• Question: what age did you decide you wanted to be a scientist?

    Asked by anon-182184 to Lauren, Jo on 17 Jun 2018.
    • Photo: Joanne Sharpe

      Joanne Sharpe answered on 17 Jun 2018:

      I realised I loved science in around year 10 – this was when it started to get really cool, and also when Brian Cox and other scientists were getting loads of TV documentaries on TV. I absolutely loved learning about the physics of the universe and all the elements of the period table and their roles. But clearly I’m not a physicist or a chemist now! I still find all that fascinating but as I went through Sixth Form I realised that I wanted to learn more about the science of life – it is so complex and really fascinating. I decided I wanted to be a proper research scientist in my last year of university when I was doing my first proper project on my own – I loved having the freedom to think of questions I wanted to answer and then thinking of experiments to find out the answer!

    • Photo: Lauren Burns

      Lauren Burns answered on 18 Jun 2018:

      Funnily enough, I never really woke up one day and thought ‘I want to be a scientist’, it is more that science has been a consistent in my life, answering questions, understanding what was previously not understood. I am one now, but I have mainly lived (so far) just doing what I enjoy and interests me and that has lead me to where I am today. That is all I think we should do, and then we can all live a happy, fulfilled life.

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