• Question: When did you decide that you wanted to become a scientist?

    Asked by to Emily, Ben, Hattie, Jemma, Veronica on 19 Jun 2014. This question was also asked by , .
    • Photo: Emily Hayward

      Emily Hayward answered on 19 Jun 2014:

      Great question Mickeyanderson99,

      Thats a tough question to answer – I guess I never actually decided I wanted to be a scientist, I just sort of ended up ebcoming one by doing what I enjoy. At school I always liked science as it was practical (I hated english and reading dull books) and so decided to keep doing it when I went to uni….after uni I didnt really know what I wanted to do, but enjoyed research so chose to do more of this. I love being a scientist, but more do it because its what I love to do rather than doing it because I made a decision one day saying ‘I want to be a scientist’. I hope this helps – are you thinking of becoming a scientist? Do what you enjoy most in life as its good to have a job you enjoy rather than one you feel like you have to do 🙂

    • Photo: Harriet Aitken

      Harriet Aitken answered on 23 Jun 2014:

      Hi Mickeyanderson99,

      I’m not really too sure to be honest with you! When I reached my final years in school I choose a lot of science subject as I enjoyed them and was (mostly!) pretty good at them. I knew I wanted to go to uni and chemistry was my favourite subject so it seemed pretty sensible. Unfortunately, I hated it! I ended up changing to chemical engineer, as it’s the practical application of science which I find much more interesting than just the theory but I still wasn’t sure what I wanted to do until I hit my final year of uni when I became involved in the project I am working on now which I absolutely love, and it actually involves a lot of chemistry but now that I have a problem to solve using the things I know about chemistry I find it much more enjoyable.

      Thanks for the question! Hattie

    • Photo: Jemma Rowlandson

      Jemma Rowlandson answered on 23 Jun 2014:

      Hi guys!

      It was probably at some point when I was in Year 10 at school. I didn’t do that well in science when I was in Year 9, I was planning to be a PE teacher or something similar. That all changed though when I had a really great teacher, I started to really like science and did a lot better.

      At some point it became my favourite subject and that was when I decided to study science at college. I really enjoyed chemistry and physics at college, in the end I chose to do chemistry at university (it was a tough choice!). After uni I decided I really liked doing research and I really wanted to help save the planet, and luckily I found a PhD which combined the two perfectly!

    • Photo: Ben Butler

      Ben Butler answered on 25 Jun 2014:

      Hey @mickeyanderson99,

      I decided that I wanted to be a scientist when I was about 15. My teachers at school said I wouldn’t be able to do it because I wasn’t studying the right subjects at A-level, but I’ve managed to prove them wrong thankfully!

      It’s never too late to decide if you want to be a scientist. I know 40 years olds that are studying at university now, and I know one scientist that only started studying when he was 50 after being in IT for 20 years!

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