• Question: Why did you want to be Scientist?

    Asked by reenexox to Antoine, Daniel, James, Julie, Saima on 12 Nov 2013.
    • Photo: Daniel Patten

      Daniel Patten answered on 12 Nov 2013:

      Hi @reenexox,

      To be honest I can’t ever remember a specific moment where I decided I wanted to be a Scientist, I think it just happened quite naturally! At school, Biology and Chemistry were always subjects I was good at, so, naturally, I was more interested in those! Out of the two, Biology was the one that grabbed my attention the most, especially Microbiology (the study of small things, such as bacteria and viruses), as it amazed me that things so tiny could have so such an influence on humans (ie. diseases) and the planet in general! This led me to study a university course (BSc) that was mainly focused on Microbiology and eventually (after a detour into an MSc in Forensic Science) follow up with a PhD in medical microbiology (my project was about the bacteria that live in the gut!).

    • Photo: James Hickey

      James Hickey answered on 12 Nov 2013:

      Hi reenexox!

      When I was younger I always liked volcanoes and that inspired me to go to university and study a geoscience degree.

      Geoscience is a combination of chemistry, maths, physics, biology and some physical geography. This degree could have set me up for hundreds of different jobs but while I was studying I was still mainly interested in volcanoes. So when I finished my degree I decided to do further research into volcanoes, and that’s where I’m at now – about halfway through doing a PhD. So I never really set out with the aim of being a ‘scientist’ I was just following the stuff I was interested in, and ended up becoming a scientist – but a volcano scientist :D.

      In case you don’t know, a PhD is further research about a specific topic (like volcanoes, or medical microbiology) and when you finish you become a ‘Doctor’ of your subject.

    • Photo: Julie Speakman

      Julie Speakman answered on 12 Nov 2013:

      Hi @Reenox –
      It took me a long time to decide to actually be a professional scientist but I think I realised when I was quite young that I liked working scientifically – so analysing and questioning things, and looking at problems in an organised, logical way.
      After my A-levels I chose to study Physics at University because I found the subject interesting but also because I thought it would give me lots of options for jobs in the future. I discovered the branch of Physics called Medical Physics at this time and thought it sounded really cool but then I was offered the chance to do a PhD (James has given a nice description of that below) and I got distracted!

      Personally, I found that time doing my PhD actually put me off Physics and Science because I found the work too detached from real life. So after I got my PhD I worked in lots of other jobs for ooh 15(?) years, but found I was thinking more and more “What if ….?”. So I looked at Medical Physics again and thought it still sounded so interesting and made some enquiries about how to do it. I was really lucky, a job came up in my local hospital, they liked what I’d done in the past so I managed to wangle my way in, get trained and work my way up…

      Hopefully you’re starting to realise that being a Scientist means lots of very different things – even amongst Saima, James, Daniel, Antonie and myself what we do everyday is really really different. But probably that way of looking at the world, questioning things and how to solve problems is the thing that we share.

    • Photo: Antoine Buchard

      Antoine Buchard answered on 13 Nov 2013:

      Hi reenexox
      I’ve always be very logical (so scientific in a way) so naturally I was interested in science at school ( but not only, I love history and literature too).
      Then I found out that science was not only about reading and learning stuff, but also about doing experiments and could be very practical too.
      I was taught by a lot of amazing science teachers who then encouraged me in becoming a scientist, because they thought I could maybe discover something useful one day.
      In the end that’s what is driving me everyday: I want to make a contribution to the world and discover something, even the tiniest thing, to help everyone a bit. Good luck!

    • Photo: Saima Rehman

      Saima Rehman answered on 13 Nov 2013:

      reenexox! I always wanted to be a scientist, from my childhood. I always had a dream to discover or invent some really amazing and totally different. I started gaining interests in experiments related to discover new things. I was attracted to practical classes. And competitions in science class were so fascinating for me. I thought science is the best place for me, for my higher studies, as well as my career.

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