The paper presents the results of the sociological study of life values in researchers in the sphere of education. According to a specially designed questionnaire that included 72 questions, 721 people were interviewed. The sample of respondents included employees with different levels of academic qualifications and experience of professional activity, living in various regions of Russia. The respondents are the employees of the Scientific Research Institute and various universities. The purpose of the study is to determine the impact of social demographic features (age, gender, financial status) and a number of social indicators of professional activity (seniority, position, availability of scientific degrees and titles, having a permanent job or working flexi time, publication activity) to life values in researchers. Special attention is paid to the influence of the emotional assessment of their life prospects, social status in the scientific group and migration plans over the evaluation of the significance of certain life fears. The research results reveal the hierarchy of the life values in researchers. The influence of traditionalist gender differences in the value orientations of researchers is emphasized. Two developmental stages are to identified with the significant transfer changes of life orientations in researchers. The influence of the scientific status (academic degree, academic rank, position held, publication activity) on the value orientations and professional well-being of the scientific employee are highlighted. The common data show the role of social psychological factors (assessing the success of their life prospects, social status in the team, migration plans) in determining the significance of certain life values. The identified trends are interpreted with respect to the issues of social success and professional development of researcher.