• Question: Why did you become a scientist?

    Asked by chloemitch to Audra, Fiona, Gavin, Justin, Steve on 14 Mar 2012. This question was also asked by reekzstar, ilyasg, frances13, daredevilsyl, purplemouse1998niamhcoolio, smoshlover.
    • Photo: Justin Lawley

      Justin Lawley answered on 14 Mar 2012:

      I actually didn’t know I wanted to become a scientist. But within two weeks of starting my degree in sport science, I knew I wanted to read books and do experiments to understand how the human body worked. Interestingly, only resently have I really thought of myself as a scientist. Normally I just say I am a researcher. This is probably like most people I perceive scientists to be old white haired people that are insanely clever and do wired experiments with testtubes. But there not, scientist are mostly just normal people, although I have had my crazy moments lol.

    • Photo: Fiona Hatch

      Fiona Hatch answered on 14 Mar 2012:

      I didn’t think about becoming a scientist until my final year at university.

      After doing my A levels (Biology, Maths, Chemsitry and Music) i decided to go study Biology at university because I found it the most interesting out of my A levels and I was good at it. I then had to start looking for a job and i originally wanted to become a teacher and teach biology at secondary school. But I got rejected from a course for teaching.

      So I started looking up how else I could get into teaching – that is where I decided to try get to teach at universities rather than secondary schools. To do this I had to get a PhD and have my own research. But that was a very big thing for me, a PhD seemed so difficult and after I got rejected from teaching I was worried I wouldn’t be able to get a PhD.

      I was very lucky and found one I was interested in and got accepted. Once I started my PhD I found out that I really enjoyed what I was doing and the experiments I was doing were really amazing and could help other people. I now have to continue for another year before I move onto another job and hopefully in the future I will teach other students at universities.

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