• Question: Did you think of being a scientist when you were younger? If not, what caused you to pursue your dream of being a scientist?

    Asked by anon-193440 to Morwenna, Jamal, iainstaniland, Heidi, Emma, Carl on 6 Nov 2018. This question was also asked by anon-192920, anon-193418, anon-193420, anon-193395.
    • Photo: Emma Crawford

      Emma Crawford answered on 6 Nov 2018:

      Oh when I was younger I was constantly changing my mind what I wanted to be! Sometimes those options did include being a scientist, I recall once wanting to be a zoologist or a vet – because I liked animals but was too squeamish to deal with that! I also thought about being a musician, a teacher and even a cosmetic scientist! I always liked Maths at school which is why I chose to study it at university but it was until I did my placement year that I discovered what the pharmaceutical industry was. I found it really interesting and liked the idea of using my Maths skills to help people so thats why I decided to study to be a Medical Statistician!

    • Photo: Iain Staniland

      Iain Staniland answered on 6 Nov 2018:

      Yes I did think of becoming a scientist when I was younger. It helped that my dad was one, he used to work as a research chemist making glue more sticky.
      However I still looked at other options including rock star (can’t sing or play the guitar). Before my exams was interested in becoming a pathologist or a forensic scientist or doing sports science. However I had always loved the sea and enjoyed biology so being a marine biologist was the obvious choice. I worked hard and gained a place at Swansea University to do a degree in Marine Biology and have been very lucky to work for the British Antarctic Survey..

    • Photo: Heidi Gardner

      Heidi Gardner answered on 7 Nov 2018:

      I wanted to be a Designer when I was younger! I loved art and wanted to be an illustrator, but I found that I ran out of ideas pretty quickly. I knew that I was good at art, but I was better at science, and I was able to find ways to make science more creative once I realised that I could make a career out of being a scientist. I still do a lot of art and drawing – both for my job and in my spare time, so I haven’t stopped loving art, I just use it in a different way now 🙂

    • Photo: Carl Heron

      Carl Heron answered on 8 Nov 2018:

      I wanted to be an archaeologist from a very early age. It was only later that I discovered that I could combine archaeology and science to use methods like radiocarbon dating. I think watching TV helped to highlight this when I was about 13-14 years old.

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