• Question: Have you always wanted to be a scientist and if not when did you decide to be?

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      Asked by Hana to Nikki, Jess, Harriet, Chris, Andy on 4 Mar 2016. This question was also asked by Aisha.k.
      • Photo: Nikki D'Arcy

        Nikki D'Arcy answered on 4 Mar 2016:

        Hi

        Thanks for your question! I used to want to be an explorer when I was really little and that’s definately a kind of scientist! I realised I wanted to be a microbiologist when we did a practical in A-Level Biology and we put some milk onto agar plates (jelly food for bacteria). When we came back after the weekend, we weren’t allowed to touch the plates because there might have been some dangerous bugs on there (maybe Listeria). I thought that was really amazing and was hooked!

        I enjoyed Biology at GCSE because I had a great teacher, so that’s why I decided to do science A-Levels.

        Thanks again for your question and enjoy the rest of the week!

      • Photo: Christopher Blanford

        Christopher Blanford answered on 4 Mar 2016:

        Hi Hana

        I was on the fence for a while.

        I was going to study French and journalism, or chemistry.

        I’d always loved science, but I also wanted to be well-rounded. I went to an American university that gave me a lot of non-science options at the same time, but I had to make up my mind when I was 19.

        I still keep up with the other topics in my spare time.

        Chris

      • Photo: andy chapman

        andy chapman answered on 4 Mar 2016:

        From the second ‘want’ I remember (the first ‘want’ I remember was definitely an ice cream) I have always wanted to BE a scientist but I would not say I have always wanted to WORK as a scientist. Ever since I can remember I have been fascinated by basically all aspects of science, and when it came to studying it I loved all the scientific subjects. Except maths actually…I love it now, but it took a while to see how pretty that subject really is. I decided to work as a scientist a year after a masters degree in chemistry. I spent a year as a chef trying out the other career path I thought I wanted…..After mopping a floor at least 728 times (I missed two mopping sessions over Christmas day) I decided that I badly missed inventing and thinking about exactly why everything happens. I do still love cooking, and I still do it loads….and floor mopping actually…

      • Photo: Harriet Reid

        Harriet Reid answered on 4 Mar 2016:

        When I was at school I enjoyed science, but I don’t think that I thought I would become one. Even when I was doing my university degree in chemistry I wasn’t sure that I was going to carry on with science. What convinced me was working in a research lab for a year, getting to see what it is really like and how much fun it is!

      • Photo: Jessica Groppi

        Jessica Groppi answered on 4 Mar 2016:

        Hi Hana,

        thanks for your question!

        I always really liked science. When I was 8 or 9, I wanted to be a dentist, then for a while I wanted to be an engineer, but I realised there was too much math. Luckily the last two years of high school I had a lot of chemistry lessons and decided I wanted to be a forensic scientist specialised in chemistry. When I started studying chemistry at university, I discovered that there were sooo many cool things other than forensic science (and some really boring too!) so I focused on organic chemistry and building molecules.

        Jess.

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