• Question: Why did you want to be a scientist?

    Asked by eleanormulligan123 to Rachael, Simon, Damien, Suzi, Tim on 18 Jun 2011. This question was also asked by lucysmith, jorden69, maevelewisxo, jodiebowey23, scientisteco, xclox, mrfarmer123, chloe1998, josh55.
    • Photo: Rachael Ward

      Rachael Ward answered on 10 Jun 2011:

      Gosh, a good question but one I don’t know the answer to!

      I don’t remember ever thinking “right, I’m going to study this and work hard and then one day I can become a scientist”. I always really liked science, especially biology. Then at univeristy, I loved studying neuroscience and I guess after I’d graduated just I wanted to carry on doing it, finding things out and learning more about it, and I have!

      I also like working in a laboratory and doing experiments so that has pushed me towards being a scientist, rather than another science-related career ( e.g. science journalism, teaching science).

    • Photo: Suzi Gage

      Suzi Gage answered on 14 Jun 2011:

      Hi Elearnor, Lucy and Jorden!
      Thanks for the question.
      I really wanted to do something with my life that could help people, and also I wanted to understand people better, plus I’ve always been really curious, so psychology seemed like the thing for me. When I started my undergrad I didn’t know I would stay a scientist, but I loved the work so much that I stuck with it, and here I am today 🙂

      Hope that answers your question!

    • Photo: Damien Hall

      Damien Hall answered on 18 Jun 2011:

      I wanted to be a language scientist because I love working with languages and speaking other languages, but I also love how precise you can be about them. Most people know (don’t they? – most Brits, anyway) what a Cockney accent and a Geordie accent sound like, and so most Brits can tell the difference when they hear them. But with science we can make graphs of exactly what the difference is (in terms of the physics of the sounds). That means you can say something about what you hear, and have the figures to back it up, which is important if you want other people to believe your research. If you only have the evidence of your ears, that’s great to start with, but other people could say “Well, I don’t hear it that way”, and you wouldn’t be able to prove who was right!

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