• Question: how many years of research have you put into your area of science?

    Asked by anon-201679 to Sophia, Sarah, Meirin, George, Emily, Andy on 5 Mar 2019. This question was also asked by anon-202044, anon-201698.
    • Photo: George Fulton

      George Fulton answered on 5 Mar 2019:

      I’m only a relative novice in my field, only 6 months! But my undergraduate degree background has given me 4 years experience in the theory of the field. I haven’t found this too much of an issue so far in my job because as a Materials Scientist I approach problems in a different way to the conventional physicist or engineer. This is why diversity is so important in STEM because there are many different ways to break down problems.

    • Photo: Andy Buckley

      Andy Buckley answered on 5 Mar 2019:

      This’ll make me feel old… I started my PhD in 2001, which was after 4 years of undergraduate work. I did a year-long research project in my final year, as well, but that was part-time and in astrophysics rather than particles. My PhD was 4 years, then I changed topic and worked on a different kind of particle physics for another 4. Then switched again, this time from theory back to experiment. A couple of years later I was managing research at CERN, and in the last few years I came back to the UK, became a lecturer, and have steered myself round to yet another slightly different topic. I never quite give up the old stuff, so my fingers are in a lot of pies these days! In total then, about 18 or 19 years so far: ouch.

    • Photo: Sarah O'Sullivan

      Sarah O'Sullivan answered on 5 Mar 2019:

      I’ve been doing my PhD for 3 years now, I should finish this year

    • Photo: Sophia Pells

      Sophia Pells answered on 6 Mar 2019:

      I spent 4 years doing my physics degree and now I am in the second year of a PhD

    • Photo: Meirin Oan Evans

      Meirin Oan Evans answered on 7 Mar 2019:

      I would say research starts when doing a master’s (4th year of university course). In the UK this can be done in a year. If you want to continue in research you might do a PhD. I’m only 6 months into my PhD so about 18 months of research in total! I’m a newbie! Everything feels really exciting for me right now.

    • Photo: Emily Lewis

      Emily Lewis answered on 8 Mar 2019:

      I started my job 6 months ago… so 6 months!
      I did a four year masters degree beforehand learning about my field, and my masters thesis at the end had a little research in it if that counts.

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