Question: What made you push yourself to the scientist you are now?

Struan Simpson answered on 12 Mar 2020:

Hmm, good question! I’m naturally quite a stubborn person, so if I want to do something or if there’s something I want to achieve I usually put a lot of effort into making it happen.

Science-wise, I would say during my degree I was inspired by other students around me! There were quite a few of my friends who I thought were better at science than me, so they inspired me to try harder and to keep pushing through to the end of my degree. Nowadays, I’m inspired by the other members of my research group – they all do great science each and every day, and I’m very lucky to be part of a group who are all so passionate about what they do.

Long story short, I would say it’s because other people around me inspired me to be better at science, and I was really determined to make this happen!