• Question: How old were you when you decided that you wanted a career in your current field of work?

    Asked by Lottie to Chris, Josh, Rebecca, Rob, Susan on 17 Jun 2015.
    • Photo: Susan Cartwright

      Susan Cartwright answered on 17 Jun 2015:

      In science in general, 6.
      In physics or astrophysics, 17.
      In particle physics, 21.

    • Photo: Rebecca Dewey

      Rebecca Dewey answered on 18 Jun 2015:

      I knew I wanted to be a scientist when I was about 8. I originally wanted to study a small branch of pharmacology called pharmacognacy (making medicines out of plants). Then when I was in about year 9 or 10 I got on really well with my science teacher who was a physicist and I decided that I wanted to study physics. I particularly wanted to study particle physics and astrophysics because they were really exciting to me. I loved the idea of knowing everything about the universe, how it was made and what existed before the big bang. But I wasn’t very good at particle physics and I didn’t have the self-motivation to become better at the mathematics I needed for general relativity. A really exciting opportunity came up for me in biomedical physics, so I took that, and I’ve gradually worked my way around to where I am today!

    • Photo: Josh Meyers

      Josh Meyers answered on 18 Jun 2015:

      In science or engineering at 17
      In chemistry, 18
      In chemoinformatics and drug design, 21

      There’s no rush to decide and don be afraid to change your mind!

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