Question: i've wanted to be a scientist since i started secondary school in year 7, im now in year 9 and have my GCSE's next year. The work you do sounds very interesting to me and makes me want to be doing it already! Out of all of the scientists you are the one i am going to be voting for :) Thanks for showing me this type of scientists. :D

Murray Collins answered on 18 Mar 2011:

Hi – thanks for that 🙂 Just keep on working and you’ll get there!
Are you are interested in wildlife biology? If you are, then you should look around your local area and see if there are any wildlife clubs that you could join in with. That way you can start to practice your field skills, like identification of species we have in our own country, and starting to learn the techniques which biologists use to monitor populations of animals.

Go to your local library and start finding out what area you are most interested in, and then maybe when it comes to your GCSE year, look around for work experience with scientists working in that area. Don’t be shy to write to people whose work you are interested in already. It’s great when someone is interested in what you are doing, which is one of the reasons I am loving doing this I’m a Scientist thing so much!

Good luck and I really wish you lots of success with whatever you choose to do.

Murray