• Question: how long have you wanted to be a scientist?

    Asked by anon-181149 on 1 Jun 2018. This question was also asked by anon-182791.
    • Photo: Liza Selley

      Liza Selley answered on 1 Jun 2018:

      I have wanted to be a scientist for as long as I can remember…At nursery school we were given a list of activities that we had to complete each week before we could play and I always always picked science first.

      I think it just matches my personality – I am very inquisitive and like asking how things work which are perfect traits for a scientist.

    • Photo: Lauren Burns

      Lauren Burns answered on 1 Jun 2018:

      Unlike Liza, I never explicitly wanted to be a scientist, I was interested in some aspects of science, not very interested in others, and never thought to myself ‘I will be a scientist one day’. I actually wanted to be a lawyer when I was younger. However, I took Psychology in AS/A level and my interests started there. I was curious about people, and the weird things we all do, then kept following my interests through an academic route and ended up here in Data Science. And I am loving every minute of it!!

      Everyone is different, we all have our interests, all you can do is follow yours!

    • Photo: Joanne Sharpe

      Joanne Sharpe answered on 1 Jun 2018:

      I was also always inquisitive- the annoying child who won’t stop asking “but why!?”, but it took me a while to realise I could ask “but why!?” for a living. I’m also terrible at making decisions so I only finally decided I wanted to be a scientist when I did my GCSEs.

    • Photo: Claire Donald

      Claire Donald answered on 1 Jun 2018:

      I hadn’t really thought about what I wanted to do as a job until we had to think about what to study at university. I had always really enjoyed biology but it wasn’t until I went to do biology at university that I found out about all the different kinds of science out there that we didn’t learn about at school. It took me a while to make up my mind which subject I wanted to follow as they were all so interesting!

    • Photo: Joey Shepherd

      Joey Shepherd answered on 1 Jun 2018:

      When I was very young I wanted to be an actress, a detective, a mountaineer, an astronaut, and Indiana Jones :). It was really when I was around 14 or 15 that I realised I wanted to be a scientist.

    • Photo: Donna MacCallum

      Donna MacCallum answered on 1 Jun 2018:

      I used to want to be a vet, but at school loved science and maths, so went to University to study science. The more science I did, the more I knew that I wanted to be a scientist. Most of the time I don’t get to do much lab work, but I still love it when I do get into the lab!

    • Photo: Claudia Bonfio

      Claudia Bonfio answered on 1 Jun 2018:

      I always love science, but I never knew what being a scientist means. I think I realized I wanted to work in science during my Master. You see, it’s never too late =)

    • Photo: Damian Mole

      Damian Mole answered on 2 Jun 2018:

      Since I was a child, I think. I was much better at science at school than other things. So by sticking to science I had to work less hard 🙂 ….always a bonus!

    • Photo: Jason Chu

      Jason Chu answered on 2 Jun 2018:

      It only came about in the last couple years of secondary school (when I was about 16) – and that was because of a combination of liking biology/chemistry in school and watching House MD and zombie films on TV. I started to take science more seriously, and then discovered I really enjoyed this world. Science has made me more curious, critical and creative. And that suited me really well.
      Before then, I wanted to be a police detective, an architect and a restaurateur!

    • Photo: Alex Haragan

      Alex Haragan answered on 3 Jun 2018:

      When I was thinking about subjects to take in school, or college and then University – it wasn’t really a question I asked.

      The question I asked was: “What do I enjoy? And what do I want to achieve in life?”

      If you can find a job that does both of those things I think you’re on the right track!

      But its a hard question to answer. I initially thought I wanted to help cure people from disease, make people healthier and happier. So I studied biology and then medicine.
      Working as a doctor definitely allows me to help people – but I also wanted to be involved in making new discoveries and creating better ways of doing things.

      In the end – I’ve ended up a scientist – but I got here because I kept doing things I enjoy.

    • Photo: Ashley Akbari

      Ashley Akbari answered on 3 Jun 2018:

      Always loved science at school and later on in life just learning about new things and finding ways to solve problems. Wasn’t sure i wanted to be a scientist though, and these days there are lots of things which classically would not have been thought of as a classic scientist – case being my job as a Data Scientist 🙂

    • Photo: Hannah Farley

      Hannah Farley answered on 3 Jun 2018:

      I’ve been interested in science since I was in school, but I didn’t realise I wanted to do more research until I was already at uni. We had to do some research as part of my degree and I enjoyed it, so one of my tutors suggested that I should think about applying for a PhD.

    • Photo: Laura Hemming

      Laura Hemming answered on 4 Jun 2018:

      I originally wanted to be a Psychologist who could help people with their mental health, so I decided to go to University to do a degree in Psychology. Whilst I was at University, I completed a placement year which was all about researching stalkers, and it was at this point that I realised that I wanted to continue in research. I really enjoy being able to make new discoveries that might help people in the future to manage their mental health.

    • Photo: Camille Parsons

      Camille Parsons answered on 4 Jun 2018:

      When I was younger there was no one point when I decided I wanted to be a scientist. I really enjoyed biology but was far too squeamish to peruse a career as a medical doctor. I was good at maths, and so when I had little idea of what I wanted to do as a career I went to University and continued studying maths. It was while I was at University that I began to understand more about the area and developed a passion for statistics. During my years at Uni I learnt more about what career options would be possible once I completed my studies, and discovered I could combine both my interest in biology and statistics without having to be involved in anything gory, and so became a medical statistician. This career choice led me to complete an MSc and while I have been working I have recently completed a PhD, so became a doctor after all (not something I would of dreamt of while at school)!

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