Question: What made you want to become a scientist? and how did you decied what line of science work you wanted to get into?

Asked by emmaamber to Brad, Chris, Goli, Herbert, Kate on 16 May 2012. This question was also asked by brek, whi0039, ilytily, darawarabear11, caitie.

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  1. Photo: Kate TrinajsticKate Trinajstic
    answered on 16 May 2012:

    I didn’t really ever decide. I started as a nurse and then went to Uni in my mid 20’s to do psychology I didn’t really connect with that so swapped to biology, genetics and then evolutionary genetics. I liked animals so wanted to work as a zoo guide. I didn’t get accepted to the volunteer zoo guide program but the museum volunteers accepted me and then one of the paleontologists John Long told me that with my degree I should go on and do a PhD in palaeontology so I did.

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  2. Photo: Brad TuckerBrad Tucker
    answered on 16 May 2012:

    I didn’t want to be a scientist until I got to University. I liked doing the work, so thought I might as well stick with it. I got into Astronomy simply be thinking it’d be fun to do, and I was right! I started in applied physics, working on something called spintronics, which tries to use the spin of the electron rather than the charge to create new technology.

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  3. Photo: Goli SamimiGoli Samimi
    answered on 17 May 2012:

    I’ve always been good in science class and it has always interested me. I knew I wanted to be in the health/medicine field, and found that biology/chemistry/math interested me far more than physiology or anatomy.

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  4. Photo: Herbert ChiouHerbert Chiou
    answered on 17 May 2012:

    I started my university degree in Chemical Engineering and I quickly realised that I need to know more of the fundamentals (science) to be a better engineer. I wrote a letter to the university asking for permission to start a dual degree and I had a crazy second year where I was doing science subjects in addition to my engineering subjects. During this time, I found I liked science more than the engineering so I continued with chemistry and eventually dropped the engineering degree. My science options were either a double major in maths or chemistry, or one major in each because of my original degree in chemical engineering – this is why I went down the road of being a chemist. Don’t regret it though.

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  5. Photo: Chris SlapeChris Slape
    answered on 19 May 2012:

    When I was in high school, everyone (incorrectly) thought biology was the “easy science subject”, so I dropped that and did physics and chemistry and maths instead, all of which I really liked. When I got to university I tried doing the same subjects, and found them all a bit dull. Looking back now, I know that this was just because of the way it was taught and I wish I had studied harder and learnt more about them. So I switched to biology, thinking that eventually I might get into medicine and become a clinical doctor, but I enjoyed basic biology so much (because the teachers were great, in part) that I stuck with research.

    From there, I really just got lucky with the area I ended up in. I had always found the idea of chromosome translocations (mutations affecting whole chromosomes) interesting, so when I was offered a PhD with a project related to those in leukemia, I jumped at it. From there I gained expertise in blood and leukemia, and now here I am, wondering what to do next. 😉

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