• Question: Did you ever think when you were younger that you would become a scientist?

    Asked by anon-186940 to David, Kathryn, Stewart, Miriam, Marton, Laura on 9 Nov 2018. This question was also asked by anon-187208, anon-186922.
    • Photo: David Ho

      David Ho answered on 9 Nov 2018:

      I always think I liked the idea of becoming a scientist, but I don’t think I seriously considered it until I was at the end of my university degree. Before then I wanted to do all sorts of things — in secondary school I wanted to be a doctor or a lawyer, and when I was five I wanted to be a pizza delivery driver because you get free pizza and a motorbike! I always liked problem-solving and spotting patterns, though, and I think that’s why I eventually went with science.

    • Photo: Kathryn Coldham

      Kathryn Coldham answered on 10 Nov 2018:

      Great question! I always liked studying science at school and I first decided I wanted to become a scientist when I was 13 years old. This was when the machine I work on, called the Large Hadron Collider, started running so seeing the media coverage really grabbed my attention! I also had a great physics teacher at secondary school who always encouraged us to reach our full potential. I loved the idea of becoming a scientist but had no family members or family friends who were scientists, nor did I have any experience with working in science research. So, when I was 17, I decided to try to get a work experience placement at CERN…and was accepted! This made me feel a lot more confident that I could be a scientist, and now I am! 🙂

    • Photo: Stewart Martin-Haugh

      Stewart Martin-Haugh answered on 13 Nov 2018:

      When I was really young I wanted to be a fireman. I think this was the influence of Fireman Sam (the original, not the new computer-generated ones!)

      I wanted to do a few different jobs when I was at school, but eventually at 16 I got really interested in physics after reading a few books.

      I know lots of people who worked as scientists for a few years and then took different jobs. Learning about science gives you lots of useful skills (maths, problem solving, coding) that you can use in many areas.

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