting to see if they will keep the same storyline that the comics did, or if she will still continue to be a scientist at the same time. Especially since the movies already changed what her career is.